It was a slender victory—but a victory nonetheless—for Good Morning America last week.
After the ABC News morning show saw its NBC News rival Today capture the No. 1 spot among both total viewers and the A25-54 demo for the week of Sept. 2, GMA fought its way back into first place in the former category. According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, the week of Sept. 9 saw GMA attracting 2.526 million total viewers—a mere 10,000 more than Today’s 2.516 million audience.
That’s one of the smallest total viewer gaps between the two shows so far this year, and it occurred during a week where ABC News scored a big ratings win with its 2024 presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. A post-debate appearance by Harris on GMA almost certainly would have provided the show with an election year bump, but the Democratic presidential candidate instead opted to give that first interview to ABC’s Philadelphia affiliate.
Today handily remained in first place in the demo, with 658,000 A25-54 viewers versus GMA’s crowd of 433,000. ABC’s overall week-to-week stats are a modest -1% decline in total viewers and an equally modest +1% lift in the demo. Compared to the same week in 2023 (the week of Sept. 11), GMA suffered steeper declines of -18% and -35% in those respective categories. The network notes that, season to date, GMA remains the top morning show in total viewers for 12 years running.
While Today was this close to GMA in total viewers, the show also experienced week-to-week and year-to-year declines across both measured categories. Compared to the week of Sept. 2, Today fell by -4% in total viewers and -1% in the demo. Looking in the rearview at 2023, the show was down -9% in both categories.
CBS Mornings retained its usual third place in the standings, with 2.102 million total viewers and 409,000 A25-54 viewers. That’s an improvement over the previous week, with gains of +5% and +8%, respectively. Like the other shows, though, the year-to-year stats were down—CBS Mornings declined -6% in total viewers and -13% in the demo.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day numbers for the week of September 9, 2024:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 2,526,000 | 2,516,000 | 2,102,000 |
| • A25-54: | 433,000 | 658,000 | 409,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 9/9/24), Previous Week (w/o 9/2/24) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 9/4/23). Most Current Data Stream: 2023-2024 Season (9/25/23–9/15/24) and 2022-2023 Season (9/19/22–9/10/23), Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.
