The first quarter of 2010 has not been good to ABC’s “Good Morning America” and CBS’ “The Early Show,” while NBC’s leading “Today” show is essentially flat from the first quarter of 2009.
“Good Morning America” with its new anchor team in place is down -4% in Total Viewers and CBS’ “The Early Show” with a new executive producer has shed even more viewers, down -8%. The “Today” show, which had three weeks of coverage from the Vancouver games, was down -1% in Total Viewers.
Q1 2009 did see the presidential inauguration, which raised viewing levels across the board. But perhaps more troublesome for the networks is the loss of viewers in the money-making demos.
• In Adults 25-54: GMA is down -12%, “Early” is down -18% and “Today” is flat.
• In Women 25-54: GMA is down -13%, “Early” is down -8%, “Today” is up +4%
• In Women 18-49: GMA is down -17%, “Early” is down -20%, and “Today” is flat.
Q1 also saw the “Today” show’s biggest first quarter win over “Good Morning America” since 2004. The “Today” show had a 28% lead (1.24M viewers) over “GMA” and a 105% lead (2.93M viewers) over “The Early Show.”