the industry Dec. 6, 2017

Matt Lauer’s Firing Gave Today Show a Rare Ratings Win Over Good Morning America

By Josef Adalian, who has covered the television industry since 1992 and writes Buffering, a newsletter about streaming

Photo: NBC/Nathan Congleton/NBC

It won’t matter much in the long-term, but Matt Lauer’s ignominious firing lifted NBC’s Today show to an increasingly rare ratings win over rival Good Morning America last week. Per Nielsen, the Peacock’s breakfast show averaged 4.9 million viewers between November 27–December 1, a five-day frame which included three days where Lauer’s exit was the big news of the day. GMA, which has been the most-watched morning show for most of 2017, notched 4.4 million viewers, while the Charlie Rose–less CBS This Morning came in third with 3.5 million. Today’s weekly average got a massive boost from the Wednesday, November 29 broadcast in which his firing was announced: That edition was seen by 5.7 million viewers, the largest audience for the NBC show since the 2012 Olympics, according to TV Newser. Rose’s firing also gave a small lift to CBS This Morning the week it happened, though the boost was temporary and not enough to push the show out of its usual third-place position.

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Matt Lauer’s Firing Gave Today a Rare Ratings Win Over GMA

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