Hoda Kotb is making “Today” show viewers forget about that whole Matt Lauer sexual misconduct scandal.
OK, maybe not — but the NBC News morning series just topped total viewers for the third week in a row — it’s first such streak since the 2016 Rio Olympics. It also won among adults 18-49 and 25-54, which is a pretty routine claim for the franchise these days.
Kotb filled in for Lauer again all last week. She’s been Savannah Guthrie’s full-time fill-in sidekick since the shocking announcement of Lauer’s ouster back on November 29 — “Today” hasn’t lost since in any major Nielsen measurement since.
Before the Lauer disaster, key “Today” competitor “Good Morning America” would generally claim the overall audience tally. “CBS This Morning,” which recently faced a sexual misconduct scandal of its own, has consistently been a distant third.
It’s important to point out here that NBC’s sudden stranglehold on total eyeballs has diminished each week since Lauer was let go. As readers can see for themselves at the bottom of this post, last week’s advantage was right around 60,000 viewers.
Below is a look at the ratings results from last week’s morning show wars.
| Net | HH Rtg |
HH Shr |
P2+ Imps |
P18-49 Rtg |
P18-49 Imps |
P25-54 Rtg |
P25-54 Imps |
| TODAY | 3.23 | 13 | 4,568 | 1.00 | 1,292 | 1.40 | 1,688 |
| CBS THIS MORNING | 2.65 | 10 | 3,656 | 0.54 | 701 | 0.81 | 972 |
| GOOD MORNING AMERICA | 3.24 | 13 | 4,507 | 0.78 | 1,010 | 1.19 | 1,438 |
HH=Households
P2+ = People 2 and over — a.k.a. total viewers