we begin with lester holt. lester, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. down the stretch, polls found chicagoans divided whether they wanted the games in chicago. folks on either side were shocked the city's bid went down so quickly. after a pitch to host the first ever south american olympic games, rio de janeiro's victory was far from a shock. but the early round loser was. >> the city of chicago will not participate in the next round. >> reporter: a collective gasp was heard on chicago's daily plaza as thousands who thought they would be celebrating a victory learned chicago came in last, behind rio, madrid and tokyo. >> for it to be over that quickly, that stunningly fast, it's heart breaking. >> i'm surprised and disappointed. >> it was going to be work and construction and jobs. >> i don't feel good about it. >> reporter: president obama faced backlash to make a last minute trip to koben haggen was in air when he got word of the loss. >> one of the things that's most valuable about sports is you can play a great game and still not win. >> reporter:

i'm lester holt. >> i'm amy robach. welcome back from chicago. you were there when that stunning announcement was made. people were speechless and quiet. >> on the plaza, thousands gathered, watching in the jumbotron, expecting a showdown between rio and chicago and boom, first round, not going to happen. the look on people's faces. they kept waiting, maybe he's going to say something more and what they heard was not what they thought they heard. >> the first-round elimination was shocking. we'll get into what went wrong for chicago and what went right for rio. >>> the latest on the alleged extortion plot against david letterman. prosecutors say the suspect, joe halderman, had a compelling motive for blackmail. they call him, quote, capable of doing anything. he says he's not guilty. his attorneys say this case is far more complicated than what we've all been hearing. much more coming up. >>> and your questions this morning about the flu. with all the attention on the swine, h1n1, this year, the seasonal flu is also upo

i'm lester holt. >> i'm jenna wolfe.coming up this morning, one of the deadliest days in the war in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops were killed. >>> an outpost was nearly overrun by taliban fighters. the battle to regain control raged for hours. coming up, we'll bring you theá latest. we have jim miklaszewski live on the ground in afghanistan. we'll be with us to bring us live reaction from military commanders there. >>> disturbing new details emerge about the man accused of stalking espn reporter erin andrews. friends and neighbors of the suspect, michael david barrett, are shocked by what he's accused of doing as prosecutors describe an elaborate plot to videotape here. we'll bring you the latest in just a few minutes. >>> david letterman's addition that he affairs with co-workers is stirring up conversations about what is acceptable in the workplace in terms of relationships especially with bosses and employees. we'll get into that discussion later in the broadcast. >>> first, breaking news out of afghanistan. the fero

i'm lester holt reporting from new york for all of us here at nbc news. good night.to lead? at pnc, it's doing what most benefits our customers. whether that's building more certified green buildings than anyone on earth. creating online banking tools for the next generation. or making a 10 year, $100 million investment in kids. it's how we've always done business. and will for a very long time to come. pnc. leading the way. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

i'm lester holt, thanks for watching. >>> do you feel like a story? >> it all started mildly enough like another funny bit, but then the mood turned. >> i get into my car and in the backseat of my scar a package. i don't recognize. and there's a letter in the package. and it says i know that you do some terrible, terrible things. and i can prove you do these terrible things. there's quite a lot of terrible things he knows about and he's going to put nit a movie unless i give him some money. i'm like you, i'm thinking really? that's a little -- and this is the word i actually used. that's a little hinky. >> narrator: tales of extortion and a late-night bombshell. >> i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. now, my response to that is yes, i have. i have had sex with women who work on this show. >> a man demands $2 million or he will reveal potentially damaging information. working with authorities, letterman gave the suspect a fake check. joe halderman pled not guilty to charges of grand larceny. >> we intend to bring this case to trial.

the celebrity stalkers that look at the madonnas, look at the alexs, look at the lester holts, whoever it's going to be and say, boy, i really want to be up close and personal with that person. they want to develop a fantasized relationship and, number two, sometimes they simply want to gather enough information to make money off of you, and in this case, it may have been both. this guy was trying to sell these grainy, terrible, crude nude pictures he took, and number two, he may have been trying to develop a relationship, but realized, alex, there were yet other unnamed women he photographed in the same way. >> how prevalent is this kind of crime? you know, secretly recording people in places, or taking e-mails and that sort of thing and holding them to threaten people? i mean, all of these kinds of things that are private conversations, private in a hotel room? >> yeah, and you think you are, too, but there are video sites, where people use cameras to take pictures of you in dressing rooms and things like that. sometimes they just post it, because they're just immature individuals wh

back to you guys. >> lester holt live in chicago, thank you so much. go now to natalie morales live in copenhagen, denmark. natalie, how's it going this morning? >> as lester was saying, a lot of confidence from the chicago delegation, particularly after the president and first lady made such a passionate and emotional appeal to the ioc voters here. it really says at this point, if i'm quoting a couple of sports writers i talked to, it is chicago's to lose. let us not discount rio, a very, very tough competitor here. a couple of weeks ago, they probably were considered the favorites going into this. but now that the president has spoken and the first lady made such a lasting impression here, it remains to be seen what will happen in the next couple of hours because it's scheduled to go for a vote about 12:30 eastern time. a lot of people feeling like this is chicago's time. >> natalie, it's willie. we were talking earlier, and i was taken aback by some of the things you said. ioc people clamoring for handshakes and photographs. describe that scene to us

lester holt and kevin is with us. so the two of you, what did you think was going to happen?u as pumped up as everybody else that it was going to be chicago and give me your reaction. >> well, let me tell you how we reacted. we both looked at each other like, like we couldn't believe it. >> i still can't believe it and i don't think that these thousands of people who are still milling about daley plaza where you could hear a pin drop right now. i don't think anyone can believe it. people here are truly stunned. they knew they were in a competition with rio and knew it was going to be tight but i don't think anyone thought they would be going out in the first round. >> i think general feeling people pretty much dismissed tokyo and madrid and thought it's between us and rio. they were jazzed when they came in here. they were watching this vote. a lot of them crossing their fingers, holding their breath but i think there was the expectation this was the easy one, the first vote. could get harder down the line and no one expected it and they are carrying local nbc channel 5 here

nbc's lester holt is in chicago awaiting today's decision. lester, what is the mood like in the windy city? >> reporter: oh, first of all, people are tired because they've been up since the wee hours of the morning, meredith, watching the president, watching the chicago pitch on tv, all the stations here carried it. behind me is a picasso statue in daley plaza bearing the olympic medal. let me walk you through here. this plaza has always been a source of celebration for chicagoans. the 2005 world series win by the white sox, the '85 bears super bowl championship was celebrated here. what could happen here later today could top all that. they're expecting thousands to fill this plaza here in the heart of the loop. they've got the jumbopatron set up, where they'll be able to watch the announcement from copenhagen. a stage is set up where there will be an old-fashioned, civic pep rally here, and of course, the world's press is recording it all. they expect to have to close down streets in downtown chicago as thousands pour here. it could rain. ce