The NYTimes‘ Jacques Steinberg writes about Meredith Vieira‘s one year anniversary with the Today show, which is this Thursday.
“Since Ms. Vieira’s arrival the show’s audience has lost about 360,000 viewers (or 6.2 percent) on average, each weekday, when compared with the same period a year earlier. The audience has receded by an even greater margin (a loss of 12 percent) among women ages 25 to 54, who are among those most sought by advertisers.” “Of some small comfort…is that Good Morning America has also shed viewers this past year, though not to the same degree.”
mediabistro.com’s PRNewser has its own take on Vieira’s first year: how to pitch America’s #1 morning news program.
>More: From an NBC News insider, “The key point to note is that broadcast TV is down in general — all dayparts on all broadcast networks are down…However, GMA is down more than TODAY in the key demo A25-54 (GMA is down 11%, TODAY is down 9%). Additionally, TODAY has increased it’s advantage over GMA in A25-54 from 24% to 27% versus last year.”