The “Today” show may have lost Matt Lauer, but it’s gaining viewers.
With regular 10 o’clock host Hoda Kotb in the now-disgraced anchor’s chair, “Today” won last week in total viewers, and in ratings for the key demographics of adults ages 25-54 and 18-49. Combined with the prior week’s win, this marks the first two-week, across-the-board victories for “Today” in about a year.
Last week, “Today” scored an average of 4.578 million total viewers, with 1.208 million of them aged 18-49 and 1.635 million in the overlapping 25-54 demo.
Those each bested “Good Morning America, which had 4.376 million viewers total, 955,000 in the 18-49 group and 1.379 million in the 25-54 group. Viewers 25-54 are the main demo for ad sales across news programming.
Bringing up the rear, “CBS This Morning” — which recently lost anchor Charlie Rose to another sexual harassment scandal — averaged 3.572 million total viewers, 654,000 in 18-49, and 916,000 in 25-54.
Lauer was let go from “Today” on Tuesday, Nov. 28 . The learned of the ousting on-air the following morning. That drama handed the series a 43 percent lift in Nielsen ratings from the previous day.