Oprah Remains Favorite TV Personality

[Brian]

For the second year in a row and the fourth time since 1998, Oprah Winfrey tops the Harris Interactive poll of favorite television personalities. Winfrey has never placed outside of the top three in the 11 years Harris has conducted the survey.
Amusingly, David Letterman, who has had a somewhat strained public relationship with Oprah, takes the No. 2 spot on the list, his highest position since the surveys began.

The fastest mover on the list is Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly, who rises to No. 3 in only his third year on the list, dropping last year's No. 2, Ray Romano, down to No. 4.


The highest new entry on the Harris list is "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, in a tie with Dr. Phil McGraw for No. 6. Also new to the list are "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star William Peterson (No. 8), Whoopi Goldberg (No. 9) and Ellen DeGeneres and Martin Sheen (tied for No. 10).
Katie Couric, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather all dropped out of the Top 10.

Winfrey is the most popular personality among both white and African-American voters. She also takes the top spot among women (Letterman is tops among men) and among Democrats. O'Reilly leads the way with adults over the age of 65 and with Republicans, while adults 18-29 favor Stewart, Jennifer Aniston (No. 10 overall), Conan O'Brien and Homer Simpson. DeGeneres is the favorite among Hispanics, while Jay Leno (No. 5 overall) is tops among political independents.

The Harris Poll was conducted online in late November, 2003. The data was culled from a representative sample of 2,376 adults.