'Good Morning America' Catching Up To 'Today' In Early Season Ratings

Morning Show Wars: 'Good Morning America' Ratings Show Growth

ABC's "Good Morning America" appears to be giving NBC's "Today" a bit of a run for its money in the past few weeks.

Over the past two weeks, "GMA" has closed the ratings gap with "Today" to its smallest point in sixteen years. Though "GMA" still trails "Today," its ratings show a 17% increase in total viewers from last season to date. In the season premiere week of late September, the ABC show trailed its rival by 397,000 viewers.

However, "GMA" is not out of the woods by any means. "Today" is still the undisputed morning leader, and also increased its total viewers from 2010 (though by a much smaller one percent). " dropped two percent. In addition, "Today" continues to hold a strong lead in the key 25-54 demographic.

Both shows have undergone substantial change in the past few months — adding many new anchors and, in the case of "GMA," even redoing entire sets. The morning shows are the cash cows of their respective news networks, netting hundreds of millions of dollars of profits, and so the competition for ratings is incredibly fierce. It is not yet clear whether the recent "GMA" ratings are a flash in the pan or the sign of a more competitive morning field.

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