The Most Popular TV Personality Among Republicans? Ellen DeGeneres.

Well this one’s a little surprising…

According to a Harris Poll of more than 2,100 people released earlier this year, Ellen DeGeneres and Fox News conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly tie for the title of favorite TV personality among Republicans.

“That surprised us,” Regina Corso, a Harris Poll senior vice president, said in a recent The Los Angeles Times profile of DeGeneres. “We had to go back and double-check the data.”

“Culture changes all the time,” DeGeneres said of the findings, “so I try not to analyze it too much.” [OnTop]

Good. I mean, like whatever television personality you like. Go nuts. But it says a fair amount about how far we’ve come that Ellen — whose decision to come out of the closet both in real life and on her sitcom back in the mid-90s led to protests and boycotts by conservative groups — is now tied in popularity among Republicans with Fox News’s most popular talking head.

And why shouldn’t she be popular? The woman had Vin Diesel make a surprise appearance on her show last week and then RACED HIM ON A F*CKING TRICYCLE. VIN DIESEL. ON A TRICYCLE. If that type of thing can’t bring our nation together, then I really don’t know what can.

Image via EllenTV

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