The news is not good for The Early Show, GMA, and Today: ratings for the three shows, Media Life reports, “have all declined at least 10 percent compared with last year among adults 18-49, according to a Magna Global analysis of Nielsen data from September 2006 to July 2007.”
Writer Toni Fitzgerald theorizes that while some of the decline may be attributable to on-air instability (so long Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric, and Rene Syler), more may be at play here, particularly a lack of interest in the shows among young viewers. “Another factor is the rise of cable’s competing morning news programs. FNC’s ‘Fox and Friends’ has nearly doubled its audience over the past six years, and MSNBC’s ‘Imus in the Morning’ had also been making year-to-year gains in the same 7-9am timeslot before being taken off the air in April. If CNN’s revamped ‘American Morning,’ which got a pair of new hosts in April, begins showing consistent growth as well, that could lead to even more loses for the broadcast networks’ morning programs.”