"GMA" On Top 4 of Last 7 Weeks

For May Sweeps, "GMA" in Virtual Tie for First in Total Viewers, Posting Smallest Margin with "Today" During a Sweeps Period in Nearly 17 Years;  "GMA" Posts Narrowest Sweeps Demo Gap in 7 Years

  "GMA" Ranks #1 in Total Viewers 4 of the Last 5 Weeks and #1 in Demo 2 of the Last 3 Weeks in Nielsen's C3 Ratings Data

  "GMA Saturday" Ranks #1 in May in Adults 25-54, Marking 2 nd Monthly Win for Broadcast

Week of May 21, 2012

 ABC News' "Good Morning America" won the week of May 21, 2012 with 5.066 million Total Viewers to rank No. 1 for the 4th time in the last 7 weeks, according to Nielsen Media Research.   "GMA" outdrew NBC's "Today" (5.033 million) by +33,000 Total Viewers.

"GMA" slashed its year-to-year Adults 25-54 margin with "Today" by -68% (242,000 vs. 756,000) .  "GMA" has cut its year-ago week gap with the NBC program by double-digits in the last 21 weeks and in 35 of 36 weeks this season.  

  For the 4th week in a row and the 7th time in the last 8 weeks, "GMA" was up in Adults 25-54 (1.982 million) over the year-ago week (1.968 million on w/o 5/23/11).   In fact, "GMA" stood as the only network morning newscasts to grow year to year in the key adult news demo, as both NBC's "Today"( -18%) and "CBS This Morning"( -18%) each delivered double-digit losses.

For the 3rd time in the last 5 weeks, "GMA" ranked No. 1 on 3 of 5 days of the week, beating NBC's "Today," by +256,000 on Wednesday (5.142 million vs. 4.886 million), by +167,000 on Thursday (5.239 million vs. 5.072 million) and by +190,000 on Friday (5.063 million vs. 4.873 million).  In addition, "GMA's" Thursday airing ranked as the most-watched morning newscast of the week.  This marked the 4th time in the last 5 weeks that "GMA" owned the week's most-watched morning telecast.    

Season to date, "GMA" has cut its gaps versus "Today" in half in both Total Viewers (-51%) and Adults 25-54 (-48%) versus its year-ago season gaps.  In fact "GMA" is posting its smallest Total Viewer (400,000) and Adults 25-54 (392,000) 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:" -4%/-9%, respectively; CBS' "This Morning:" -8%/-10%, respectively). "GMA" is seeing its largest overall season audience in 6 years, since 2005-06.

May 2012 Sweep ABC News' "Good Morning America" finished in a virtual tie for first in Total Viewers during the 2012 May sweep, running neck-and-neck with NBC's "Today" by only -15,000 viewers (5.162 million vs. 5.177 million).  For the month, "GMA" posted its smallest Total Viewer margin with "Today" during a sweeps period in nearly 17 years and during a May sweep in 17 years - since November 1995 and May 1995, respectively.

In addition, "GMA" trailed "Today" in May 2012 by -199,000 Adults 25-54 (2.052 million vs. 2.251 million), turning in its narrowest Adults 25-54 gap with "Today" during a sweeps period in 7 years - since May 2005.

Compared to February 2012, "GMA" was up by +3% in Total Viewers, while holding nearly all of its news demo audience (4.029 million and 2.054 million, respectively).  NBC's "Today" (-7%/-9%) and "CBS This Morning" (-4%/-8%) each delivered losses.

For the 2nd May in a row, "GMA" built on the year-ago sweep in Adults 25-54 (+2% - 2.052 million vs. 2.010 million), drawing its largest news demo audience during a May sweep in 5 years - since May 2007.   In addition, "GMA" was the only network morning news program to increase its demo audience May-to-May - NBC (-19%) and CBS (-7%).  

Impressively, "GMA" staked claimed to the top 2 most-watched morning telecast of the 2012 May sweep (5.515 million - 4/26/12; 5.479 million - 5/1/12).  Further, "GMA" scored 6 single-day wins in Total Viewers during the month, the most number of single-day victories during a sweeps period in nearly 17 years - since November 1995.  

C3 ratings for week of May 7, 2012 Based on the most recent numbers of Nielsen's C3 Ratings data (Commercial Ratings + 3 Day Playback) for the week of May 7, 2012, ABC News' "Good Morning America" ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (4.989 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.903 million) .  "GMA" has ranked No. 1 in 4 of the last 5 weeks in Total Viewers and in 2 of the last 3 weeks in Adults 25-54.  

"Good Morning America Saturday" May 2012 (4/30 - 5/27/12): During May 2012, ABC's "Good Morning, America Saturday" drew 1.178 million Adults 25-54 viewers to rank No. 1 for the 2nd month in a row, according to Nielsen Media Research.   "GMA Saturday" outperformed NBC's "Saturday Today" (1.132 million) by +46,000 news demo viewers.  Further, "GMA Saturday" increased its margin over "Saturday Today" compared to its demo margin in April 2012 (+33,000 - 1.197 million vs. 1.164 million)

MORNING NEWS SATURDAY - MAY 2012

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 5/21/12, 5/14/12 & 5/23/11.  Most Current:  2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 5/27/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/10 - 5/29/11).  May 2012 Sweep: 4/26 - 5/23/2012.  May 2011 Sweep: 4/28 - 5/25/2011.  Sweep periods (November, February, May and July).  National Commercial Ratings + 3 Day Playback, week of 5/7/12.   May 2012: 4/30/12 - 5/27/12 and April 2012: 3/26 - 4/29/12

See Also:   For 2012 May Sweep, "GMA Saturday" Wins 3 of 4 Saturdays Among Adults 25-54

See Also: "World News" Slashes Total Viewer and Adults 25-54 Gaps with "Nightly News" in May Sweep - Smallest Margins in 4 Years

 See Also: "Power Players" Hits 4.3 Million Uniques in April, Becomes 8 th Most-Watched Series Online

 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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