Six Months Of Couric: How Are The Morning Shows Faring Without Her?

> Update: 4:57pm: When the final numbers come out on Thursday, Today will show its lowest rating in 12 years in households, women 25-54, adults 25-54, and women 18-49…

> Update: 3:07pm: An e-mailer wonders: “Is it possible that Katie Couric is more valuable to the Early Show by not being on Today than she is to the Evening News?…”

February sweep ratings suggest that NBC misses Katie Couric. Last month, Today was down 8 percent in total viewers and 9 percent in the 25-54 demo versus the same month last year. It marked NBC’s lowest-rated sweep in more than a decade in the demo.

Good Morning America has flat in viewers and down 5 percent in the demo. And The Early Show was up 11 percent in viewers and up 3 percent in the demo.

Sweep-to-sweep, the gap between Today and GMA has tightened from 810,000 to 632,000 in the demo (22 percent smaller) and from 1,320,000 to 796,000 in viewers (40 percent smaller). Here’s a chart from ABC showing the change; click on it to view full-size:

> Update: 4:33pm: The above chart doesn’t show season-to-date details. 2007 STD, Today is averaging 5,758,000 total viewers, compared to 5,999,000 in 2006 STD. GMA is averaging 4,938,000, compared to 5,177,000 in ’06. The ’07 season-to-date gap stands at 820,000, compared to 822,000 last season…

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