‘Good Morning America’ Celebrates Big Win Over ‘Today’

Good Morning America is continuing to prove to be a major player in the ongoing morning-news wars. The long-running ABC morning show recently scored another victory when it surpassed NBC’s Today in a critical viewer demographic that determines how much advertisers pay per show.

According to Nielsen data, per Variety, for the five days ending on May 6, Good Morning America not only rose as the victor the biggest audience among morning-news programs — a title GMA typically claims — but also in the critical category of viewers between 25 and 54, a category typically dominated by Today. In that critical viewer category, GMA averaged 815,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, compared with 768,000 for Today, meaning the ABC news program received 47,000 more viewers than Today. Fellow competitor CBS Mornings, meanwhile, saw 547,000 viewers. During that same period of time, the ABC News show also earned the most viewers overall with nearly 3.4 million. Today won nearly 2.96 million, with CBS Mornings earning 2.43 million.

“It’s an incredible win as we deal with the challenges of still broadcasting and working during a pandemic,” Simone Swink, executive producer of Good Morning America, said. “Our team remains laser-focused on delivering the best straightforward, relevant and engaging news. We love our viewers who join us every morning and make this possible!”

Variety reached out to NBC News for comment, but they could not immediately be reached. Despite the massive success for GMA for the five-day period ending May 6, Today continues to be the overall champion among the crucial advertiser demo season to date.

GMA‘s double victory over Today comes just weeks after the ABC news program scored another major victory over its NBC competitor. In February, Good Morning America won more viewers overall during NBC’s first week of coverage of the Winter Olympics from Beijing than Today. Although the NBC program continued to lead in the 25 and 54 demographic, though only by 4,000 people, GMA won approximately 3.34 million viewers, compared with about 3.067 million for Today for the week of Feb. 11. It marked the first time in more than three decades that GMA overcame Today. At the time, Variety, citing Nielsen historical data, reported that the ABC program had “not won the ratings gold medal during the Olympics since the week of February 7, 1992.”