Split Decision for Sunday Morning Shows

By Chris Ariens 

This Week with George Stephanopoulos edged out NBC’s Meet the Press in the A25-54 demo last Sunday. MTP still beat all its public affairs competitors in Total Viewers. The economic crisis was the big topic on all the shows. ABC had Treasury Secy. Hank Paulson, Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. John Boehner as guests. As well as a roundtable that included Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.

MTP also had Paulson as well as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a roundtable with CNBC’s Steve Liesman and Erin Burnett and the Washington Post’s Steve Pearlstein.

The last time ABC beat NBC in the demo was January 27, 2008 when This Week had Sen. Barack Obama on the broadcast. Interestingly, as the primary battles were heating up, Sen. John McCain was a guest on Meet the Press that day.

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Sept. 21, 2008 Total Viewers A25-54 Viewers
Meet the Press 3,560,000 1,140,000
This Week 3,080,000 1,150,000
Face the Nation 2,710,000 1,080,000
FOX News Sunday 1,140,000 550,000

Also, for the 2007/2008 season, This Week placed second outperforming CBS’ Face the Nation among Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo. This marks the program’s first second place finish since Stephanopoulos began as anchor in September 2002 and its first second place finish among both Total Viewers and the demo in seven years (since the 2000/2001 season).

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