‘Today’ Retakes Ratings Crown From ‘Good Morning America’

NBC’s Today was back atop the morning show ratings for the week ending April 20, one week after seeing its 852-week winning streak ended by ABC’s surging Good Morning America. Today averaged 5.25 million viewers, besting GMA by 243,000 during a week when Matt Lauer returned to the morning show after a weeklong vacation.

PHOTOS: The Most Talked About TV News Faces

Lauer’s co-host Ann Curry self-deprecatingly referenced the toppling of Today’s historic 16-year-plus morning TV winning streak at the New York Women in Communications Matrix Awards on Monday. Citing her “great bosses, especially the exceptional men I get to work for today,” she added, “I’m not sucking up, even though recent ratings events might dictate that I should.”

Today also bested GMA in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, the 886th consecutive week it has done so. Today pulled in 2.31 million viewers in the demo compared to GMA’s 1.94 million.

But so far this week, GMA is outpacing Today by 50,000 viewers – 4.85 million to 4.8 million.