A day after Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air by ABC, and two months after Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” was canceled, The Hollywood Reporter revealed an extensive poll on who are the most trusted new personalities.
While ratings are a traditional tool for measuring such metrics, as pointed out in the piece, ratings may be down for certain shows, but social media likes and shares of the same personalities may be up.
However, in Donald Trump’s America, the poll was on the search for the most trusted. Here is what was found as a result of the survey, which polled 2,200 people across the United States in August.
“Nearly all Fox News anchors saw increases in respondents who placed ‘a lot’ or ‘some’ trust in them since this poll last went out in the field in 2024 during a contentious presidential election,” per the report.
“On the flip side, centrist names like (David) Muir, who hosts the highest-rated evening news show, saw trust levels decline. Ditto for CNN’s (Anderson) Cooper, MSNBC’s (Rachel) Maddow, CBS’ (Gayle) King and left-leaning late night hosts like Jon Stewart and Colbert.”
To the social media point, Americans, per the poll, trust in social media is up four points from 2024 and nine points from when this poll was first conducted in 2018, while broadcast has suffered a decline.
Some other quick hits:
- CNN and MSNBC personalities Cooper and Maddow are now distrusted more than Fox News’ Sean Hannity star since the last survey.
- ABC News’ David Muir is the most trusted in nightly news, taking the throne from retired Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News.
- During morning programming, Al Roker, who, per the report, “mostly stays out of the political fray, is Americans’ most-trusted name in news in this survey.” There was also an increase in trust for Ainsley Earhardt of “Fox & Friends.”
- Late-night host Jimmy Fallon got the highest trust rating, but is also considered the least political in the category. The survey shows Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld is on the rise, while Colbert fell by 7 points year-over-year. It also pointed out that Kimmel, prior to his suspension, saw 48 percent of respondents describe him as having a “very liberal” or “somewhat liberal” lean, higher than his contemporaries.
Check out all 80 names in the poll and where they rank at The Hollywood Reporter.
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