Week of May 4 Morning Show Ratings: GMA, Today Split First Place in the Ratings Race for the Fourth Consecutive Week

By A.J. Katz 

For the fourth consecutive week, GMA and Today split the morning show ratings race.

GMA averaged 4.04 million viewers for the week of May 4, more than its NBC rival Today show (3.89 million).

Season to date, GMA is the No. 1 morning newscast in Total Viewers for the eighth straight year.

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ABC’s morning show may have averaged a larger total audience, but it played second fiddle to Today in Adults 25-54. By averaging 1.21 million viewers, Today has now defeated its ABC and CBS morning competition in the key demo 226 of the past 228 weeks. GMA averaged 1.14 million Adults 25-54 last week.

Today also won Tuesday in Total Viewers.

CBS This Morning remained in third place, but was the only morning show to post week-to-week growth in any relevant measurement. The broadcast was +3% in Adults 25-54 (688,000).

Speaking of week-to-week comparisons, versus the prior week (April 27), GMA didn’t trend in the right direction. The broadcast was -2% in Total Viewers and -5% in the A25-54 demo. Today was flat in Total Viewers and -1% in the demo. CBS This Morning was also flat in Total Viewers and +3% in the key A25-54 demo.

Versus the same week in 2019, the morning shows struggled. The positive year-over-year ratings trend for the evening newscasts isn’t being matched by the morning shows.

GMA was -2% in Total Viewers and -4% in the key demo. Today was -4% versus last year and -6% in the demo. CTM was -2% in Total Viewers, but -11% in the key demo.

Nielsen live-plus-same-day numbers for the week of May 4:

ABC NBC CBS
• Total Viewers: 4,035,000 3,894,000 3,073,000
• A25-54: 1,140,000 1,208,000 688,000

 

 

 

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD, Current Week (w/o 5/4/20), Previous Week (w/o 4/27/20) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 5/6/19).  Most Current: 2019 -2020 Season (9/23/19 – 5/10/20) and 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/18 – 5/12/19).  Averages based on regular telecasts.

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