“GMA” Posts Smallest Weekly Total Viewer Gap with “Today” in 4 Years

“GMA” Beats “Today” on Thursday by 60,000 Total Viewers

“GMA” Slashes Year-to-Year Total Viewer Gap with “Today” by -77%

ABC News’ “Good Morning America” averaged 4.705 million Total Viewers and a 1.4/11/1.747 million in Adults 25-54 for the week of August 29, 2011.  Standing as the only network morning newscast to grow versus the prior week, “GMA” increased its Total Viewer count (+2%) week-to-week for the 2nd straight week to draw its largest overall audience in 3 months - since w/o 5/23/11.        

On Thursday (9/1/11), “Good Morning America” outdrew NBC’s “Today” by 60,000 Total Viewers (4.797 million vs. 4.737 million)

“GMA” built on its year-earlier performance by double-digits in both Total Viewers (+15%) and Adults 25-54 (+10%), scoring year-over-year increases in both demos for the 19th straight week.  In addition, “GMA” grew the most over the year-ago week (NBC: -3% and -3%, respectively; CBS: +2% and +1%, respectively).  Furthermore, “GMA” stretched its streak of year-to-year Total Viewer improvement to 34 weeks, and was up in 47 of 50 weeks overall this season.

Season to date, “GMA” is up the most among the network morning news programs in both Total Viewers (+10%) and Adults 25-54 (+3%) versus its year-ago averages (NBC’s “Today” is up by +2% and by +2%, respectively; CBS’ “Early Show” is up by +1% and is flat, respectively), attracting its largest audience in 4 years – since the 2006-2007 season. 

For the 3rd time in the last 4 weeks, “GMA” narrowed its weekly margins with NBC’s “Today” in both Total Viewers (-65% 234,000 vs. 661,000) and Adults 25-54 (-19% – 462,000 vs. 568,000) .  In fact, “GMA” turned in its smallest weekly Total Viewer gap with the NBC program in nearly 4 years – since w/o 10/29/07. 

“GMA” decreased its gaps with “Today” from the year-earlier week in both Total Viewers (-77% – 234,000 vs. 1.04 million) and Adults 25-54 (-34% – 462,000 vs. 695,000) for the 5th time in as many weeks.  “GMA” has decreased its year-to-year Total Viewer gap with “Today” in the last 12 weeks and in 45 of 50 weeks of the season to date. “GMA” also cut its Total Viewer gap season to date by double-digits (-32%), posting its smallest Total Viewer gap with the NBC program in 4 years – since the 2006-07 season.    

“GMA” bettered CBS’ “Early Show” by 95% in Total Viewers (4.705 million vs. 2.414 million) and by 83% in Adults 25-54 (1.747 million vs. 956,000), posting its largest Total Viewer advantage in 7 weeks – since w/o 7/11/11.

Emmy Award-winning “GMA,” featuring the anchor team of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Sam Champion, Lara Spencer and Josh Elliott, airs live Mon.-Fri. (7:00-9:00 a.m., ET) on ABC. James Goldston is senior executive producer and Tom Cibrowski is executive producer.

Week of 8/29/11             Total Viewers      Adults 25-54      Households

ABC                          4,705,000      1.4/11; 1,747,000     3.5/14

NBC                          4,939,000      1.8/14; 2,209,000     3.7/14

CBS                          2,414,000      0.8/ 6;   956,000     1.8/ 7

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and HHLDs Live + SD weeks of 8/29/11, 08/22/11, & 8/30/10.  Live+7 (where available) & Live+SD for STD 10/11 (9/20/11-9/3/11) & STD 09/10 (9/21/09-9/4/10).