John Edwards' approval rating among Americans has fallen 27 points, the steepest drop Gallup has measured since 1992.

In January 2008, the Gallup poll held Edwards at a 48 percent approval. Twenty-two months and one big sex scandal later and Edwards approval was 21 percent.

Edwards decline puts him atop the list of celebrities who have, mostly because of personal or professional troubles seen big drops in public approval, according to Gallup. Edwards peers include Jesse Jackson (24-point drop after a spike in approval from a diplomatic mission), Sammy Sosa (24-point drop after a bat-doctoring scandal), Tom Cruise, (23-point drop after lots of bad PR) and Martha Stewart (16-point drop after an insider trading scandal).

The Gallup survey of 1,013 Americans was conducted Oct. 1-4 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.