I wrote several stories last week, for The Post’s TV section, about the back-and-forth battle between “Today” and “Good Morning America.” The folks at “GMA” predicted their show would win the week — for the second time in three weeks — if the numbers held up.
Well, they held up.
The official numbers, released yesterday, show that “GMA” beat “Today” by 180,000 viewers for the week of April 23 (compared to its historic, 31,000-viewer margin of victory the week of April 9, when “Today” co-host Matt Lauer was off).
“Today,” though, maintained its lead in the all-important demo of adults 25-54 (by 104,000 viewers), while the shows tied with a 3.9 household rating.
(“CBS This Morning,” by the way, averaged 2.6 million viewers.)
And that’s about it, for now. The “GMA” vs. “Today” dustup seems like a battle that will seesaw quite a bit in the foreseeable future, so fasten your seat belts — and stay tuned.
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May is National Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month, and, in that vein, last year’s “American Idol” finalist James Durbin — who battles Tourette’s Syndrome — is featured in the PBS documentary “Different is the New Normal,” narrated by Michael J. Fox.
The film, which premieres Sunday, May 20 (at 7 p.m.) on Ch. 13 here in New York, focuses on high school teen Ariel Small (whose mother, Robin Small, produced the film) — and the uphill struggles he’s faced dealing with the stigma that often accompanies Tourette’s sufferers (who deal with uncontrollable facial and vocal tics, among other symptoms).
Ariel is shown having a conversation with Durbin about dealing with Tourette Syndrome (the doc’s title was inspired by Durbin’s catchphrase), while a song from Durbin’s upcoming album, “Memories of a Beautiful Disaster,” is featured in “Different is the New Normal.”
May is also shaping up as an extremely busy month for Gene Simmons, whose A&E series, “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” will return for its (believe-it-or-not) seventh season on May 28 (at 9 p.m.). The show, in which the KISS front man appears with his family, including now-wife Shannon Tweed (they finally tied the knot), averaged a franchise-best 1.8 million viewers last season.
And while this won’t happen until the fall, it’s also been announced that Simmons will also appear at David Fishof’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this October 10-14 (according to billboard.com).
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Last, but not least:
* Quirky.com founder/CEO Ben Kaufman appears on CNN’s “The Next List,” hosted by Sanjay Gupta, this Sunday (2 p.m.) . . . CNBC’s Maneet Ahuja has written the new book, “The Alpha Masters,” which profiles several hedge fund biggies. It’s out Tuesday, May 29 . . . Actor Alexander Cendese (who stars in and produced the upcoming indie film “Blumenthal”) at the Cherry Lane Theater to watch the private reading of Vincent Pastore’s play, “Wild Children” . . . Queen Latifah guest-stars in this Tuesday night’s episode of BET’s “Let’s Stay Together” — which she executive-produces . . . The first season of “Episodes” (Matt LeBlanc) is out on DVD June 12, just in time for the July 1 second-season premiere on Showtime.