NBC's 'Today' Surges in Ratings After Matt Lauer's Firing
TV

For the second consecutive week, the show manages to best its main rival, ABC's 'Good Morning America', in overall viewers by averaging 1.63 million total viewers this week.

AceShowbiz - "Today" shows that losing one of its co-hosts, Matt Lauer, doesn't mean much for the show. The NBC morning show wins the ratings battle after terminating Lauer's contract over sexual harassment allegation.

For the second consecutive week, "Today" manages to best the show's main rival, "Good Morning America", in overall viewers, averaging 1.63 million total viewers this week. Meanwhile, ABC's "Good Morning America" pulls in 1.3 million viewers with CBS' "CBS This Morning" luring 916,000 viewers over that same period.

During the week of December 4 through December 8, the first two hour of the NBC morning program raked in 4.58 million in total viewers, beating "Good Morning America" which averaged 4.38 million viewers. "CBS This Morning" came in the third place with 3.57 million.

The back-to-back victory marked the first time for "Today" to beat "GMA" since late 2016. "Today" once beat "GMA" for the weeks of December 12, 2016 and December 19, 2016.

Interestingly, it came after "Today" fired Lauer over "a detailed complaint" about his "inappropriate sexual behavior," allegedly during his time covering for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014. Rumor has it, Lauer invited female employees to his hotel room late at night.

"Today" is not the only morning show which lost its co-host over sexual misconduct scandal. "CBS This Morning" host Charlie Rose was fired a week before Lauer's on November 30. Eight women accused Rose of sexual harassment, including lewd phone calls, groping their breasts and walking around naked in their presence. It leaves George Stephanopoulos as the only male lead co-host from the three major broadcast networks who is free from sexual harassment allegations.

Hoda Kotb is currently replacing Lauer on an interim basis. Words are NBC's "Weekend Today" host Craig Melvin, alongside occasional fill-in host and "Today" cast member Carson Daly and "Sunday Today" host Willie Geist, is among the frontrunners for Lauer's replacement.

Follow AceShowbiz.com @ Google News

You can share this post!

You might also like
Related Posts