娱乐英语新闻:Anchor change barely affects "Good Morning America" ratings

BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- It looks like the shift barely affected audience ratings as George Stephanopoulos replaced Diane Sawyer as co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America."

    About 4.7 million viewers watched the program Monday morning with Stephanopoulos' debut. It is close to the 4.8 million who turned in for Sawyer's last day on the show Friday.

After nearly 3,000 shows, ABC newswoman Diane Sawyer (R) anchor of the "Good Morning America" said her farewell to the program in New York December 11, 2009 with ABC's Robin Roberts (L) in this photograph released by ABC. Sawyer will take over the "World News" anchor chair December 21 succeeding Charles Gibson, who will retire December 18.

    NBC's "Today" beat "Good Morning America" both times, with 5.9 million viewers on Monday and 5.3 million on Friday.

    By comparison, 8 million viewers watched "Today" on Katie Couric's last day there in May 2006, and her successor Meredith Vieira had 6.9 million viewers on her first "Today" broadcast in September 2006.