Who really rules America’s airwaves?

From political pundits in prime time to sports commentators, morning show presenters, and late-night TV giants, it’s a non-stop contest to win the attention and admiration of millions.

Today, DailyMail+ can unveil its inaugural Power List, giving you the definitive ranking of the most influential figures in American media.

Based on exclusive polling, our Power List captures public sentiment around likeability, trustworthiness, perceived bias and knowledge.

Essentially, it tells you who Americans like and trust… and who they don’t.

Since NBC debuted the Today show in 1952, establishing itself as the first network to kick off the day with an engaging and informative program, Americans nationwide have been starting their mornings in a similar fashion: by having breakfast while watching their favorite morning show.

So what better way to kick off our Power List than by revealing the morning-show host rankings…

Wondering who is America’s favorite morning show host? The inaugural DailyMail+ Power List offers a definitive ranking of fifteen leading anchors who light up our TV screens each morning.

Al Roker insists he has no intention of retiring — and for millions of Americans, that is very good news indeed.

Roker, 70, has topped the inaugural DailyMail+ Power List rankings, sweeping the board in every category for morning-show hosts.

The genial New Yorker, who has been with NBC since 1978, is seen as the most likable of the 15 main breakfast show hosts included in our exclusive polling, carried out by J.L. Partners.

Roker is also the most fun, truthful, knowledgeable, least biased, and the host that those polled most wanted to spend time with.

On the flip side, however, are MSNBC’s beleaguered Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

See the full Power List morning show rankings in our interactive tool 

The media couple have been dealt a humiliating blow as they’ve been found to be America’s least popular morning-show hosts — and by a wide margin.

Other losers include CBS Mornings’ Gayle King, who has struggled to recover her image following a disastrous February space flight alongside Lauren Sánchez and Katy Perry.

In terms of overall shows, our list sees NBC’s Today emerge as the resounding network winner.

On top of Today veteran Roker’s triumph, his NBC colleagues Carson Daly, Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb — who stepped aside from the network earlier this year — all rank positively, too.

Today insiders were unsurprised by the results, with a senior source telling the Daily Mail that network execs were quietly delighted by the findings.

Click below to see how morning show hosts ranked in each category 

‘Roker is very nice, very pleasant. Doesn’t ever act like a diva, doesn’t yell, doesn’t scream. Doesn’t treat his underlings like s***,’ said our NBC mole.

Clocking in at second and third most-popular to Roker are ABC’s Good Morning America co-hosts Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts.

53-year-old former NFL star Strahan has been working for the program since 2016. He is due to retire this summer, and will clearly be doing so with a lot of goodwill behind him.

As well as ranking as America’s second-most likeable host, Strahan is the third-most truthful. Roberts, 64, pips him to second-place in that category.

Al Roker, 70, has topped the inaugural Daily Mail+ Power List, sweeping the board in every category for morning show hosts

She is reportedly the nation’s highest-paid morning show host, with an $18 million salary.

She also ranks third for the question of which ‘morning show host viewers would most like to hang out with’.

But it wasn’t all good news — especially for MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Viewers rank the pair dead last in every category, criticizing their perceived bias and lack of trustworthiness.

Scarborough, a 62-year-old former Republican congressman, and his wife Brzezinski, 58 — daughter of famous diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski — have branded their show as a space for ‘intellectual’ conversation. But that message appears to have been lost in recent years.

In November, Morning Joe ratings slumped to their lowest since 2021, after the couple paid a visit to Mar-a-Lago to meet newly elected Donald Trump.

They insisted the meeting was to ‘restart communications’ with Trump after years of being highly critical of the president. But many left-leaning viewers felt betrayed.

That is clearly reflected in our Power List findings.

Television, radio and film professor Robert Thompson, of Syracuse University, wasn’t shocked, describing Scarborough and Brzezinski as ‘relentless.’

‘They are kind of the opposite of Al Roker,’ he said. ‘The show they put on is guaranteed to alienate people.’

Gayle King, 70, will find herself equally wounded by the results.

Despite best efforts to present herself as a warm and approachable stalwart of our TV screens, viewers place King second last for fun and likeability.

She also ranks as the second-most biased morning-show host.

Her Blue Origin ‘all-female’ space flight received near-universal mockery earlier this year. In fact, things got so bad that one CBS insider has told the Daily Mail: ‘This could be Gayle’s last year.’

Neither King nor Morning Joe’s spokespeople responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.

The Power List results weren’t good news for MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Viewers rank the pair dead last in every category

Joining King at the bottom of the morning-show rankings, was another ABC headliner.

George Stephanopoulos — the former Democratic Party advisor turned inquisitor of presidents — may have ranked as second-most knowledgeable, but viewers found him to be fourth-least fun.

They ranked him in the same spot when it came to the question of which morning-show host they’d ‘most like the hang out with’. 

But the 64-year-old former communications director in the Bill Clinton White House fared as one of the worst when it comes to trustworthiness, ranking as the third-most biased host.

That blow comes after ABC News was forced to pay Trump $15 million and issue an apology last year after Stephanopoulos falsely stated on-air that the president had been found ‘liable of rape’.

Gayle King’s Blue Origin ‘all-female’ space flight received near-universal mockery earlier this year. She ranks as the second-most biased morning-show host

Over on cable, and despite winning when it comes to the ratings battle (with 715,000 daily viewers), Fox & Friends fared little better than Morning Joe and Gayle King in our Power List.

Veteran host Steve Doocy, 68, ranked as 5th least likeable, and only eighth most truthful – but was at least saved when it came to perceived bias, ranking as fifth least biased, beating Stephanopoulos, Strahan, Roberts, Kotb and Bush Hager in that category.

Doocy’s colleagues came off even worse: Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade finished 12th and 13th (out of 15) respectively for likeability — and 11th and 14th for knowledgeability.

Fox did not comment on the Daily Mail’s request for comment.

Co-founder of J.L. Partners James Johnson said bias was the main driving force behind the results.

‘The lesson is pretty simple: the least biased morning show hosts are better liked,’ he said.