SAWYER MAY BE GONE FROM “GMA,” BUT RATINGS HAVE IMPROVED

Allaying initial fears that the departure of Diane Sawyer from Good Morning America would damage the ratings for the ABC morning show, new Nielsen figures released Thursday show that its ratings are actually up slightly among adults 25-54 and total viewers thus far this year versus 2009. Ratings for NBC’s Today and CBS’s Early Show have declined slightly this year, allowing ABC to boast Thursday that GMA has reduced the ratings gap between it and Today by 16 percent among younger viewers and 18 percent among all viewers. Last week Today averaged 5.02 million total viewers and 2.28 million viewers 25-54; GMA was in second place with 4.22 million/1.70 million; Early Show was a distant third with 2.45 million/0.97 million.