“Good Morning America” topped the “Today” show in total viewers on Monday, the day after the Olympics concluded.
This is historic, if you ask ABC. As a matter of fact, under these circumstances, this is somewhere between the first time this has happened since 1992, and ever.
The most recent Olympic hangover example comes from the first Monday following the 2012 London Games. On that day, “GMA” fell behind NBC’s “Today” by 301,000 total viewers. Yesterday, “GMA” actually topped “Today” by 89,000 viewers — a reversal of fortune and implication of how the competitors stack up in 2014 in the eyes of the victor.
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The “GMA” total viewer victory on Monday marked the first time that the ABC morning show has beaten “Today” on the Monday following the end of an NBC Olympics since 1992, the year of the Barcelona Summer Games.
If you want to compare only post-Winter Olympics airings, this is the first time that “GMA” has beaten “Today” in total viewers the Monday following the end of the Olympics since at least 1991 (when ABC’s electronic records begin), and possibly further.
In the key demo, however, “Today” did still top “GMA” on Monday. Among adults 25-54, the first Monday after the 2012 London Games, “Today” beat “GMA” by 102,000 viewers. This year, “Today’ won by 92,000 — which slightly narrowed the gap.
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NBC touted that Monday’s overall and demo viewer deliveries for “Today” were up compared to the Monday after the London Olympics by 15 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
The network also boasted a lower drop-off in both measurements compared to the Monday after the London Olympics, by 13 and 14 percentage points, respectively. In other words, “Today” held on to more viewers on the Monday after Sochi than the Monday after London.
Finally, an NBC insider contextualized it this way to TheWrap: “This is a significant win for ‘Today’ because it retained more total and key demo viewers the Monday after Sochi than it did the Monday after London, and its deliveries in those categories were much higher.”