After weeks, months, and years of being dominated by its NBC counterpart in the ad-friendly A25-54 demographic, Good Morning America finished another week as the No. 1 morning show among adults 25-54. That’s now back-to-back wins in the coveted category after playing second fiddle to Today for 189 straight weeks.
According to the most current data from Nielsen, GMA averaged 1.119 million A25-54 viewers for the week of Aug. 19, while Today hauled 1.112 million from the same demo.
GMA delivered its first back-to-back news demo wins in 4 years – since weeks of Aug. 17, 2015 and Aug. 24, 2015, respectively.
GMA also finished the week of Aug. 19 as No. 1 in total viewers, though that has been the case far more often that not over the past seven years.
Prior to these past two weeks, Today had been dominating GMA in the demo, even during Hoda Kotb‘s five-month absence. BUT Kotb returns to Today on Sept. 3, obviously a big deal for morning television. Her return will most certainly lift Today’s ratings across the board, and one would think the show will move back to No. 1 in the demo, right? We’ll keep an eye on this trend going forward…
While Today finished No. 2 across the board for the second consecutive week, it’s still the dominant morning show this season among the younger demos, including adults 25-54. It has also won 12 weeks in 2019 in total viewers, while GMA has, of course, only won two weeks this year in A25-54 viewers. Last season, Today had 10 weeks of wins total, and only 67,000 viewers separate Today and GMA, which is 9% closer than the same point last season.
CBS This Morning had a nice week in its own right, posting year-over-year growth among adults 25-54 (+3%). However, the show was -4% year-over-year in total viewers.
Compared to the same week in 2018, GMA was -3% in total viewers, NBC was -5% in total viewers, while CBS This Morning was -4%. In the A25-54 demo, GMA was actually +2%, NBC was -17% and CBS This Morning was +3% vs. the comparable week last year.
Nielsen numbers for the week of August 19:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 3,721,000 | 3,592,000 | 2,772,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,119,000 | 1,112,000 | 759,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD, 2018-19 Current Week (w/o 8/19/19), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 8/20/18). Season to date: Most Current: 2018 -2019 Season and 2017-2018 Season . Averages based on regular telecasts.