"GMA" On Top 3 of Last 5 Weeks

"GMA" Up Year-to-Year Among Total Viewers and Demo While "Today" Declines Double-Digits

"GMA" Posts Second Smallest Demo Gap (-139,000) with "Today" in 7 Years

For the week of May 7, 2012, the 2nd full week of the 2012 May Sweep, ABC News' "Good Morning America" drew 5.206 million Total Viewers to rank No. 1 for the 3rd time in the last 5 weeks, according to Nielsen Media Research.   "GMA" outperformed NBC's "Today" (5.120 million) by +86,000 Total Viewers. Additionally, Goodmorningamerica.com has expanded its lead and in April, had 17 million more unique users than Today.com.

"GMA" trailed "Today" during the week by only -139,000 Adults 25-54 (2.064 million vs. 2.203 million), representing the 2nd smallest demo gap between the two programs in nearly 7 years - since the week of 8/15/05.  

"GMA" improved week-to-week in Total Viewers (5.206 million vs. 5.168 million) and in Adults 25-54 (2.064 million vs. 2.054 million), while NBC's "Today" posted losses (-2%/-3%).

For the 2nd week in a row and the 5th time in the last 6 weeks, "GMA" improved on its year-ago performance in both Total Viewers (+6%) and Adults 25-54 (+12%) - 4.922 million and 1.843 million, respectively, on w/o 5/9/11.  "Today" was down by double-digits (-10%/-12%) year-to-year.

For the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks, "GMA" ranked No. 1 on 3 of 5 days of the week, beating NBC's "Today," by +228,000 on Tuesday (5.360 million vs. 5.132 million), by +250,000 on Wednesday (5.349 million vs. 5.099 million) and by +416,000 on Friday (5.373 million vs. 4.957 million).  In addition, "GMA's" Friday airing ranked as the most-watched morning newscast of the week.  This marked the 3rd week in a row and the 4th time in the last 5 weeks that "GMA" owned the week's most-watched morning telecast.    

Additionally, "GMA" ranked No. 1 in the key adult news demo on Friday (5/11/12) beating "Today" by +45,000 (2.153 million vs. 2.108 million). 

Season to date, "GMA" has cut its gaps versus "Today" nearly in half in both Total Viewers (-47%) and Adults 25-54 (-46%) versus its year-ago season gaps.  In fact "GMA" is posting its smallest Total Viewer (424,000) and Adults 25-54 (404,000) margins with "Today" in 16 years - since the 1995-96 Season.

Season to date "GMA" is the only morning program to grow in Total Viewers (+4%) and Adults 25-54 (+8%) versus its year-ago averages (NBC's "Today:" -3%/-8%, respectively; CBS' "This Morning:" -8%/-10%, respectively). "GMA" is seeing its largest overall season audience in 6 years, since 2005-06.

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 5/7/12, 4/30/12 & 5/9/11.  Most Current:  2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 5/13/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/10 - 5/15/11).  

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. Tom Cibrowski is senior executive producer.

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