Morning Ratings: Round 4 Goes to ‘Today’ During ‘GMA’s’ Katie Couric Week

The morning show battle got even more interesting on Friday, when Today anchor Matt Lauer confirmed his plans to remain on the series as a part of a new multi-year deal. That announcement comes on the heels of another ratings win for the top-rated NBC series.

Fast national ratings give Thursday to Today in both total viewers and adults 25-54 after the series lost some ground to Good Morning America on Wednesday.

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Katie Couric‘s fourth day sitting in at GMA gave the broadcast 4.638 million viewers, 435,000 shy of Today‘s 5.073 million. In the demo, GMA lost by a smaller margin, but was still topped by 228,000 against Today‘s 2.091 million haul.

Couric and Lauer, who hosted Today together for nearly a decade, have gone head-to-head all week since Couric began her temporary stint sitting in for GMA‘s Robin Roberts. NBC’s counter-programming has included highly publicized appearances by Sarah Palin and Ryan Seacrest.

Season to date, Today has averaged 5.4 million viewers over GMA‘s 4.9 million, topping the ABC broadcast by 266,000 among adults 25-54.