‘Today’ Down Double Digits Since Vieira

By now you’ve noticed the “we hear” item in Page Six. “Since Meredith Vieira‘s arrival, the Today show is down double-digits among women viewers,” the short but painful mention says.

For the week of Jan. 1, compared to the same week last year, Today was down 16 percent in the women 25-54 demo.

In the women 19-49 demo, Today was also down 16 percent. In both demos, Good Morning America was also down double digits while The Early Show was flat.

It’s starting to look like a trend. For the last four weeks, compared to the same period last year, Today is down 19 percent among women 25-54 and down 17 percent among women 18-49…

> Update: 1:04am: “You have to wonder if it was really worth spending all that money on Vieira when they could have easily just promoted someone in-house and not spent nearly the same amount of money,” an e-mailer writes. “Today has recently tried to spin the decline in the ratings since Meredith’s arrival but look at the ratings from over the summer before she came and after Couric left and now look at them. As has been said before, Vieria is hurting them in the ratings yet, but she hasn’t been helping them either…”