Today Stays on Top With a Little Help From Macy’s

NBC News’ Today remained America’s top morning show in both total viewers and the advertiser-prized Adults 25-54 for the Thanksgiving week of Nov. 25. 

However, this week’s win comes with a big caveat: the show’s performance was boosted by its annual coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which typically lifts Today to a win during the holiday corridor.

Today’s continued reign at No. 1 has invited closer scrutiny of ABC News’ Good Morning America. According to Status’ Oliver Darcy, GMA’s top brass have acknowledged the show’s struggles in recent weeks. How they try and remedy the situation will be something to pay attention to in the weeks ahead. But as the holiday season rolls on, any changes made during this period may not yield sustainable gains.

NOTE: Good Morning America was retitled on Monday (11/25/24), Thursday (11/28/24) and Friday (11/29/24) to GMA-ABC. Today was coded on Wednesday (11/27/24) and retitled on Friday to Today-TS. CBS Mornings was coded as specials from Wednesday through Friday. These retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC’s and CBS’ weekly averages are based on two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Monday and Tuesday, respectively. NBC’s weekly averages are based on three days (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, GMA averaged 2.808 million total viewers and 472,000 A25-54 viewers for the week. That translates to a flat result in the former category and a -7% dip in the latter compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance alongside the same week in 2023 (the week of Nov. 27), GMA was down -8% in total viewers and -23% in the demo. 

Thanks to the Macy’s parade, Today saw an influx of 3.214 million total viewers and 849,000 demo viewers for double digit gains of +14% and +21%, respectively. Year-to-year, the show was up by +12% in the former category and +20% in the latter. 

CBS Mornings saw 1.928 million total viewers and 356,000 A25-54 viewers for week-to-week declines of -7% and -11%, respectively. Compared to 2023, the show was down -15% in total viewers and -19% in the demo.