Between interviewing the two Olympic half pipe gold medalists–Chloe Kim on Tuesday and Shaun White today–the Today show’s Savannah Guthrie traveled to the border of North and South Korea and got the first moment-by-moment account of a North Korean soldier’s escape to South Korea.
NBC News was the first western news outlet to visit the path Oh Chong Song took as he ran across the DMZ in November. His daring defection was the first time since 1984 that a soldier defected via the heavily guarded area. (Video below)
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This is day three of anchoring from Peyongchang for Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. Strong ratings from NBC’s prime time coverage, is giving a boost to the morning show.
According to preliminary Nielsen data, Monday’s show averaged 4.64 million to Good Morning America’s 4.16 million and CBS This Morning’s 3.3 million. Today also led in the demo, with a +23 percent advantage over GMA.
Tuesday’s show drew 4.2 million, a +12 percent lead on GMA and +36 percent ahead of CTM. The demo lead stands at +24 percent over GMA and +79 percent over CTM.