we could ask john heilemann your favorite christmas memory.he's wearing a plaid -- he's wearing a plaid christmas shirt, which we can't see from. >>> the ongoing controversy surrounding "duck dynasty," tell your friends nearly 12 million viewers tuned in to watch the premiere episode of season four. making it cable's most watched nonfiction telecast to date. >> that was smart, a&e. way to take they can off the air. good luck getting them back. >> robertson will make $45 million on their duck command callers alone. that doesn't include the $200,000 per episode they earn. >>> they stop by the weekend update desk to talk about their future plans. >> you're both leaving current jobs next year. are you excited? >> i'm so excited to be hosting "the tonight show" as well as bringing it back to new york city. i hosted "late night" for five years and then "the tonight show" and then after that i'll host "the nightly news" and then the "today" show and then five years after that i'm the new carson daly. >> what's next for you, mayor bloomberg? >> i'll f

[laughter] you know, i asked john heilemann backstage, you know, how do you get people to talk?ean, it's amazing as you -- i've read both books, and my wife who's in the front here has read the books as well -- can how do you get people to say these things? it's amazing to me. but amazing book. i hope, you know, you guys are here, obviously, you're going to want to read it or have read it. ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure, really a privilege to introduce mark halperin and john heilemann. [applause] >> jp, thank you for that gracious and kind introduction. you read it just like we wrote it, so we appreciate that. [laughter] we are gratified and excited and thrilled to be here in miami. we've been on tour for the past two and a half week weeks and we've been in a lot of different cities, and we can say without any equivocation that this is absolutely the favorite place we've been. we love miami, and we're happy to be here. [applause] i promise you, i have not said that in any other city we've been to. that's the first time i've said it. [laughter] this is obviously an august

but hipster john heilemann, you have to comment on this cover. you nailed it.this cover and what this cover has in common with every other cover of gq over the past year. >> guys in ties from the tie bar. >> he knows it's tie bar.com. >> i'm an avid reader. what can i say? >> they all wear knit ties? >> we love the knit tie. very versatile. >> i have a couple. >> that's how i knew that the trend had hit that -- jumped the shark when i see barnicle with the knit tie. >> you know the housing market is about to collapse. so maybe getting in to real estate isn't the best idea. so i guess we just have to start with the duck dynasty controversy. did you have any idea it would explode like this? >> there is talk about making it dq, duck quarterly. i'm not sure. but, no, it's a great show. we were excited to do it because it has 12 million people who watch it every week. we knew that his comments were, what shall we say, they were going to get -- >> it would be explosive. >> they would get attention. >> what did you think of his comments? >> i think it's all in the mag

window to have a time of governance and that is the one part that seems unfortunate to me. >> john heilemann of "new york" magazine, mark pal herin of "time" magazine, the authors of double down, thank you both very much. >> thank you, gwen. >> sreenivasan: again, the major developments of the day: a second suicide bombing in two days hit volgograd, russia, killing 14 people. it raised new questions about russian readiness for the winter olympics in sochi, just six weeks away. the government of afghanistan rejected a u.s. intelligence finding that many of the gains there could be lost by 2017. and east african nations warned they'll move to defeat the rebel leader in south sudan, unless he accepts a cease-fire. on the "newshour" website right now, why do we drop a ball on new year's eve? we track the evolution from maritime signal to today's 12- foot crystal and l.e.d. light times square ball. meanwhile in other cities, the ball has transformed into a giant peach, a guitar and a sardine. we have a slide show of the many different american variations on the tradition. all that and more is on

next version of "game change," which is the campaign book that was written by mark halperin and john heilemannbout the 2008 campaign, best-seller. and again, that sort of goes to the larger cinematic sense that people have with themselves here. there's this sense of preening, a sense of, "who's going to play me in the movie? will i get a cameo playing myself in the movie?" as people in the "game change" movie did. that's another scene in here. and again, it's a sort of blame -- it's a sort of blurring of the larger class of fame, of really the ruling class in the public perception game. that i think is as much a part of this decadence as really anything else. >> i was surprised when i read the book, because i have followed your reporting. and you were reporting good stories, anecdotal stories, and fact-driven stories. but they didn't seem to have the narrative arc that emerges in this. was that something you came to in the course of writing it or in the course of reporting? how did that come about? >> it became a moment. and it -- and it did occur to me in -- in being exposed to this that the