ABC’s early morning news and weather program, Good Morning America has been running on the network since 1975. In that time, the show has changed anchors multiple times, changed formats, and even added a weekend edition. One thing that has not really changed over the years is that Good Morning America has generally lagged behind NBC’s Today in the ratings. Perhaps it is high time for a change.
During the Monday-Friday stint of the show beginning on April 9, Good Morning America pulled in for the ratings win for the first time in Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos’ careers on the show. That’s actually kind of an understatement: Deadline is reporting last week’s cycle of episodes was the first time the ABC program pulled a ratings win in the timeslot against NBC since 1995. The victory was not a landslide, however. Good Morning America beat out Today by only a little over ten thousand total viewers.
The ratings came in after Good Morning America was bolstered by a guest hosting stint from Katie Couric, who is way more fun to watch in the morning. Another boost for the ABC program likely occurred because popular anchor Matt Laurer took a break from Today to go on vacation. We’ll see how the numbers go, now Lauer is back and Couric has returned to working out the details for her upcoming talk show. Still, a victory is a victory, even if it doesn’t come under the most noble of circumstances.
