Morning Show Ratings: Week of Sept. 18

> Update: 3:59pm: “If you were buying stock in a morning show, which stock would you buy?,” an executive asks, pointing to Today’s first-place position…

In Meredith Vieira‘s first full week on Today, the morning show delivered a 4.6 rating — the same rating it had the week of Sept. 4, the week before she premiered.

The numbers are leading some observers to wonder if Vieira was worth her $10 million salary. “Yes, ratings on her first day were strong. But since then, the numbers have fallen every day,” the tipster said.

Compared to the same week a year ago, with Katie and Matt at the helm, NBC is down in households, total viewers, and the key demos. Update: GMA is down too — down 14 percent in total viewers and down 23 percent in the demo. Today is down 2 percent in total viewers and 8 percent in the demo.

But Today is in a much stronger position than Good Morning America. “The show hasn’t recovered after losing Charlie Gibson last summer,” the tipster said. “Ratings are down even with the big push for the new team.”

The gap between NBC and ABC stands at 1,140,000 total viewers and 570,000 demo viewers. For the week of Sept. 18:

Total viewers: NBC: 5,840,000 / ABC: 4,700,000 / CBS: 2,750,000

Households: NBC: 4.6/16 / ABC: 3.7/13 / CBS: 2.1/8

25-54 demo: NBC: 2,700,000 / ABC: 2,130,000 / CBS: 1,030,000