Today Posts Gains over GMA Amidst Anderson Cooper Rumors

As rumors fly that NBC is talking to CNN's Anderson Cooper about

hosting Today in place of the popularity-challenged Matt Lauer, NBC put out a release today says that the show continues to post long term growth in total viewers and the key demo A25-54.

According to NBC, for the week of March 18, TODAY posted a 2.1 rating in A25-54 (1.9 million) tying with GMA for first place. TODAY delivered 4.723 million total viewers for the week. TODAY posted its closest A25-54 viewer gap (-18k) with GMA in nearly two months - since week of January 28^th.

TODAY posted its narrowest total viewer gap with GMA this year - since the week of December 31, 2012 (TODAY trailed GMA by only -7% (-355k) in total viewers). TODAY has consistently narrowed the total viewer gap for the last four weeks. TODAY posted more total viewer growth than GMA and CBS combined for the week.