A once in a generation shift is occurring on TV. The “Today” show which had dominated mornings for 16 years, ceded that crown in April. Now, not only is “Good Morning America” consistently winning in both total viewers and the younger demo, the ABC morning show is doing so by wider and wider margins each week. The win last week was the largest for “GMA” over “Today” in more than 18 years – since the week of August 8, 1994. Last week was also the beginning of the 2012-13 season. “GMA” had not won premiere week in 20 years in Total Viewers and for 21 years in that key adult demo.
A year ago “Today” was leading by +420,000 viewers each morning. Now “GMA” leads by +808,000 viewers. “Today” is not just losing viewers, but for the past several weeks the show is down double digits compared to last year. Over the last four weeks, “Today” is down an average of -20% in total viewers and down -28% in younger viewers. (While viewership is down double digits on NBC, it isn’t up the same amount for ABC, which means some viewers are tuning into local news, cable news or tuning out altogether).
“GMA’s” winning ways have not come without criticism, one of which is that the ABC show has gone soft, even tabloid. Last week we asked, “Has GMA gone tabloid?”
34% of you said it hadn’t gone tabloid but was just more energized. Another 20% said you’ve just moved on from “Today.”
So today we ask: