Just like their evening news counterparts, the three network morning shows have also lost more than 1 million viewers in the last year.
In 2016, the three shows averaged 13.903 million viewers. Last month, the average was 12.766M, a loss of 1.137 million viewers, or 8 percent. That’s about the same number of viewers in the evenings, but the evening newscasts saw a smaller percentage drop, at -4.4 percent. The downward trend on the broadcast networks comes as the cable news channels see a spike in viewership with heavy coverage of the first 100 days of the Trump administration (which will likely continue into the first 200 days, 300 days and beyond).
ABC’s Good Morning America held a healthy lead in the morning show ratings race with a 359,000 viewer lead over Today, more than doubling its Total Viewer lead over Today vs. the November sweep. Meanwhile, the Today show held the lead in the A25-54 demo with a +9 percent lead over GMA and giving NBC’s morning show its 7th consecutive sweeps win in the key demo.
Compared to Feb. 2016, ABC was down -8 percent in viewers and down -15 percent in the demo; NBC lost -12 percent of its viewers and was down -15 percent in the demo; and CBS This Morning was down -4 percent in viewers and down -6 in the demo.