New Dawn in Morning Television: \"GMA\" Bests \"Today\" in September Ratings Race

By BRIAN STELTER

“Good Morning America” is beginning the new television season as the No. 1 morning show in America, topping the “Today” show.

Nielsen ratings for the month of September, made public on Thursday, confirm the television sea change that started in the spring and swept through in the summer: NBC's “Today,” the No. 1 morning show for 16 years in a row, is now No. 2 to ABC's “Good Morning America,” or “GMA” for short.

In September, the race wasn't even close: “GMA” beat “Today” by 807,000 total viewers on a typical day. “GMA” averaged almost 5.1 million viewers, while “Today” averaged about 4.3 million. The viewership for “Today” hasn't eroded this much since 1995, the year that it recaptured the No. 1 title from “GMA.”

Officials at NBC and ABC attribute the reversal of fortune to any number of factors, including the friendliness of the “GMA” cast; the lighter content on “GMA;” the friction behind the scenes at “Today;” and the poor prime-time performance of the NBC network. But the biggest factor seems to be NBC's dismissal of Ann Curry in June. The morning after Ms. Curry tearfully departed “Today,” there was a huge spike in viewership for “GMA.”; aside from a short period of time during the Summer Olympics, “Today” hasn't won a week since. Ms. Curry was replaced by Savannah Guthrie, who has now been on the job for three months.

After the Olympics, “GMA” began winning decisively in the category that matters most to advertisers, the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. In September “GMA” bested “Today” by 169,000 viewers in that group. According to an internal ABC News e-mail, this represented the show's first monthly win over “Today” in the demographic since August 1994.

Last week the producer of “Today,” Jim Bell, said “Today” was taking the “long view” of the ratings.

Nielsen counts Sept. 24 as the start of the new television season, since the major networks tend to premiere their new prime time shows in September. “Today” won in both total viewers and 25- to 54-year-old viewers in the 2011-12 season that ended on Sept. 23. But one week into the 2012-13 season, “GMA” is ahead by 808,000 viewers and by 254,000 in the demographic.

The wide gap between “GMA” and “Today” is all the more notable because September was “GMA's” first month without Robin Roberts, the co-host who is on medical leave for treatment of M.D.S., a rare blood and bone marrow disorder. When Ms. Roberts left the show on Aug. 30, there was widespread anxiety at ABC about how “GMA” would fare without her. But it appears that her fans have mostly stuck with the show while she recuperates from a bone marrow transplant.

Ms. Roberts is expected to be away from the show for several more months. In the meantime, the cast o f “GMA” mentions her whereabouts every half hour and gives viewers regular updates on her recovery.

On Wednesday Ms. Roberts posted a picture to Twitter of a visit by two of her co-hosts, Josh Elliott and Sam Champion, and that picture was shown repeatedly on Thursday's show. In a blog post later on Thursday, Ms. Roberts wrote, “I have been in the hospital 25 days now. My bone marrow transplant took place exactly two weeks ago. The only numbers that matter are my blood counts and they are… GREAT!”

But Ms. Roberts, competitive as ever, has been eyeing another set of numbers from her hospital room: the Nielsens. And she loves what she sees.