‘Good Morning America’ beats ‘Today’ in ratings battle

ABC's "Good Morning America" looked poised to beat NBC's "Today" in the weekly ratings, for the first time in 16 years, according to the Associated Press.

On Monday, Nielsen Co. said that GMA beat NBC's morning show on April 9 by a slight margin of 13,000 viewers, ending its ratings winning streak of 852 consecutive weeks.

Nielsen's preliminary ratings said GMA averaged 5.147 million viewers, where as Today averaged 5.134 million, according to USA Today.

More on GlobalPost: Katie Couric returns to morning television with Good Morning America

The Los Angeles Times noted that GMA, currently hosted by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, had beaten Today on individual days before, but it hadn't done so in the weekly averages since 1996. The LA Times noted that Today just signed co-host Matt Lauer for a new contract that will last several years.

The New York Times noted that Today still led in the 25 to 54-year-olds demographic, which is key for attracting advertisers.

More on GlobalPost: The Huffington Post wins its first Pulitzer

GMA's senior executive producer, Tom Cibrowski, said in a statement on Monday, "This is an exciting day but we will save any celebrating for when the final numbers come in on Thursday," according to The Times.

The official Nielsen figures will be released on Thursday and may be adjusted slightly.

Today's executive producer, Jim Bell, said in a statement that the show's streak "had taken on a life of its own and as odd as it is to see it end, we should acknowledge just how remarkable it has been. So as we tip our caps to the team at 'Good Morning America,' we can also take a bow ourselves and recognize the work done by countless staffers for so long," according to Bloomberg.

For the week of April 2, Katie Couric, Today's long time anchor, guest hosted GMA. In response, Today had Sarah Palin guest host on April 3.

More on GlobalPost: Meet the people behind Turkey's "miracle"