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LOS ANGELES - Ellen DeGeneres has topped rival Oprah Winfrey in a popularity poll of television hosts - while veteran Larry King was labeled the least sexy.
The poll by Web site AOL Television asked readers which daytime TV host made their day and DeGeneres, who opens The
Ellen DeGeneres Show by dancing with her audience, trounced Oprah with 46 per cent of the vote, while Winfrey only won 19 per cent.
When asked which daytime host made the ideal dinner guest, again it was DeGeneres, with 47 per cent of respondents saying they would rather dine with her, compared to 14 per cent for Winfrey, long considered the queen of daytime TV with The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The poll received more than 1.35 million votes, and AOL Television Editor in Chief Scott Robson said the poll was unique for the broad cross-section of respondents who frequent AOL.
"(Our audience) is not just soccer moms. We really do combine everyone from hipsters to people who could care less about what happens on either coast," Robson said.
Among other findings, fans of morning talk shows favored ABC's Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America over her main rivals, Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, on NBC's Today.'
Sawyer was favored as the morning show host whom most people would want to wake to, winning 30 per cent of the vote, versus 26 per cent for Lauer and 25 per cent for Vieira.
"She has a news background, so she can straddle that line between coming at you with real news and talking to you as a real person," Robson said.
The Good Morning America host also was voted the most likely to make a good US president, with 34 per cent favoring her over rivals that included Jon Stewart of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Oprah, both with 22 per cent.
Among some of the other findings, Kelly Ripa of Live with Regis and Kelly was named the sexiest talk show host and the one with the best hair, while Larry King of Larry King Live, who has been married seven times, was named least sexy.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck of The View was voted worst interviewer, and her co-star Whoopi Goldberg was picked to win in an "all-out 'View' smackdown" among the program's panel that includes Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters.
- REUTERS/NIELSEN