Olympics Give \'Today\' a Big Lift, Just When It Needed One

By BILL CARTER

The Olympics are continuing to provide NBC's “Today” show with the lifeline it desperately needed after squandering all its historical advantage over ABC's “Good Morning America.”

The surge for “Today” hit a high point on Friday, when the NBC program soared to 6.5 million viewers, its best total in more than a year.

More important, at least in terms of the competition between the two morning shows, “Today” beat “GMA” by 2.4 million viewers, which was its biggest margin over the ABC show since Aug. 21, 2008, when, not coincidentally, NBC was in the midst of broadcasting the last summer Olympics from Beijing.

The numbers, which are based on fast national ratings from Nielsen Media Research - so they could adjust slightly later this week - indicate that “Today” has been growing as the Olympics have gone on. That could be a sign that some of the momentum “GMA” had built up in the preceding m onths may be wearing off.

This year, “GMA” ended the 17-year weekly winning streak “Today” had set, and the week before the Olympics started, “GMA” also ended the “Today” winning streak among the viewers most prized by news advertisers, those between ages 25 and 54.

But on Friday, “Today” attracted 2.65 million viewers in that age group, besting “GMA” by a huge margin: 1.15 million viewers.

ABC has been noting that, in general, the numbers for “Today” have not been quite as large during this Olympics as they were in 2008. NBC, meanwhile, is comparing the percent gain the show is getting from the Olympics against the previous non-Olympic week. By that measure, the London bounce has been bigger than the Beijing bounce. Friday's show eclipsed the week-over-week number from the same Friday in 2008 by 34 percent.

NBC has one more week to try to build up “Today” to take on “GMA” when the Olym pics come to an end.

Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.