NBC News' Today remained the most-watched morning show in America in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of September 7 — but it was also the only broadcast to lose viewers in both measured categories.

The result: Today's lead over ABC News' Good Morning America in total viewers shrank to under 100,000, settling at 92,000. GMA was the sole program to finish the week following the Labor Day holiday weekend up in both measurements.

CBS News' CBS Mornings registered an uptick in total viewers, a week that drew viewer interest around the return of Norah O'Donnell to the program.

The numbers

According to Nielsen's national live+same-day Big Data + Panel program ratings:

• Today (NBC): 2.834 million total viewers and 598,000 A25-54 viewers, down -1% in total viewers and -5% in the demo versus the previous week. Against the same week in 2025, Today was up +11% in total viewers and +4% in the demo.
• GMA (ABC): 2.742 million total viewers and 488,000 A25-54 viewers, up +1% in total viewers and +7% in the demo week over week. Year over year, GMA grew +2% in total viewers and was flat in the demo.
• CBS Mornings (CBS): 1.64 million total viewers and 247,000 A25-54 viewers, up +2% in total viewers but down -9% in the demo versus the previous week. Compared with the same week in 2025, CBS Mornings fell -10% in total viewers and -21% in the demo.

Measurement caveats

All three morning shows aired as retitled specials on Monday, September 7, and were coded as a breakout of Friday, September 11. Nielsen excluded those special and breakout telecasts from the weekly and season averages. ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News' weekly averages are therefore based on three days, Tuesday through Thursday.

Year-over-year comparisons rely on a methodology shift: Nielsen Big Data + Panel (2026) measured against Panel-only (2025) data.

Why it matters

The morning daypart race is tightening at the top. Today's double-digit year-over-year growth suggests underlying momentum, but its week-over-week declines — the only losses among the three broadcasts — handed GMA an opening. If GMA sustains its demo growth (+7% week over week), the sub-100,000 total-viewer gap becomes the narrowest competitive margin in the daypart this season.

CBS Mornings remains a distant third. Its -21% demo decline year over year represents the steepest drop among the three programs, even as curiosity around O'Donnell's return lifted total viewers slightly.

Week of September 7, 2026 (Nielsen Big Data + Panel)

	ABC	NBC	CBS
Total Viewers	2,742,000	2,834,000	1,640,000
A25-54	488,000	598,000	247,000

Source: Nielsen, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 National Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings, Current Week (w/o 9/7/26), Previous Week (w/o 8/31/26) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 9/8/25).

Source: Adweek (https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/week-of-sept-7-2026-morning-news-ratings-2/)