GOOD MORNING AMERICA NOW WELL AHEAD OF TODAY

With the winners of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars featured as guests on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday, the morning show beat NBC’s Today show by the widest margin since May 18, 1994 — 1.6 million viewers. It also ranked as the No. 1 show last week — the 39th week in a row […]

WILL ARMSTRONG INTERVIEW SAVE OPRAH’S CHANNEL?

Analysts are speculating about the effect of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Lance Armstrong on lifting the public’s awareness of her OWN cable network. In today’s (Wednesday) New York Post, media writer Michael Starr commented that it “could go a long way toward putting her cable network, OWN, on the map after two mediocre, money-losing years.” […]

ERICA HILL OUT AT CBS THIS MORNING

In the latest shakeup in early-morning television, CBS has booted Erica Hill off CBS This Morning and has announced that she’ll be replaced by Norah O’Donnell, currently CBS News’ chief White House correspondent. In a statement, CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager said, “This is a very exciting development for our morning program and for all […]

CBS’S MORNING WOES CONTINUE

The new CBS This Morning celebrated its 100th edition on Friday, still mired in third place among the four major networks. In an interview appearing in Sunday’s New York Times, cohost Gayle King was asked about the fact that she and Charlie Rose had failed to move the ratings above where they were when the […]

GMA BEATS TODAY: FIRST TIME SINCE 1996

For the first time in 16 years, ABC’s Good Morning America has scored higher ratings than NBC’s Today show for an entire week — and it did so without the help of Katie Couric. Just one week after Couric co-hosted the ABC morning show, filling in for Robin Roberts, GMA edged past Today with 5.147 […]

OPRAH: LAUNCHING OWN WAS A MISTAKE

Oprah Winfrey has acknowledged making “101 mistakes” in launching OWN, her cable channel and “absolutely” would have considered doing “something else” if she had realized how difficult the project really was. Appearing on CBS This Morning on Monday Winfrey said that the channel went on the air “when we really weren’t ready to launch.” She […]

AN UNEXPECTED WAKE-UP CALL IN MORNING TALK-SHOW BATTLE

All eyes on Monday were supposed to be on ABC’s Good Morning America, where Katie Couric was co-hosting for the week, or on the morning leader, NBC’s Today show. But, as it turned out, ratings for both shows were down from their season’s average. Could the reason have been that viewers were attracted by the […]

CBS LAUNCHES NEW MORNING SHOW

CBS, which has never been a major competitor in the early-morning hours dominated by NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America is trying again. On Monday it raised its old banner CBS This Morning over what appeared to be two distinct talk shows — one at 7:00 a.m. featuring veteran PBS interviewer Charlie Rose that […]