Katie Couric's Week on 'GMA' Ends With Narrow Ratings Win for 'Today'

The dust has settled on Today and Good Morning America's highly publicized week of stunt appearances, and the final day's ratings spoils go to NBC -- though only by 25,000 viewers.

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After five days of Katie Couric sitting in for Robin Roberts on GMA, and Today responding with cameos from Sarah Palin and Ryan Seacrest, Friday brought the NBC morning series wins among total viewers and the key adults 25-54 demo.

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Those tuning into the broadcast -- 4.719 million overall and 1.929 million in adults -- caught co-host Matt Lauer's official announcement that he'll be staying on the series. GMA earned 4.694 million and 1.674 million among adults 24-54. Though narrowing the gap at several points throughout the week, the ABC series only clocked an official win Wednesday, topping Today in total viewers.

For the week, Today averaged 5.109 million viewers over GMA's 4.899 million viewers. In the demo, NBC was ahead 2.135 million over 1.829 million. That's a wider gap than the two weeks prior.

Season to date, Today is netting 5.4 million viewers over GMA's 4.9 million, also topping the ABC broadcast by 266,000 among adults 25-54. Those gaps are the smallest between the series since the 1995-96 television season.

Couric departed Today after 15 years in 2006. Her increased presence on various ABC outlets comes in anticipation of the September launch of her new daytime talk show. ABC News executives have hinted that she may return to GMA in the future when co-host George Stephanopoulos goes on vacation.