The Today show is doing just fine without Matt Lauer.
The NBC morning show was the most-watched newscast last week, for the second week in a row. This is the first back-to-back across-the-board win in almost a year, since the weeks of Dec. 12 and Dec. 19, 2016.
But the downward trend continues for all three morning shows, compounded by the fact that two of the broadcasts lost their main co-anchors within a week: CBS fired Charlie Rose on Nov. 21 and NBC fired Matt Lauer on Nov. 28, both over allegations of sexual misconduct.
The Today show was down -2 percent in viewers and down -10 percent in the demo vs. the same week last year. ABC’s Good Morning America was down -8 percent in viewers and down -10 percent in the demo and CBS This Morning was down -8 percent in viewers and down -24 percent in the demo. At this point last year, CBS This Morning had been seeing strong ratings growth. By the end of 2016 it had added 1 million viewers since it launched 5 years earlier.
The three shows were preempted last Tuesday in Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest TV market, as KABC, KNBC and KCBS covered the wildfires.
Morning show ratings for the week of Dec. 4:
- Total Viewers: NBC: 4.578M / ABC: 4.376M / CBS: 3.572M
- A25-54 viewers: NBC: 1.635M / ABC: 1.379M / CBS: 916,000