At this time last year, NBC’s “Today” had a lead of 1,000,000 total viewers and 700,000 A25-54 viewers over second place “Good Morning America” on ABC. “Today” is still the top-rated morning show — for 820 weeks straight — but the margins that divide the two shows are shrinking. For the week of August 29-September 2, “Today” led “GMA” by 230,000 total viewers and 460,000 A25-54 viewers.
Year-over-year, “GMA” continues to show strong improvement, growing +15% in total viewers and +10% in the A25-54 demographic. “The Early Show” on CBS is also up slightly across the board, posting gains of +2% in total viewers and +1% in A25-54 viewers. “Today” is down -3% in both categories, although Matt Lauer and Ann Curry were out for one and three days this week, respectively.
The averages for the week of August 29:
- Total Viewers: NBC: 4.94M / ABC: 4.71M / CBS: 2.41M
- A25-54 viewers: NBC: 2.21M / ABC: 1.75M / CBS: 956K