because i have a wife and two kids of my own. >> jeff: who love you. >> who care about me. >> jeff: i want to go. let's go talk to the-- ( applause ) the most notorious villain in the history of "survivor." come on, stand up, hantz. ( applause ) get all movie star on me. you just-- you watched brandon play. and one of the things he said is i want to restore the hantz family name. do you think he did, did that? >> first of all, i want to say, i am uncle russell. that's a side of me that you know. but i'm also russell from "survivor." so i will sit down and shut up if you want me to sit down and shut up. if you want me to critique your game, i'm do that as well. >> jeff: i want you to critique the game. you've got 30 seconds. go. >> i think he went out there to change something that-- that i brought to the game. i made greatness. i brought the game to a level that is-- you can't even comprehend. >> jeff: what did brandon do wrong? >> everything. he didn't do one thing right. he went out there ( audience booing ) he went out there to change the hantz name. to change what i did? how do yo

and i told jeff that you really do need help, jeff, mental help.rst heard about the crimes, about the nature of the crimes he'd committed? >> i think it was sort of a feeling as if i were just floating above myself and observing some other person, as if i were anesthetized with something that just prevented me from feeling anything deeply. it was just a total stun, a total shock. >> you went numb? >> complete numbness. >> and in the moment when the pain has come through, what is it that you felt? >> i felt -- all of these different emotions come over me. how am i going to face victims' families if i go to the trial? how can i arrange something -- my feelings were for jeff, too. i sort of put myself in his place. he was totally lost. i could almost feel the total disorientation and loss of feeling like maybe he would want to commit suicide. i felt very depressed and shamed. just very, very depressed, just to the bottom of the pit. >> have you ever stopped loving your son? >> no. no. i think that part of my continuing to want to love and support him

jeff >> this is video from thursday afternoon. according to the fire department, the fire alarm blaze off started roughly where the zero is pointed. >> we have determined to the area of origin in an alleyway where garbage was collected, at the bottom of the garbage chute shoes. jeff >> it could be some time before the actual cause is unknown. on friday workers were cleaning up and residents lucky enough to have something left inside were picking up what they could. 41 people including three children were displaced as a result of the fire. the deputy chief says the this fire was particularly challenging to get under control. >> we had wind gusts up to 30 m.p.h. and the smokeless lawn towards the west. jeff >> it took 170 firefighters three hours to put out the blaze. >> with the fires, the wind

>> someone walks up behind them, she'll give jeff a nudge.n the dark thoughts start to cascade, tazzy is there to stem the flow. can she tell? >> it will be something as simple as her coming to me. and whatever else may be going through my mind just gets knocked down a notch or two. >> it may not sound like much, but with tazzy, jeff gets out of the house. even to public events like this one with paws for vets. >> you think about all that moden medicine has to offer. in jeff's case, it wasn't enough sounds like. >> right. >> then this dog comes into his life and seems to help a lot. >> oh, more than a lot. she has saved him. she absolutely -- >> you believe that? >> i absolutely know that she has saved him. >> you done showing off? >> now it's worth pointing out, paws for vets provided tazzy, like all its dogs, at no cost to jeff and his family. they get by strictly on donations. they trained more than 200 service dogs for returning veterans. happy holidays, jeff. >>> up next, the sweet taste of nostalgia. ♪ >> i have to tell you, my kids lov

>> jeff: i'll find -- oh, i got it. jeff: happy holidays. >> jimmy: i didn't even see that animal. what's that? [ cheers and applause ] is it a rat? a giant rat? i didn't even look at that animal. that guy's weird, man. this guy's making his broadway debut in a critically acclaimed play called "seminar." please welcome our pal, jerry o'connell, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ welcome to the seminar welcome to the seminar welcome to the seminar welcome to the seminar ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: wow. good, you come out, guns ablazing. welcome back to the show, my friend. >> good to be here. happy holidays, everyone. [ cheers and applause ] did you get all the shopping done? i did a little bit of retail today. it's crazy out there. you got to be tough in this retail world, man. >> jimmy: it's nuts, right. what'd you get? what'd you pick up? >> you know, stuff for my wife. i went to a store whose initials are h and m. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: what does that stand for? we don't know. >> uh, no, i was holding a swe

gwen: how about you, jeff? >> i think that kind of puts the icing on what's been a very volatile campaign season. but i think at the end of the day here, probably what's most surprising is the fact that mitt romney is spending new year's eve in iowa. he's waking up new year's day in iowa and he's staying the morning after the iowa caucuses in iowa. this is the look, the feel, the confidence of someone who thinks that the nomination is within his grasp. he's been all in, in iowa internally for a long time but they've been managing their expectations very well. they've been building their campaign organization sort of under the radar. but now that everything remains so fractured at the end of the day, there's so much support at least they believe sort of divided up among all of their rivals, he is all in here and that's something that we wouldn't have expected only a few weeks ago. gwen: so karen and sue and christina are going to pitch in here for a minute. i'm curious about what jeff just said, about expectatio

but with tazzy, jeff gets out of the house.c events like this one for paws 4 vets. >> you think about all that modern medicine has to offer, and in jeff's case it wasn't enough, it sounds like. >> right. >> but then this dog comes into his life and seems to help a lot. >> oh, more than a lot. she has saved him. she absolutely -- >> you believe that? >> absolutely know that she has saved him. >> you done showing off? >> now, it's worth pointing out paws 4 vets provided tazzy like all its dogs to no cost to jeff and his family. they have trained more than 200 service dogs for returning veterans. >>> up next, the sweet taste of nostalgia. ♪ ♪ >> i have to tell you, my kids love that movie, before you sit down to a big family meal this weekend, we have tips on how to create those long-lasting memories. what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta tast

jeff? >> glor: dean, i did want to ask you tonight about rick santorum, who appears to have made this surge, now in third in this latest poll. what's behind that? >> reporter: well, rick santorum was the first candidate and perhaps the only candidate so far to visit all 99 counties in iowa. he did that quite some time ago, and he did it the old-fashioned way-- hand to hand, face to face. and he accomplished it without much money and overcoming enormous media and republican party establishment skepticism. and it just may be that with his impeccable conservative credentials and having seen the other conservative alternatives to romney wither, that rick santorum's moment in the sun has come at just the right time. jeff? >> glor: dean reynolds, thank you. in north korea today, an elaborate staged funeral for the country's late dictator, kim jong il. david martin reports on the drama and what it means moving forward. >> reporter: as the funeral procession came into view, wails of grief went up f

jeff. >> glor: dean reynolds, thank you. in north korea today, an elaborate, staged funeral for the country's late dictator kim jong il. david martin reports on the drama and what it means moving forward. >> reporter: as the funeral procession came into view, wales of grief went up from mourners who lined the route. the grief not felt outside north korea. just across the border in south korea, they actually celebrated with fireworks. although his people called him their heaven-sent leader, kim jong il was seen by most of the world as the dictator from hell, an autocrat who developed nuclear weapons while his people were starved of both food and freedom. whether genuine or staged, the grief was a tribute to the personality cult built up around him during his 17 years as supreme leader. "the snow is endlessly falling like tears," said this soldier. "how could the sky not cry when we've lost our general who was a great man, from the sky." his son and heir-apparent as the next supreme leader walked alongside the hearse. young, i

. >> glor: good evening, i'm jeff glor. scott is off tonight, one week from tonight republicans in iowa will cast the first votes of campaign 2012 and reshape where this race goes next. today candidates begin their final push with bus tours. at least two candidates-- michele bachmann and rick santorum-- have pledged to visit all 99 counties in iowa. we have two reports tonight. jan crawford is following mitt romney but we begin with dean reynolds with the gingrich campaign. dean? >> reporter: jeff, the news for newt gingrich hasn't been good for more than a week and now with only seven days to go he's chose an traditional way to turn the tide. newt gingrich brought his campaign bus to iowa determined to regain the momentum polls say he apparently misplaced somewhere in this state. >> it's going to be a gate week. >> reporter: however stiff his upper lip, gingrich replaced a wave of political commercial attacking his records. >> frankly, they plain lie. i don't know any other word for it. >> reporter: there have also been ac

thanks, jeff, for being with us. >> good morning, jeff. >> reporter: so i wonder, jeff, with all of the momentum that mitt romney seems to have right now, i wonder if even a second place finish in iowa is considered a disappointment for that campaign now? >> reporter: you know, it's hard to imagine that a few months ago, like jan said, mitt romney would have even been doing this well in iowa. i think they have managed their expectations fairly well but it depends on who would come in first place. the romney campaign would be just fine with ron paul winning iowa. they believe that would sort of discredit the results to some extent and give him a surge going into new hampshire, but the romney campaign is very confident because the vote among these social conservative candidates remains split. but if something were to happen in the final days here, if michele bachmann would do something, if something would happen with newt gingrich supporters, if they would coalesce behind one other candidate, romney could be in a bit of trouble. some of his advisers are not counting all of their chickens

jeff? >> glor: lee cowan, thank you. for people struggling to stay in their homes, a loan modification can help. but some from falling prey to scams these days. we'll have more on that story later in the broadcast. it has been a strong holiday season for many retailers, but not all. the parent company of sears and kmart said today it will close between 100 and 120 stores. they have 4,000 total. sales of sears were down 6% in the last three months. kmart is down 4.4%. business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis is here with more on this. rebecca, good evening, what went wrong at sears and kmart. >> and this is more of a sears and kmart story than an overall economy story. because it's been a difficult time for all retailers but it's been particularly difficult for sears to garner the kind of demand to keep its doors open at all of its stores. and you're going to see these closures that analysts estimate could impact as many as 10,000 workers. there's a bigger ripple affect on the overall economy because you look a

jeff and matt have been a fantastic partners in this. as far as we know, it is a new day in these efforts and really trying to work collaboratively and we hope to have all your support in doing that. [applause] >> of course, that is not to say that we are not going to fight it out in court because, of course, that is what we do. i would like to briefly introduce ross mirkarimi, who is a supervisor here in the city, and he has been a champion of many criminal justice issues, including prisoner reentry. i also want to thank and acknowledge debra atherton. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: it is nice to see everybody. jeff is generous. i was not expecting to be up here. i know you have had a productive day. i think that the public defender's summit is something not to be missed and a template for the rest of california and probably the nation to follow. i am proud of our public defender. i am proud of our criminal justice partners because over the last four years, we have seen a great amount of innovation. jeff and i started the city's first

i'm jeff glor. scott's off tonight. you may not think we need another fancy name for a holiday shopping day but retailers think we do. megamonday joins other bonanzas like black friday and cyber monday. may sound like a gimmick, but megamonday could be crucially important for the fragile economy is. americans are expected to spend $29 billion today. as many as a hundred million shoppers could hit the stores this week. michelle miller is with the growing crowd here in new york. >> reporter: traffic was bumper to bumper just getting to the shore hills mall in new jersey. there wasn't much room inside, either. >> i see no sign of recession, that's for sure. and the prices are actually incredible. >> reporter: the day after christmas has become as much about buying as it is returning. good weather and a three-day weekend is expected to make today the third-busiest shopping day of the year. >> this is huge. we think overall $29 billion today which may be bigger than black friday. big day. >> reporter: is this a comeback? >>

>> reporter: hey, jeff. there were great hopes for 2011 but what many got instead was whiplash and a letdown. the s&p 500, the broadest measure of major u.s. stocks, ended 2011 down just .04%. it's the smallest market move since 1947. despite a year of extraordinary volatility. why all the volatility this year? >> in a word, uncertainty. >> reporter: alan valdes is a veteran floor trader at the new york stock exchange. >> we had a budget problem. we had supercommittee that just failed. >> reporter: the dow jones industrial average closed up or down triple digits more than 100 times, fraying the nerves of small investors who have nearly $2 trillion of their 401(k) savings tied up in stocks. >> it's really scary right now because i don't know if it's going up or going down. >> reporter: nancy stanek is a 63-year-old nurse in leonia, new jersey, who's investing for her retirement. >> i can put the money in the bank and i'd get maybe .75% interest, but at least it would be safe. >> reporter: safe and better off.

jeff? >> glor: jim axelrod, thank you. there's one more sign the economy is moving in the right direction tonight. the national association of realtors said its measure of home sales near completion jumped more than 7% last month to the highest level in a year and a half. still, some homeowners looking to sell are getting tripped up by red tape from banks and we're going to tell you about one couple's two-year ordeal later in the broadcast. five days before the iowa caucuses, the ever-changing republican race saw more movement today. two candidates in particular continued rising a renewed surge. dean reynolds is with rick santorum. but we begin with jan crawford who is following mitt romney. jan? >> reporter: well, good evening, jeff. iowa wasn't so kind to mitt romney four years ago, but this time he's run a very different campaign and he's been encouraged by the reception he's getting from voters and how he's stacking up against the other candidates. >> i get the impression that you've by and large decided i'm a pretty g

jeff gets involved with a group called paws for vets. and he meets tazzy. she'd been picked up running

so thank you, jeff, for allowing us to be here and co-sponsoring this event. thank you all for coming here. [applause] >> thank you. next i'd like to introduce, the incoming president of the criminal trial lawyers association of northern california, frank. >> hello. i'm frank and president-elect of criminal trial lawyers association of northern california. ctla is a proud co-sponsor of the justice summit here today. i've been asked to say a few words about ctla to both inform and entertain you for about the next two minutes. it's a professional association of criminal defense lawyers in the bay area. our membership list includes about 400 lawyers and private investigators, expert witnesses and even some professors and law students. our members are -- how do i say this -- luminaries in the field. today, the justice conference honors a past ctla honoree, one of our own, tony serra. ctla has featured the likes of not only tony serra at a feature presenter at our programs but those that include jim bross that has who defends cases most of the time but was the spec

we'll be right back with animal expert, jeff musial! the iphone. apps that can take you anywhere and do anything. you might say there's no limit to what this amazing device can do. so the question to ask is -- why would anyone want to limit the iphone? [ phone beeping ] we don't. truly unlimited data for your iphone trouble hearing on the phone? only from sprint. visit sprintrelay.com. take this. it is a piece of me. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] it's movie time. with a wii twist. netflix now delivers unlimited tv episodes and movies instantly through wii and nintendo 3ds. all for only 8 bucks a month. vo: look! the old navy funnovations inc. tree is exploding with $5 gifts. thermals and performance fleece are just $5. graphic tees too! how do you like that? our big $5 finale ends saturday. at old navy ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: our first guest is an animal expert and a crazy person who has been kind enough to stop by with some of his friends. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our friend, jeff musial, everybody. [ cheers and applau

tonight jeff bridges is live, his work and his latest passion -- that's music. the great jeff bridges for the hour. the dude. this is piers morgan tonight. >>> good evening. is it possible to have a 40-year career in hollywood, makeover, 60 movies and still have a reputation as mr. nice guy? well apparently it is if you're jeff bridges. he joins me now to test this theory. everybody tells me in the business and out you're the nicest guy in show business. how do you plead? >> i'm going for guilty. what the hey. >> have you always been easy to work with? because the running theme of all your co-workers has always been, you're just the nicest guy to work with. >> yeah, i think i have. you know? i take my lead from my old man, lloyd. lloyd bridges. you know, my dad who loved show biz so much and i got to work with him as a kid on "sea hunt." whenever there was a role for a little kid, come on, get out of school, play with dad. that kind of thing. but as an adult i got to work with him twice on "tucker," and a movie called "blown away." and it was a little different

>> reporter: bus tours, jeff. they'll have bus tours from michele bachmann, rick perry, newt gingrich and mitt romney all trying to overcome ron ele 's organizational depth and momentum here. and for romney it's especially significant because after concentrating so much of his attention on new hampshire, he is now apparently going to be trying for a respectable finish here in iowa. jeff? >> glor: dean reynolds, thank you. officials in nigeria said today they've arrested two men in connection with a series of christmas day terror attacks. a radical islamic sect has claimed responsibility. five bombings claimed at least 39 lives. most of the dead were at a catholic service. national security correspondent david martin reports. >> reporter: a nigerian newspaper called it "the blackest christmas ever." dozens of people killed in the bombings of three christian churches. a radical islamic group popularly known as the nigerian taliban claimed credit for the attacks which marked an especially bloody day in its war agains

>> well, jeff is absolutely right. hi will say there are few people, perhaps the ones who did live through the clinton era who are just the teensiest bit gleeful of the prospect of newt gingrich as the republican nominee. but he does have something that mitt romney doesn't that could be dangerous for the president. which is he has a way to tap into the hispanic vote. he has this expansive network that is latino. he has himself been learning to speak spanish. and the polling data suggests that he could do better among hispanics in certain key states. places like colorado and in the west and especially in florida. and that is something that if a republican nominee could do a teeny bit better with hispanics, could make it much more threatening to president obama. so that is something that his re-election campaign is keeping an eye on. >> but ann finally, for the longest time the white house has seen mitt romney as the president's toughest potential opponent. do they still feel that way? >> in some ways, yes. they see him

as jeff said, the advertisements in iowa are constant. and the superpac, the romney superpac which does throw the kitchen sink at him, is on all the time. >> aren't some of the polls showing a little bit of decline or a tightening of the race where gingrich sort of leaped ahead and then it looks like it tightened back up? i don't know if these are polls that we should all be relying on -- >> i'm not sure these polls are as credible and we're waiting for the des moines register poll, the final one of the year. anecdotally and sort of a sense you have, you can see that these -- all this information is being absorbed by voters. gwen: let's talk about the democrats. they're watching this. presumably not unhappenly. do they have a past victory -- a path to victory or a map how they plan to do this? >> they have half a dozen maps. but ned a briefing last week in washington which jeff and i were both at. the senior staff from the campaign. and they put up a slide of six different paths to the magic 270 electoral votes. partly what they were tryi