NBC's TODAY Wins Ratings Gold with Olympics Coverage

NBC's TODAY scored ratings gold with live broadcasts from Copacabana Beach during the first week of the Rio Olympics. TODAY was the number-one morning program in total viewers and all demos.

For the week of August 8, TODAY averaged 5.244 million total viewers beating GMA by +1.259 million (+32%) and CBS THIS MORNING by +1.991 million (+61%). TODAY posted 2.133 million A25-54 viewers topping GMA by +820,000 (+62%) and more than doubling CBS THIS MORNING by +1.218 million (+133%). TODAY posted its widest total viewer and key demo gaps with GMA since the London Olympics. Versus the same week of the Sochi Olympics, TODAY's total viewer gap with GMA was seven times higher, and its key demo gap was five times higher. TODAY also posted double digit gains in total viewers (+23%), A25-54 (+34%), and A18-49 (+42%) while GMA was down double digits in total viewers (-14%), A25-54 (-18%), and A18-49 (+16%) versus the same week last year.

In A18-49, TODAY posted 1.652 million viewers beating the combined deliveries of GMA and CBS. Season to date, TODAY is the number-one morning show in both A25-54 and A18-49, and TODAY has won the key A25-54 demo for eleven consecutive months, 49 out of the last 50 weeks.

*Please note: As of 12/28/15, Nielsen national ratings are based on an expanded sample known as "NPX," which effectively doubles the size of the Nielsen panel through a combination of additional meters and HHs. While NPX is now the official currency of record, all data pre-12/28/15 remains based on the old sample -- so year-to-year and other comparisons are versus pre-NPX data.