This week’s live broadcast inside the White House has cemented a sense among the team at NBC’s Today that the show has its fighting form back. “We are far from claiming victory,” said Noah Oppenheim, the NBC News senior vice president in charge of the program, in an interview with Variety. “We are just putting on the best show we can and hoping to give the audience an informative and interesting program.”
Bringing the show to the White House–which took months to accomplish, and a technical staff of 80 people–was part of an effort at Today to own big stories, and to push big interviews and hard news.
“Our ratings have given us a little more confidence to try things that we might not have tried a few months ago,” said Don Nash, the show’s executive producer. “We can tell they are paying off, and it’s great to have that confidence back.”