"General Hospital" isn't typically a place Americans might get a glimpse of a future presidential candidate, but that happened this week when ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith made a surprise return to the long-running drama.
In it, Smith plays a man named "Brick" who walks into a hospital room, confronting an assassin, posing as a nurse, about to inject poison into a mob boss. Smith's character asks for her identification, but before she pulls out a gun, he draws a weapon first and, in slow motion, fatally shoots the would-be killer in a clip that exploded on social media.
"Nah Stephen A. Smith on General Hospital will never not be funny dawg, why he just killed a lady with a silencer," a user on X asked online.
It's the sort of eye-popping buzz that underscores the 57-year-old "First Take" host's chief qualification if he's serious about being a White House contender in 2028, and that is an ability to rake in millions of views with a rapid-fire hot take messaging style.
"Imagine me on a debate stage with these people, these politicians," Smith said earlier this month at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.
"This is what I do for a living. I am not a politician. I don't have a political record for them to lean on. I can challenge what you literally say," he added. "They would all know more than me at this particular time, but they have a record to address."
President Donald Trump, who gained notoriety hosting NBC's "The Apprentice" for 14 seasons, supported the idea when asked about Smith running during a town hall hosted by NewsNation on April 30.
"I love watching him," Trump said. "He's got great entertainment skills, which is very important. People watch him."
Others who relish Smith pummeling co-hosts and guests on his sports program admit that while they're skeptical about him entering politics, Democrats need fresh blood.
"If he does run and he introduces some type of policy that I think could be very effective in improving the country and helping citizens within the country, I would change my mind and vote for him," said Ashley Oliver, 39, a registered Democrat and finance professional from in Birmingham, Alabama, who used to watch "First Take" daily.
But she and many voters who spoke with USA TODAY also conveyed an uneasiness about whether the country should readily embrace another bombastic persona on TV for the highest office in the land.
"He's a great sports commentator, don't be wrong, but he has zero experience in the political realm," Steven Uzoukwu, a 33-year-old cybersecurity analyst from Baltimore, said in an interview. "It is just the stereotypical U.S. citizen: he's a rich man, he's on TV. I don't see how he can contribute to politics."
In the first 100 days of Trump's second term, Democrats thinking about stepping up to the national stage are sharpening their message, and some are already flocking to New Hampshire and other early primary states.
Yet even as the party showcases a solidly deep bench of experienced 2028 contenders, there is a nagging narrative, mostly in media circles, that Democrats should mimic the GOP by eloping with a nontraditional candidate with a massive entertainment or social media footprint ‒ a candidate who knows how to topple a party establishment that many grassroots progressives believe has failed.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, one of the largest progressive grassroots organizations in the country, said he fully expects that an influencer or celebrity candidate will try to fill that void and make a run for president on the Democratic side.
"We're in an attention economy, and the person who controls that or is able to have their 15 minutes, automatically becomes a powerful trending topic," he said.
"Donald Trump was the first reality TV president. He built a brand by being in the public arena as host of 'The Apprentice.' Now we're in this era of influencers."
Celebrities running for public office isn't new in America, experts point out, but the pull of their candidacies so far ahead of the next contest is largely because Democrats remain a faceless party that hasn't convinced voters they're the better alternative.
Ronald Reagan was a movie star who led the Screen Actors Guild long before unseating Jimmy Carter in 1980; Jesse Ventura, a former pro-wrestler, served as governor of Minnesota and Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California.
"Democrats and Republicans have been looking for magical saviors and famous people to be their standard bearer since Will Rogers was (honorary) mayor of Beverly Hills," said Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.
Loge warned, however, that there might not be an appetite for a Trump-style candidate on the left if his approval ratings continue to fall and the country heads toward an economic downturn.
If so, they might be yearning for more predictability and stability, "knowing that they can afford to buy gas and groceries, their kids are going to be safe when they go to school and they can pay their doctor's bills," he said.
Many of the voters who spoke with USA TODAY concurred that while many celebrities − think media mogul Oprah, pop star Taylor Swift and action movie star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson − could ignite a wave of interest, it is unclear what many of them stand for politically.
Uzoukwu, the Baltimore cybersecurity analyst, voted for Kamala Harris last fall. He said both parties make a mistake by thinking celebrities inspire ordinary people.
"Trump had washed-up people like Hulk Hogan and Amber Rose, and Harris had Meg Thee Stallion on stage twerking," he said. "We need to stop thinking of celebrities - really entertainers in general - as political activists because they're not."
Democrat Kelly Hafermann, 47, of Madison, Wisconsin, said she would hesitate to support someone like 'The Rock' for president "because I don't get the impression that he cares about politics" and wouldn't be much better than Trump.
But Hafermann, a higher education administrator, added she's keeping an open mind about embracing someone with less political experience if it's a person who aligns with her values.
"I would fully support a Jon Stewart for president, or somebody who clearly understands the issues and knows what they're talking about," she said.
Data For Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank, released a poll earlier in Aprilshowing most Democrats are leaning toward more established figures, with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg leading the pack in a hypothetical 2028 primary battle.
Others topping the list include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. But of the nearly 20 candidates surveyed in the Data For Progress survey, Smith had the lowest net favorability of all figures tested, with a negative 3% rating.
Joshua Chester, who lives in Clinton Township, Michigan, said he watches ESPN's "First Take" sometimes, and doesn't believe progressives will welcome someone with Smith's well-known bluster the way grassroots conservatives embraced Trump a decade ago. He'd prefer Ocasio-Cortez to be the top of the Democratic ticket.
"For me (Smith's) takes overall are completely void of any substance a lot of the time," the 27-year-old registered Democrat, who works as a service adviser at a car dealership, told USA TODAY.
"Looking for celebrity support, that can be a good thing, but actually having them try to run for office in almost every case, it's not going to really go well."
As much as public polls show the country souring on the early economic turbulence of Trump's first three months back in office, Democrats aren't closing the gap.
Just 25% of voters in a Gallup survey conducted in the first two weeks of April said they had confidence in congressional Democratic leaders to recommend or do the right thing for the economy.
That is well below the roughly 44