Morning Show Ratings: 'Today' Staves Off 'GMA' to Keep Demo Lead

'GMA' wins in total viewers for third consecutive week

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/19/2012 2:57:14 PM

Despite a razor-thin margin separating NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America in the adults 25-54 demo in preliminary numbers earlier this week, Today managed extend its demo win to 898 straight weeks the week of July 9.

Today averaged 1.711 million demo viewers to GMA's 1.696 million, widening the margin to 15,000 viewers based on Nielsen final numbers. In total viewers however, GMA was the most-watched program for the third consecutive week, and bested Today by 342,000 total viewers, its largest margin in more than 17 years.

Through Wednesday of the current week (Savannah Guthrie's second a Today cohost), GMA is leading Today in both total viewers (+451,000) and the adults 25-54 demo (+124,000).

Final numbers for the week of July 16 will be released July 26.