the implicit message, david letterman has admitted to the affair. the implicit message in a situation like this, is letterman saying, not explicitly, he's never met halderman. is david letterman saying, you better not say anything. you better keep this confidential. you better keep this quiet. that's the message. don't go out there with this story. halderman said, wrong. i am going to go out there with this story. i've been hurt, i've been destroyed. my relationship with a woman that i loved has been, has been totally, totally destroyed. i'm going to go out there. i'm going to go out there with a book, a screenplay, a treatment, whatever form i choose. but if you, david letterman, want this to remain confidential, i am willing to enter into a contract with you. >> capitalism, not criminality. >> go ahead, mr. horowitz. >> i would say what jerry has just done is stood the facts directly on their head. it was not mr. letterman that approached mr. halderman. it was mr. halderman who threatened dave and his family and said, for a price, i will remain si

david letterman is doing fine. they're all my friends over there. they'll put jay back where he belongs, conan will probably leave and go to another network and maybe everybody is going to be happy. >> will jay go back to 11:30 for the tonight show? >> that's what should happen. jay should go back, he was doing very well. conan's ratings are substantially lower. i don't know if that's his fault or if it's because he is proceeded by jay. it's going to work out. it is a catastrophic decision but they're making a comeback. >> larry: you're a veteran of these wars. what do you make of this? >> larry, as a veteran broadcaster, is this not perhaps the jackass move of all time in broadcasting, second perhaps only to arthur godfrey's firing of julia ormond on the air? take a salad, put a fork in it and stir it up, things were going rather nicely. i love the way politicians and network people will always say in a disaster, this is exactly the way we hoped it would work out. >> you thought the shows would achieve lower ratings, angry hosts and affiliates want

but low ratings for both hosts could soon lead to a late-night shakeup not seen since david letterman bolted for cbs $$$ suspect has been arrested for the scare that shut down a terminal at newark airport. the charges he's facing and why authorities say for ducking under a rope. >>> the change of venue may have been for nothing. this scene on the courthouse steps as a transit police officer's trial got under way. >>> plus, you'll be getting those census forms in the mail soon. pretty extensive, but one word on the form getting a lot of attention. why some people say it's outdated. we'll hear your thoughts on whether it should be there. >>> record-breaking cold across the country today. you're watching "hln news and views." i'm jennifer westhoven. thanks for joining us. the deep freeze has taken over partsd of the south making driving a dangerous prospect. the icy roads caused many car accidents, even this massive pileup. 300 crashes were reported in one georgia county alone. driving is even more difficult further north thanks to all the snow. snow plows worked in hammond, indiana,

cbs also said it's negotiating to tie down david letterman through 2012 while nbc sorts out its mess. reports unconfirmed by the network say, nbc plans to return leno to a half-hour show at 11:35 weekdays. >> we got a great show for you tonight. i have no idea what time it will air. but it's going to be a great show. >> reporter: now, eyes are turning to nbc universal executive jeff zucker. who gave jay leno's 11:35 slot to conan in hopes of attracting a younger, hipper audience. it's turned out to be a program debacle. that has lost nbc and its affiliates millions of viewers and hundreds of millions of dollars. will zucker survive? >> jeff zucker survived a lot so far. there have been several debacles at nbc over the past several years. >> reporter: and will both leno and o'brien survive? >> of ten species to be in extinct in the next decade, us. >> reporter: behind the scenes probably no one is laughing. brian rooney, abc news, los angeles. >>> the nba has slapped hefty fines on four players with the washington wizards, charged with clowning around with gilbert arenas. who pretended

david letterman admitted sex with staff members after an alleged extortion attempt.ns were disappointed but many gave him props for coming clean. >> the way he handled the sex scandal was so classy, such an elegant, just perfect way to handle something that could potentially be really ugly. >> the reason that he went forward was because of the extortion. that he knew it was going to go public. that's not exactly sincere effort to kind of, you know, show you my transgressions. >> the women who were involved with him did it totally consensually. he didn't do anything wrong. >> worst excuse for inexcusable behavior. he was hiking the appalachian trail. that was one explanation for the disappearance of south carolina governor mark sanford who was actually off to argentina to see his mistress. >> married men can go missing for about eight minutes before they need a very, very good excuse, i.e., coming home. once you pass the four-hour mark you are very, very missing as a husband. >> you can imagine that call. his staff, you know, how was the hike? oh, it was so good. oh,

we'll talk exclusively to lawyers from both david letterman and his alleged blackmailer about the so-calledds defense now being used in that case. that's when we get started on a monday morning right here on "the today show." back to you. >>> thanks very much. happy new year to you as well. welcome to the first week of this brands new year. thanks. have a great day. >> thank you so much. >>> 6:41 is your time now. that means we'll check traffic and weather on the 1s. tom kierein is in the storm center following these very cold temperatures. tom, we're shivering. >> man, the arctic wind machine continues to blow this morning although it has diminished thankfully from the outrageous gusts we had over the weekend. peak gust this morning around 20 to 25 miles per hour. these are the temperatures. down in the low to mid-20s. weather watchers reporting wind chills near 10 degrees. wind chill 13 degrees in washington now. the peak gusts are 20 to 25 and that will be the story the rest of the day with a few clouds racing through, maybe a few flurries flying through the air. still a blustery wind tu

you remember late show host david letterman tried to turn affairs with female staffers into laughs. last year was no laughing matter for big news makers. we'll bring you the top scandals of 2009. the stories you couldn't turn away from you won't believe they all happened this year when you see it up next. >> one potential terror threat in yemen. one is looking to block tankers with liquefied natural gas into boston harbor. laura ingle has the story. >> reporter: the tankers filled with this is not on the table. before the plan is approved the mayor and other local leaders say they want to make sure that this is the right thing to do. now, this would be the first time a liquid natural gas tanker originating from yemen would come through the harbor and dock at the lng terminal in everett there. are many other lng shipments usually coming from places like egypt, trinidad and toe t taggo. they need this to turn for businesses. one possibility is unloading the liquefied natural gas away from the city. officials in charge of security say they're coordinating to see if there's additional s

we came up with an approach emulating david letterman's person on the street type approach.didn't win but we did better than a democrat had done against jerry solomon and he did not run the next time because we scared him out of politics. >> i am steve james and i am running against jerry solomon. we want to see if anyone can read in thirty-second all the trips he has taken at taxpayer expense. >> morocco, grease, italy. >> united kingdom. >> italy. >> he likes to travel. >> macedonia. >> austria. >> columbia. >> that was free internet so we were trying to show that sense of accessibility of the candidate with a phone number. go to my web site and tell me what you think. he really captured him. it helped that steve james was an actor. in addition to being involved in a dairy farm in upstate new york he was an actor so he was comfortable on camera. our job is to make sure every candidate is comfortable on camera. that is it for the ads. any questions? >> to follow the other candidate, that has proven very useful in many campaigns. how do you go about doing that? i am curious