A few months ago, when ABC’s Good Morning, America beat out NBC’s Today for the first time in the timeslot in 17 years, the ratings seemed like a fluke. Fan favorite Matt Lauer was out on vacation and Katie Curic was filling in on GMA. Just a few short months later, however, it seems Good Morning, America might have won some long-term ground on NBC’s hit early morning show.
All the brouhaha surrounding the way NBC handled firing former Today host Ann Curry has not been particularly good press for the peacock network. True too, is the fact Curry had a slew of fans who went to bat for the reporter when news first broke that she might be replaced. Between the bad press and fans potentially leaving who favored Curry over new host Savannah Guthrie, it’s no surprise to hear Today’s ratings are suffering a little bit.
THR is reporting fast affiliate ratings are in for Monday’s episodes of Today and GMA, and the latter has pulled through with the winning spot in total viewers as well as in the 25-54 demographic, bringing in 356,000 viewers more than NBC’s morning show. We could blame the ratings on a bad case of the Mondays if Monday’s episode had not been Guthrie’s first official day as co-host on Today and if the numbers on the other unofficial days Guthrie hosted had not also proved to be pitfalls for Today.
I’m a fan of both ABC and NBC’s morning shows, so whichever one lands on top is sound to me; however, it does not bode well for NBC if the network starts to lose in the early morning ratings on a regular basis when they have been on top consistently for some many years. For now, I think we can chalk this up to Guthrie’s newness, but if the ratings lean toward ABC over the next few weeks, we might find ourselves declaring the ratings race an ABC win.
