A slow news week coupled with the switch to Daylight Saving Time saw the morning shows experience declines in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.
ABC News’ Good Morning America continues to enlarge its gap with NBC News’ Today in total viewers. They are now separated by 123,000 total viewers, the largest gap in six weeks. Remember, just a few weeks ago, a difference of 7,000 viewers separated the two shows.
Meanwhile, the battle for second place in demo viewers seems to have settled down as the gap between GMA and CBS News’ CBS Mornings continues to widen.
NOTE: ABC’s weekly averages are based on four days (Monday through Thursday). The Friday edition of GMA was retitled to GMA-ABC due to an ABC News special report.
According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, GMA averaged 2.677 million total viewers and 521,000 viewers in the A25-54 demo for the week of March 11. Compared to the previous week, GMA’s performance was down in total viewers and the A25-54 demo by -7% and -8%, respectively. Looking at the morning show’s performance to the same week in 2023, GMA was down in total viewers by -16% and fell by -29% in the A25-54 demo.
Meanwhile, NBC News’ Today show was the top morning newscast in the A25-54 demo with 613,000 viewers and finished in second place in total viewers with 2.534 million for the week of March 11. Its first-place finish in the A25-54 demo now stretches to 30 straight weeks. When checking the show’s numbers from the previous week, Today was down -10% in total viewers and by -9% in the demo. Compared to the same week in 2023, Today was down by -8% in total viewers and -13% in the A25-54 demo.
CBS Mornings was the No. 3 news program, with 1.980 million total viewers and 404,000 viewers in A25-54 for the week of March 11. Compared to the previous week, CBS News’ morning show fell in total viewers by -12 and dropped by -10% in the A25-54 demo. Now, 117,000 viewers separate GMA and CBS Mornings in the demo. (It was 114,000 the previous week.) Looking at the same period in 2023, CBS Mornings fell in total viewers by -10% and -16% in the A25-54 demo.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day numbers for the week of March 11, 2024:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 2,677,000 | 2,534,000 | 1,980,000 |
| • A25-54: | 521,000 | 613,000 | 404,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 3/11/24), Previous Week (w/o 3/4/24) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/6/23). Most Current Data Stream: 2023-2024 Season (9/25/23 – 3/17/24) and 2022-2023 Season (9/19/22 – 3/12/23). Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.