Roughly one year ago, NBC's Today show clumsily replaced Ann Curry with Savannah Guthrie.
Fans seem to still be holding it against the Peacock network for the show has not only lost its first-place position to ABC's Good Morning America, it has also shed over 600,000 viewers.
As The Wrap reported Friday, from July 9, 2012 (Guthrie's first day as co-host) to July 8, 2013, the Today show averaged 4.647 million total viewers from 7 to 9 AM.
This represents a drop of about 606,000 from the 5.253 million the show averaged in the first year following Curry's debut as co-host on June 9, 2011, a twelve percent decline.
In the all important demographic of folks aged 25 to 54, viewers have dropped from 2.321 million to 1.908 million, an eighteen percent decline.
In fairness to Guthrie, it's not atypical for a show to lose viewers in the first year with a new host or co-host. The Today show experienced a similar decline in the year following Meredith Vieira's replacement by Curry.
Will Today's numbers improve in Guthrie's second year?
Stay tuned.
