Week of October 7 Morning News Ratings: GMA Widens Total Viewer Lead Over Today
ABC News’ Good Morning America widened its total viewer gap over NBC News’ Today as it remained in the top spot for the third week in a row. Meanwhile, Today stayed ahead of its rival in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo. News on Hurricane Milton’s approach and destructive landfall almost certainly boosted both networks to gains for the week of October 7.
Viewers didn’t seem to favor CBS Mornings for weather coverage as CBS News’ morning show saw declines in both measured categories. It was the only morning to show week-to-week declines in both measured categories.
NOTE: CBS Mornings was retitled on Thursday (10/10/24) to CBS Morn. This retitled telecast is excluded from the weekly and season averages. CBS’ weekly averages are based on two days (Monday – Wednesday and Friday).
According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, GMA averaged 2.807 million total viewers and 495,000 viewers in A25-54 for the week of Oct. 7. It was up +7% in total viewers and +9% in the demo compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance alongside the same week in 2023 (the week of Oct. 9), GMA was down in total viewers by -6% with a -17% fall in the demo.
Today was the top show in the demo with 722,000 viewers and the No. 2 in total viewers with 2.636 million viewers. That translates to week-to-week gains of +3% in the latter category and +8% in the former. Year-to-year, Today was down by -6% in total viewers but up +2% in the demo. It was the only morning show to see year-to-year growth in either measured category.
CBS Mornings saw 1.952 million total viewers and 373,000 viewers in the A25-54 demo for a third place finish. Compared to the previous week, it dipped by -2% in both total viewers and the demo. Compared to 2023, CBS Mornings was down a respective -9% and -15% in both measured categories.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of October 7, 2024:
ABC
NBC
CBS
• Total Viewers:
2,807,000
2,636,000
1,952,000
• A25-54:
495,000
722,000
373,000
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 10/7/24), Previous Week (w/o 9/30/24) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 10/9/23). Most Current Data Stream: 2024-2025 Season (9/23-10/6/24) and 2023-2024 Season (9/25-10/8/23). Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.
