The February sweeps period has come to a close. Among the weekend morning shows, as usual, NBC’s “Today” won on Saturday and “CBS Sunday Morning” won on Sunday.

On Saturday, “Today” is followed by “GMA” in second and “CBS This Morning” in third. Like the shows’ weekday counterparts, the battle between “Today” and “GMA” is increasingly competitive on Saturday mornings. For this ratings period, the two shows are separated by the smallest-ever gap during a February sweep.

Among the Sunday morning shows, “CBS Sunday Morning” continues to hold a dominant lead over the competition. In Total Viewers, “Sunday Morning” outperformed second-place NBC by 1.81 million and third-place ABC by 2.44 million during February sweeps. Margins are smaller, but still significant, in the A25-54 demographic, with CBS beating NBC by 310,000 and ABC by 610,000.

The Saturday averages for February 2012 sweeps:

• Total Viewers: NBC: 3.81M / ABC: 3.54M / CBS: 1.88M

• A25-54 viewers: NBC: 1.38M / ABC: 1.31M / CBS: 684K

The Sunday averages for February 2012 sweeps:

• Total Viewers: CBS: 5.58M / NBC: 3.77M / ABC: 3.14M

• A25-54 viewers: CBS: 1.79M / NBC: 1.48M / ABC: 1.18M

In the increasingly competitive ratings battle between NBC’s “Today,” the perennial leader of the morning shows, and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” which is continually relegated to second place, every little bit counts.

During the week of December 26, ABC re-titled four editions of “Good Morning America” so the ratings — traditionally low during the week between Christmas and New Year’s — would not count toward the weekly and seasonal averages. (Due to the Christmas holiday on December 26, all three morning shows were coded as specials and did not count toward the averages.)

Nielsen allows shows to be re-titled as long as the newly created title is used at least four times during the course of a season. An ABC spokesperson declined to comment on the name change, but noted that the holiday week is usually a low-rated one for all the morning shows.

While re-naming shows is occasionally done to exclude a single broadcast, a holiday, for example, excluding an entire week from the average is uncommon. An NBC spokesperson calls it “unprecedented.”

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It has been a solid Q3 2011, as well as a solid 2010-11 season for the weekend network morning shows. Compared to the third quarter of last year, both editions of NBC’s “Today,” both editions of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’ “Saturday Early Show” and CBS’ “Sunday Morning” all experienced total viewer growth.

NBC’s “Today” is #1 on Saturday while CBS’ “Sunday Morning” takes the top spot on Sundays. ABC’s “Good Morning America” posted the largest total viewer growth compared — +12% on Saturday and +24% on Sunday.

It’s a similar story for the 2010-11 season. NBC’s “Today” finishes #1 on Saturdays and CBS’ “Sunday Morning” is #1 on Sundays. Both shows enjoy a large total viewer separation from their closest competitor: on Saturdays, NBC bested ABC by 960,000 total viewers and on Sundays, CBS outperforms NBC by 1.41 million viewers, drawing the largest audience of any edition of the weekend morning shows.

The averages for Saturday Q3 2011:

• Total Viewers: NBC: 3.61M / ABC: 2.95M / CBS: 1.62M

• A25-54 viewers: NBC: 1.36M / ABC: 1.08M / CBS: 575K

The averages for Sunday Q3 2011:

• Total Viewers: CBS: 4.51M / NBC: 3.35M / ABC: 2.96M

• A25-54 viewers: CBS: 1.44M /NBC: 1.28M / ABC: 1.08M

The averages for the Saturday 2010-11 Season:

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NBC’s “Today” show continued to lead its nearest morning show competitor, “Good Morning America” by a wide margin last week. The program drew more than 1 million more viewers than its chief competitior.

All three morning shows saw a ratings bump, with “GMA” delivering its best demo delivery since June.

“GMA” also narrowed the total viewing gap with “Today” by 18% when compared to the same week last year.

The averages for the week of September 20:

Total Viewers: NBC: 5.09M / ABC: 3.96M / CBS: 2.58M
A25-54 rating: NBC: 2.42M / ABC: 1.63M / CBS: 1.03M