The last shred of morning television dominance owned by NBC's “Today†show came crashing down last week as ABC's “Good Morning America†won the ratings across the board, even among the group of viewers most prized by news advertisers.
For the first time in 17 years, “GMA†was the undisputed champion of the morning last week, soundly defeating “Today†in the category of total viewers, by 542,000, and also edging the NBC program by 12,000 in the category of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.
A week earlier, the two shows had finished in a statistical tie in the 25-54 ratings, but the trend has been shifting powerfully toward “GMA,†especially since NBC replaced Ann Curry with Savannah Guthrie as co-host.
The win for “GMA†will almost certainly be short lived because NBC's Olympics coverage is pushing “Today†back in front in preliminary ratings. “Today†has been about 1.3 million v iewers ahead of “GMA†for the first two days this week, and 732,000 viewers ahead in the 25-54 group.
Those numbers may increase when Wednesday morning is factored in because NBC had its biggest night yet Tuesday and there is usually a carryover in the morning.
ABC has been noting, however, that the margins for “Today†are considerably less than they were four years ago when the Olympics were in Beijing. To be fair, “Today†was much farther ahead in those days, so it was building on its lead.
Now it must overcome a deficit. “Today†will get another week of Olympic-fueled ratings before it has to return to regular programming. At that point the test will be how much momentum “GMA†truly has.
Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.
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