Morning Show Ratings: NBC’s “Trend”

NBC says “a trend is developing in the morning.” It forwarded this chart to TV writers today. (Click on the chart to see it full-size.) Here is Today’s lead over GMA by week, in total viewers:

Week of 5/9: 45,000

Week of 5/16: 94,000

Week of 5/23: 252,000

Week of 5/30: 460,000

(The week of May 30 is based on Tuesday through Friday 7 to 8:15am preliminary affiliate time period ratings; Monday is not included because it was a holiday.)

> Update: 3:34pm: An ABC News insider pointed out that GMA just came off its most successful May sweep since at least 1991 – the year Nielsen began its electronic database. “We fully expect the numbers to go up and down. We have a long way to go and this is a very long race. But, if you want to talk about a trend, GMA is the fastest growing morning program and NBC is losing ground. A year ago at this time, NBC’s lead was 710,000 viewers. In just one year, GMA has cut that lead to 460,000. We congratulate Today on being #1 for 10 years and know viewing habits don’t change overnight.” They forwarded the graph to the left, which you can click to view full-size; Here’s the same chart for the 25-54 demographic.