THR Poll: Daytime Viewers More Likely to Watch Steve Harvey Than Katie Couric

This story first appeared in the Sept. 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

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Katie Couric may have the news experience, but Steve Harvey is the new daytime talk show host people most want to watch.

That’s according to a poll of 270 daytime television viewers conducted by THR and pollster Penn Schoen Berland, which looked at new programs from hosts Couric, Harvey, Jeff Probst, Ricki Lake and Trisha Goddard.

When asked if all five new programs aired at the same time, which one would respondents most like to watch, Steve Harvey topped the pack, with 36 percent saying they’d pick the NBCUniversal show. Disney-ABC's Katie racked up the second-best score, with 24 percent making that show their choice.

STORY: From Katie Couric to Ricki Lake: A Guide to Daytime's New (But Familiar) Faces 

And while Couric topped the poll in categories including the new daytime host most likely to be a success (36 percent), have the best guests (37 percent) and have the best grasp on the news (68 percent), Harvey was predicted to be the most entertaining (52 percent) and most likable (37 percent).

Overall, 60 percent of respondents said they would likely to tune in to Harvey's show, while 44 percent said the same for Katie.

What about the other shows?

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20th Television's The Ricki Lake Show faired second best behind Steve Harvey as far as viewers who said they would tune in (48 percent) with CBS Television's The Jeff Probst Show (36 percent) and NBCUniversal's Trisha Goddard (32 percent) coming in behind Katie.

Goddard’s show also was predicted the most likely to be canceled by the largest number of respondents (35 percent).

Just 13 percent were aware that Goddard's show was hitting to the airwaves, compared with 69 percent for The Ricki Lake Show, 66 percent for Katie, 62 percent for Steve Harvey and 38 percent for The Jeff Probst Show.