Karl diverts to Brussels for Today as Kochie stays on the couch

WHILE Today host Karl Stefanovic was doing live crosses amid the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Brussels yesterday, the rival Sunrise team was home on the couch.

WHILE Today host Karl Stefanovic was doing live crosses amid the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Brussels yesterday, the rival Sunrise team was home on the couch.

Channel Nine struck another blow in the breakfast TV wars when Stefanovic made it into the terror-torn Belgian capital to join the Nine news crew covering the attacks on the Today show this morning.

Meanwhile at Sunrise, David Koch, Samantha Armytage (who was sent to cover the Paris attacks last year) and Natalie Barr were back in Australia as usual, doing crosses to Seven reporters in Brussels.

The Sunrise team in Sydney this morning.

The move will be seen as another win for Today, which since the start of the year has turned the tables on Sunrise to take the lead in the breakfast TV wars for the first time since 2013.

Stefanovic was able to get to Brussels quickly because he was in the air on the way to the USA for a 60 Minutes story when the attacks broke out on Tuesday night Australian time.

He landed in San Francisco at 3.30am Wednesday Australian time, and diverted immediately onto a flight to Amsterdam, then drove on to Brussels.

He arrived just after midnight, and headed straight out to film an updates package for Today, and then was live on air by 5.30am alongside Nine’s European correspondents Tom Steinfort and Amelia Ballinger.

Seven’s news team in Brussels includes foreign correspondents Hugh Whitfield and Cath Turner; and Alex Hart in London.

The battle for breakfast television ratings between Seven and Nine is the tightest in years.

Today has been on the rise nationally for the past month, winning every week over Sunrise since the 2016 ratings season began — something it hasn’t done since 2013.

A week ago, Today’s 355,890 viewers to Sunrise’s 285,355 was its best single-day winning margin in three years.

This week two shows had an identical 287,000 viewers in five cities on Monday, but Today has won Tuesday and Wednesday, with 299,000 to Sunrise’s 273,000 on Tuesday; and 311,000 to Sunrise’s 290,000 on Wednesday.