After back-to-back weekly wins for Today show, Good Morning America returned to its usual spot as the No. 1 morning show for the week in average total viewers.
Barely.
According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, GMA averaged 3.04 million total viewers and 735,000 adults 25-54 for the week of Aug. 9. That represents a -7% decline in the key A25-54 demo, and a -2% decline in average total viewers from the previous week. Compared to the same week one year ago, GMA shed -5% in average total viewers, and -13% in the A25-54 viewers.
Season to date, GMA is the most-watched morning show for the 9th year in a row, and is increasing its lead over Today from the same point last season to its largest in 4 years—since the 2016-2017 season.
Over on NBC, Today averaged 3.01 million total viewers and 820,000 adults 25-54. As expected, that’s down quite a bit from what the show drew during the second week of the Olympics (-12% in total viewers and -17% among adults 25-54). Compared to the same week one year ago, Today shed just -3% of its average total audience and -9% of its adults 25-54 audience.
Today did average more total viewers than GMA on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday last week.
Third-place CBS This Morning averaged 2.46 million total viewers and 508,000 adults 25-54 for the week of Aug. 9. That’s +6% in average total viewers, and +22% in adults 25-54 from the previous week— the second week of the 2020 Olympics. On the downside, the broadcast shed -5% in average total viewers and -13% among adults 25-54 from the year-ago week.
As we’ve mentioned in recent ratings stories, the year-over-year Nielsen ratings decline for all of these shows makes sense. Not only were many Americans more likely to watch the morning shows for breaking news coverage of the pandemic and the presidential election campaign at this time last year, but the general news cycle is far calmer these days than it was in 2020.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day numbers for the week of Aug. 9:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 3,037,000 | 3,010,000 | 2,459,000 |
| • A25-54: | 735,000 | 820,000 | 508,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 8/9/21), Previous Week (w/o 8/2/21) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 8/10/20). Most Current: 2020 -2021 Season (9/21/20 – 8/15/21) and Most Current: 2019 -2020 Season (9/23/19 – 8/16/20). *Effective 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.