Editing Today (American TV program) (section)

==Ratings==
From 1995 to 2012, ''Today'' generally beat ABC rival ''Good Morning America'' in the [[Nielsen ratings]] among all network morning programs. By the week of September 11, 2006, the program earned 6.320 million total viewers, 1.6 million more than the 4.73 million viewers earned by ''Good Morning America''. This gap eventually decreased, as by the week of June 30, 2008, ''Today'' was watched by an average of 4.9 million viewers, compared to ''Good Morning America''{{'}}s 3.8 million.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Morning Show Ratings |url=http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/morning_show_ratings/default.asp |first=Chris |last=Ariens |journal=TVNewser  |access-date=November 9, 2011}}</ref>

Furthermore, by the week of October 12, 2008, ''Today''{{'}}s total viewership had gone up to 4.910 million viewers, compared to second place ''Good Morning America''{{'}}s total viewership of 4.25 million (and significantly above the 2.66 million viewers earned by CBS' ''The Early Show'').<ref>{{cite web |title=Today Beats GMA for the Week Ending October 12 – Ratings |url=http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/10/17/today-beats-gma-for-the-week-ending-october-12/6429#more-6429 |publisher=[[TV by the Numbers]] |date=October 17, 2008 |access-date=November 9, 2011 |archive-date=December 30, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230063746/http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/10/17/today-beats-gma-for-the-week-ending-october-12/6429#more-6429 |url-status=dead }}</ref> For the week above, the third hour (referred as "Today II" by NBC exclusively for Nielsen ratings counts) drew 2.9 million viewers and the fourth hour (referred in Nielsen ratings as "Today III"), delivered 1.7 million.

For the week of January 4, 2009, the 8:00&nbsp;a.m. hour of ''Today'' averaged 5.998 million viewers; the 9:00& a.m. hour, meanwhile, averaged 4.447 million total viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults aged 25–54, marking that hour's best ratings since the week of August 11, 2008. The 10:00&nbsp;a.m. hour averaged 2.412 million total viewers and a .8 rating in the demographic, the highest total viewership for that portion of the program since the week of December 31, 2007.<ref>{{cite web |title=TVNewser – And Now the News...About TV News |url=http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ |first=Merrill |last=Knox |work=TVNewser |access-date=November 9, 2011}}</ref>

For the week of April 11, 2011, the program passed its 800th consecutive week as the No. 1 rated network morning news program, with 5.662 million total viewers (ahead of ''Good Morning America'' by approximately 1.2 million viewers).<ref>{{cite web |title=TODAY Show Hits 800 Weeks At Number One |url=http://www.mediaite.com/tv/nbcs-today-hits-800-weeks-at-number-one/ |publisher=[[Mediaite]] |date=April 21, 2011 |access-date=November 9, 2011}}</ref>

During the week of April 25, 2011, ''Today'' averaged 6.424 million viewers, marking its best weekly total viewership since August 11, 2008, during the [[2008 Summer Olympics]]. This was largely buoyed by the April 29 coverage of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, which earned 9.628 million viewers (beating ''Good Morning America''{{'}}s coverage by more than 1.6 million viewers), and was also the best single day rating since November 8, 2000, the day after the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 presidential election]].<ref>{{cite web |title='Today's' Royal Ratings |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/05/05/todays-royal-ratings/91708 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508235237/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/05/05/todays-royal-ratings/91708 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 8, 2011 |last=Seidman |first=Robert |work=[[TV by the Numbers]] |date=May 5, 2011 |access-date=November 9, 2011}}</ref>