While 2012 was the year that saw “Good Morning America” overtake “Today” in the ratings, 2013 begins with all three shows shedding viewers in the crucial A25-54 demo.

Compared to the same week last year, “GMA” is down -4% in younger viewers, “Today” is down -20% and “CBS This Morning” is down -6% (vs. its debut week last year). But for the second week in a row, “Today” takes the younger viewer crown with a slim 4,000 A25-54 viewer lead, improving from the week prior.

“GMA” was the only show to grow in total viewers: up +3% with a +459,000 viewer lead on “Today,” which is down -18%. “CBS This Morning” was flat in total viewership.

The averages for the week of January 7, 2012:

• Total Viewers: ABC: 5.010M / NBC: 4.551M / CBS: 2.703M

• A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.936M / NBC: 1.940M / CBS: 1.042M

When you have 24 hours of programming a day, mistakes will happen. CNN and MSNBC learned that the hard way this week.

This morning “CNN Newsroom” had a segment about drone warfare, and played a clip from a speech given by outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Unfortunately spell-check appeared to get the upper hand, as the chyron ended up reading “Leon Panther, Defense Secretary”:

On MSNBC’s “Jansing & Company” yesterday, there was a segment about the top 40 bachelors list from Town & Country magazine, and Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau made the list at number five. The problem: MSNBC used a photo of Jon Favreau the actor and director, not Jon Favreau the speechwriter:
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Elle magazine has released its 2013 “Powerful Women in TV” power list, and three TV news faces made the cut.

Representing behind the scenes, NBC News senior VP Alex Wallace made the list. On-camera, Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly was featured, as was MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry. Other women on the list incude MTV programming chief Susanne Daniels and comedian Whitney Cummings.

You can check out the full power list here.

MSNBC’s coverage of President Obama’s second inauguration kicks off on Sunday with “Up with Chris Hayes” and “Melissa Harris-Perry,” both of which will be live from Washington, DC. Chuck Todd anchors coverage of the private swearing-in ceremony at 11:50amET; Alex Witt will take over at 12:30pmET.

On Monday, “Morning Joe” will broadcast from The Dubliner from 5:30-10amET. Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Ed Schultz and Al Sharpton will anchor from 10am-4pmET. The anchors will host their respective primetime shows from D.C.

More from MSNBC after the jump. Read more

“CBS This Morning” spent 5 minutes of today’s show on the Manti Te’o hoax, revealed by Deadspin late yesterday. CBS was one of the news outlets taken in by the inspirational story of the death of Te’o's girlfriend who, we now know, never existed. It was all an elaborate hoax that played out on social media. Te’o says he was a victim. So were several news outlets that ate up the emotional tale over many months this Fall, about a relationship that reportedly — reported inaccurately — began two years ago.

“We were all duped,” said Chip Reid, who reported a 3-minute story on January 7, a full 11 days after Notre Dame, where Te’o was star linebacker, learned of the ruse. “It’s pretty stunning that (Notre Dame) knew on Dec. 26 and didn’t make it clear to the world then,” says Reid, who reached out to the school for his story.

This is Deadspin’s biggest story ever with nearly 2.9 million views. Reporters Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey continue making the media rounds exposing their story to another 12 million viewers on the morning shows. Burke was on “Good Morning America” and “Today” while Dickey was featured in the “CBS This Morning” story, after the jump.

And don’t expect the story to go away anytime soon. Insiders tell us ESPN, for one, is doing the digging it should have done months ago.

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• CNN’s Brooke Baldwin will host a half-hour special at 3 PM this afternoon, focusing on “the psychology and science of why people cheat.” The special will use the Lance Armstrong confession as a jumping off point, and will be followed at 3:30 by “CNN Newsroom.”

• CNBC is taking a visit to the Great White Way with a primetime special about the economics of Broadway theater. Maria Bartiromo will host “Betting Big on Broadway” Monday, February 4. The special takes viewers behind the scenes of shows like “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” and explains the business models.

• The Hollywood Reporter‘s Alex Ben Block profiles CNN Latino in advance of its launch. CNN Latino is a programming block the company is hoping to sell to local stations looking to draw Hispanic viewers.

CNBC and Fox Business will both cover President Obama’s second inauguration ceremony Monday. Here’s what they have planned:

Neil Cavuto will anchor on Fox Business beginning at 11amET. Cavuto will be joined by Washington correspondents Peter Barnes and Rich Edson, who will be reporting live from D.C.

On CNBC, Tyler Mathisen and chief White House correspondent John Harwood will anchor beginning at 11amET. They will be joined by the network’s Washington correspondent, Hampton Pearson, who will be reporting live from DC.

A brilliant piece of reporting on Deadspin late today will be discussed in Journalism programs — what’s left of them — on campuses for years to come. Long story short: the distressing yet inspiring story of the death of the girlfriend of one of college football’s biggest stars is a hoax.

Read the story on Deadspin. It does what so many other publications and networks — Sports Illustrated, the South Bend Tribune, the New York Times, ESPN, CBS News, the AP — did not. It uncovered one true fact: that Manti Te’o‘s girlfriend Lennay Kekua, never existed. Deadspin debunks months worth of “reporting” which amounted to regurgitated details rife with discrepancies repeated over and over again for dramatic effect.

There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te’o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te’o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te’o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te’o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te’o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te’o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest. Lennay Kekua’s last words to Manti Te’o were not “I love you.”

For his part, Te’o says he was the hoax’s greatest victim. “To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating,” he says in a statement.

“CBS This Morning” had a three-minute report on Te’o January 7. A CBSNews.com story about the hoax says the show will report on its inaccurate report tomorrow morning.

The story was reported on “ABC World News” tonight and on CNN’s AC360, Anderson Cooper spoke with Timothy Burke, editor of Deadspin.com who isn’t convinced Te’o wasn’t in on the hoax.

Watch:

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25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 245 | MSNBC: 177 | CNN: 116 | HLN: 88

• Primetime: FNC: 326 | MSNBC: 254 | CNN: 251 | HLN: 115

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The lights may be dimming on Current TV, but the network is still planning special coverage of Barack Obama‘s second inauguration. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, who has said she’ll “be going back to teaching, speaking and other things” when her show “War Room” leaves the air, will host Current’s coverage along with John Fugelsang from the center of the inauguration action, in New York City. David Shuster will be on the ground in Washington, however. Coverage begins at 10amET Monday.

Al Jazeera acquired the network earlier this month and plans to launch Al Jazeera America in place of Current TV.

More details after the jump…

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