2025-2026 Season
As the adage goes, records were meant to be broken, and that is exactly what happened in the 2025-2026 TV broadcast season ratings. NBC News’ Today ended ABC News’ Good Morning America 14-year run as the No. 1 morning news show, capturing the top spot in total viewers.
This was Today’s most-watched broadcast season in four years, and it continued to hold its first-place mantle in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo, a position it has held continuously for 11 seasons.
Unfortunately for Today, it joined CBS News’ CBS Mornings in shedding viewers year over year in the demo. GMA was the only program to grow in both measured categories, while CBS Mornings was the only one to lose viewers within those two measurements.
According to Nielsen Media Research, GMA had 2.831 million total viewers and 477,000 A25-54 viewers for the 2025-2026 season. When comparing its performance to the 2024-2025 season, GMA was up +7% in total viewers and +1% in the demo.
Today averaged 2.948 million total viewers and 612,000 A25-54 viewers for the just-concluded season. The newscast grew by +13% in total viewers to take the top spot, but it slipped by -2% in the demo compared to 2025.
CBS News’ CBS Mornings finished the season with an average of 1.77 million total viewers and 278,000 A25-54 viewers. It was down -9% in total viewers and -20% in the demo vs. the 2024-2025 season—the only broadcast with year-over-year losses.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
2025 – 2026 Season (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
| • Total Viewers: | 2,831,000 | 2,948,000 | 1,770,000 |
| • A25-54: | 477,000 | 612,000 | 278,000 |
Third Quarter 2026
NBC News’ Today continued its run as the most-watched morning broadcast in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo during the third quarter of the year.
However, ABC News’ Good Morning America closed the gap with Today in total viewers, as 45,000 viewers separated the two telecasts.
The summer news period was not as active as in previous years, with the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament, America’s 250th Independence Day celebrations, and ongoing concerns about the American economy and what’s transpiring in the Middle East as the focus of the news cycle. This resulted in all three morning news shows experiencing declines in both measured categories.
