TODAY Ratings Continue To Dominate The Competition

NBC News' "Today" continues as the dominant morning news program topping competition across the board.? Last week's win marks "Today's" 751st consecutive week in first place. Below are the highlights for the week ending May 2.

Highlights:
- TODAY averaged 5.219 million total viewers, a +20% (+864,000) advantage over GMA and +104% (+2,655,000) over Early Show.

- TODAY has now won 751 consecutive weeks in both homes and total viewers.

- In rating A25-54, TODAY led GMA by +43% (+6 tenths) and Early Show by +150% (+1.2 ratings points).

- In rating A18-49, TODAY outperformed GMA by +50% (+5 tenths) and Early Show by +150% (+9 tenths).

- TODAY has now won 812 weeks in rating A18-49 and 783 weeks in rating A25-54.

- Week-to-week, TODAY increased its lead over GMA in rating W25-54 from +35% up to +42%.

- TODAY also widened its lead over GMA year-to-year in rating W/M/A18-49 and rating W/A25-54.

- TODAY's advantage over GMA grew compared to season-to-date levels in rating M/A18-49 and rating M/A25-54.

- Season-to-date, TODAY is the only morning news program to post any demo increase (up +4% in rating W25-54) and tops second-place GMA by +28% (+1,211,000) in total viewers and +40% (+734,000) in A25-54 (000).

- TODAY has widened its advantages over both GMA and Early Show this season in homes, total viewers, rating W/A18-49, and rating W/A25-54 compared to the same period last season.

TODAY II (9 a.m. hour) & TODAY III (10 a.m. hour) Highlights:

- TODAY II topped CBS Early Show in homes (+21%), total viewers (+16% or +398,000), rating W/M/A18-49 (+29%/+25%/+17%) and rating W/A25-54 (+10%/+13%).

- TODAY II beat The View in rating M18-49 (+25%) and rating M25-54 (+20%).

- Season-to-date, TODAY II is up in homes (+4%), total viewers (+2% or +63,000), and rating M18-49 (+20%).

- TODAY III averaged 1.676 million total viewers and a 0.5 A25-54 rating.

- Season-to-date, TODAY III is up in homes (+7%) and total viewers (+5%, or +100,000).

On its digital platforms, "Today" continued its strong performance with more than 12.6 million online streams.This marks a top five overall performance and highest 2010 performance in online video streams for "Today." TODAYshow.com's stories, blog, message boards and live votes were also popular with users.

Jim Bell is the executive producer of "Today" (Monday - Friday, 7-11 a.m.).

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