--- title: Barack Obama Approval Ratings Versus Television Presidents description: The real President trails in the polls to Francis Underwood, Fitzpatrick Grant and other actors who play politics on TV canonical: https://time.com/3754956/barack-obama-approval-rating-chart/ author: Sam Jacobs article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-24T10:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:54.739Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: See How Much Americans Prefer TV Presidents to Barack Obama og:description: Even Frank Underwood scores higher og:url: https://time.com/3754956/barack-obama-approval-rating-chart/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See How Much Americans Prefer TV Presidents to Barack Obama twitter:description: Even Frank Underwood scores higher twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See How Much Americans Prefer Fictional Presidents to Barack Obama > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Sam Jacobs](https://time.com/author/samuel-p-jacobs/)  ## Sam Jacobs Editor in Chief of TIME Mar 24, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  by [Sam Jacobs](https://time.com/author/samuel-p-jacobs/)  ## Sam Jacobs Editor in Chief of TIME Mar 24, 2015 10:00 AM UTC Being leader of the free world isn’t easy–especially when you have actors running around showing people they can do a better job than you. President Barack Obama’s approval rating trails that of many actors who have played President on television in recent years, according to [the mischievous pollsters at Reuters/Ipsos](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/23/us-usa-presidents-poll-idUSKBN0MJ0AJ20150323).  20th Century Fox Television (1); Getty Images (3); Netflix (1); AP (1) The poll found 46 percent of Americans view Obama favorably, according to the survey published Monday. Americans’ favorite TV president? David Palmer of _24._ Of those who have watched the Fox thriller, 89 percent said they hold a favorable opinion of the President played by Dennis Haysbert. Martin Sheen’s Jed Bartlett of _The West Wing_ scores an 82 percent favorable ranking among viewers. President Laura Roslin of the SyFy channel’s _Battlestar Galatica_ pulled in a 78 percent favorability ranking from those who have watched her outfox Cylons. Obama even trails the famously scandalous leaders of _House of Cards_ and _Scandal_. Fitzgerald Grant, one of Shonda Rimes many gifts to the world, has a 60 percent favorability rating from _Scandal_ watchers. Francis Underwood, the Netflix President played by Kevin Spacey, is seen favorably by 57 percent of the show’s audience. When compared to real competition, Obama performs much better. At this point in his second term, George W. Bush carried a [34 percent approval rating](http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/presidential-approval-ratings-george-bush.aspx). _Read next:_ [_The Underwoods: A Less Perfect Union_](http://time.com/3751859/underwoods-less-perfect-union/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3754956/barack-obama-approval-rating-chart/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3754956/barack-obama-approval-rating-chart/"},"headline":"See How Much Americans Prefer Fictional Presidents to Barack Obama","datePublished":"2015-03-24T10:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:54.739Z","description":"The real President trails in the polls to Francis Underwood, Fitzpatrick Grant and other actors who play politics on TV","url":"https://time.com/3754956/barack-obama-approval-rating-chart/","keywords":["Barack Obama","house of cards","Scandal"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Jacobs","jobTitle":"Editor in Chief of TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/samuel-p-jacobs/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3754956/barack-obama-approval-rating-chart/","name":"See How Much Americans Prefer Fictional Presidents to Barack Obama"}}]}] ```