The showdown this week between the “Today” show and “Good Morning America” tilted in ABC’s favor for the first time on Wednesday, when “Good Morning America” beat its NBC rival in the ratings by 87,000 viewers.
The news of that victory came on the same day that the final national ratings from last week arrived, showing the two shows closer than they have been in seven years.
“Today” won last week by 119,000 viewers, closer than the 137,000 disparity the week before, and perhaps confirming that momentum in the morning seems to be shifting toward “Good Morning America.”
“Good Morning America,” which has become more driven than ever to try to break the more than 16-year weekly winning streak of “Today,” the longest in
television history, won two mornings last week, Tuesday and Friday.
While the show has yet to pull out a weekly ratings win, it has been winning more individual days in recent weeks than at any time in recent years. In the last two weeks, “Today” won six mornings and “Good Morning America” won four.
This week the ABC show brought in the former “Today” star Katie Couric as a guest host, a move that “Today” countered with a widely publicized appearance by Sarah Palin as guest host on Tuesday.
“Today” managed to stay comfortably ahead on the first two mornings this week, winning by more than 300,000 viewers. But on Wednesday, “Good Morning America” bolted ahead.
NBC’s margin of victory for the first two mornings means the end of the “Today” streak may yet be put off — at least for another week. For the first time in seven years, however, the possibility that the streak could end soon seems to have increased appreciably.