Stephanopoulos Debut Ratings: Still Far Behind Today Show

by Steve Krakauer | 5:38 pm, December 15th, 2009

» 2 comments

George Stephanopoulos‘ debut on Good Morning America Monday morning did not do much to help the show cut into NBC’s Today show lead.

The difference between the two programs was even wider than the previous week.

Today averaged 5,945,000 million total viewers Monday, according to overnight data. The difference between NBC and ABC was 1,293,000. In the A25-54 demographic, NBC averaged 2,880,000 while ABC was behind by 802,000.

Last week, in Diane Sawyer‘s final week on the program, NBC averaged 5,671,00 compared to ABC’s 4,589,000 for a difference of 1,082,000 viewers. In the demo, Today averaged 2,637,000 and GMA had 1,959,000 for a difference of 678,000 viewers.

Of course, that was Sawyer’s last week – so the numbers could be inflated a bit for GMA. However in the week before, the average was still closer in both categories than it was for Stephanopoulos’ debut.

So what does it mean? Well it’s probably still early to tell. It’s a long race, not a sprint. But it certainly shows Stephanopoulos won’t be making an immediate impact on the ratings.

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abc, ABC News, George Stephanopoulos, GMA, Good Morning America, Ratings, Today Show

TfT

I don’t watch GMA, but did click over for a little while this morning just to check it out. George does seem stiff and uncomfortable — but it’s a new gig, new venue, and a relatively different focus from what he is used to on the Sunday talk show. I guess it might take him a while to get used to it all. I doubt ABC will overtake NBC in the morning ratings though, but time will tell. I recall when Katie went to CBS, her first night ratings were stratospheric (all things considered), George didn’t get that same reaction.
Tater Salad

Until Stephanopoulos can get his head out of the Democratic camps, his approval ratings will never increase unless all the kids born now become Democrats. George will have “His” following but they will only be the libs and his base will never grow because of this! Next move…..George’s………and then the networks because of his low ratings!