‘TODAY’ WINS HALLOWEEN OUTRIGHT

TODAY Tops GMA in Total Viewers and All Key Demos Monday, October 31

TODAY Posts Its Best Single-Day Demo Delivery in More Than 2 Months

TODAY Posts Its Best A25-54 and A18-49 Wins  and Closest Total Viewer Margin with GMA In 5 Years  

NEW YORK – November 8, 2016 – NBC News’ TODAY was the number-one morning show across the board on Halloween, Monday, October 31, topping ABC’s “Good Morning America” by giant margins (+161,000 in total viewers and +402,000 in key demo viewers).  The win marks TODAY’s biggest single-day A25-54 delivery in more than two months (since August 22, 2016), and its biggest single-day advantages over GMA in total viewers and A25-54 in more than a month (since September 26, 2016).  TODAY also once again won the week in the key A25-54 demo topping GMA by +238,000 viewers.  TODAY has now won the demo for more than 14 consecutive months and is posting its largest A25-54 and A18-49 advantages over GMA and its closest total viewer margin in five years.

TODAY hit four-week highs in both its A25-54 delivery and advantage over GMA.  TODAY was the only morning news program to grow its demo audience week-to-week (+4%, or +75,000).  TODAY saw higher A25-54 advantages over GMA compared to the prior week (by 52%) and the same week last year (by 38%).

*Please note: As of 12/28/15, Nielsen national ratings are based on an expanded sample known as “NPX,” which effectively doubles the size of the Nielsen panel through a combination of additional meters and HHs. While NPX is now the official currency of record, all data pre-12/28/15 remains based on the old sample — so year-to-year and other comparisons are versus pre-NPX data.

TODAY HIGHLIGHTS:

WEEK of OCTOBER 31

On Monday, TODAY was the #1 ranked morning news program across total viewers (+161,000), A25-54 viewers (+402,000), and A18-49 viewers (+280,000)

• TODAY had its biggest single-day A25-54 delivery in over two months (since Monday, August 22, 2016)
• Biggest single day advantages over GMA among total viewers and A25-54 since September 26, 2016

For the week, TODAY averaged 1.753 million A25-54 viewers, outperforming GMA by +238,000 (+16%) and CBS This Morning by +714,000 (+69%)

• TODAY has ranked #1 among A25-54 viewers for 45 consecutive weeks and 61 of the last 62 weeks
• TODAY hit four-week highs in both A25-54 delivery and advantage over GMA.  Versus CBS, TODAY posted its biggest demo win since the week of 9/5/2016 (8-week high)
• TODAY was the only morning news program to increase its demo audience week-to-week (+4%, or +75,000)
• TODAY saw higher A25-54 advantages over GMA compared to prior week (by 52%) and the same week last season (by 38%)
• TODAY has now won 104 consecutive broadcasts in A25-54, dating back to June 10, 2016
• TODAY delivered a 1.46 A25-54 rating, +0.20 points ahead of GMA and +0.60 points more than CBS

TODAY averaged 1.331 million A18-49 viewers, +201,000 (+18%) more than GMA and +604,000 (+83%) higher than CBS

• TODAY had its biggest A18-49 delivery in five weeks and largest advantage over CBS since the Rio Olympics (week of 8/15/2016)
• TODAY delivered the biggest week-to-week gain among A18-49 viewers (+6%, or +74,000)
• TODAY’s 1.04 A18-49 rating led GMA by +0.16 points and CBS by +0.47 points
• CBS hit a two-month low in A18-49.

TODAY averaged 4.379 million total viewers, +898,000 (+26%) higher than CBS

• TODAY had its best total viewer delivery and best advantage over CBS in four weeks
• TODAY finished 10% closer to GMA than the same week last season (-184,000 vs. -205,000 last year)

Season-to-date:

• TODAY is posting its largest A25-54 and A18-49 advantages over GMA and its closest total viewer margin in five years
• TODAY has more than doubled its A25-54 lead over GMA versus last year (+226,000 vs. +93,000 last year)

TODAY DIGITAL HIGHLIGHTS:

TODAY reached more consumers than GMA on Yahoo with over 35.8 million unique visitors turning to TODAY.com in September for exclusive interviews and the latest lifestyle, parenting and entertainment news, according to recent data from comScore. For 33 consecutive months (42 out of the last 43), Today.com has reached more mobile consumers than GMA on Yahoo.

Today.com mobile unique visitors have grown +26% over the last 12 months while GMA on Yahoo grew +17% for the same period. Today.com has gone from parity in mobile unique visitors in September 2013 to over 3.0x GMA on Yahoo’s mobile visitor number in September 2016.

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For more information contact:

Megan Stackhouse
NBC News
e: megan.kopf@nbcuni.com

p: 212-664-6205