this took me underground and next door to radio city music hall where you could say i had a spectacularradio city music hall where i'm going behind the scenes with the rockettes. for nearly 80 years this precision dance troupe has been kicking their heels up with style and glamor. >> welcome to radio city. >> we are heading into the large rehearsal hall. we have up to five shows a day. >> tell me how cool it is when someone asks you what you do and you're like, i'm a rockette. >> it's amazing. >> how much dance experience do you need? i'm not a bad dancer, but i haven't danced much either. >> you need to be precision in jazz, tap and ballet. we need ladies over 18 and height 5'6" to 5'10". >> unlike some dancing when you have choreography, you have to have it town to a head pop. >> absolutely. >> what is a bevel? >> i'm going to teach you. >> where do we start? i clearly know how to line up. ♪ >> one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and -- ♪ let christmas shine >> i was a soloist for a second. >> you guys are so glamorous and you always look so put together. >> we do our own hair and

and radio city was designed to be place where ordinary people could afford to experience high-quality enter taint. 79 years later, more than 300 million people have seen shows at radio city music hallst indoor theater in the world. i did not know that. >>> seven days out from iowa and it looks like a three-way battle for first place. so, who needs this iowa win the most? let's bring in our panel, michelle bernard is an msnbc political analyst and president of the bernard center for women, politics and public policy. steve mcmahon is a democratic strategist and michael shearer is white house correspondent for "time" magazine. hello, all. welcome back. let talk first about iowa. we are seven days out. everyone is spinning, you know, rick santorum -- if rick santorum get his votes, taking a victory out of it the romney, i talked to romney folks the last couple of days, said we finish in the top three that is good enough for us. who need these win the most, mike? >> the second tier crowd needs the win the most. romney can survive a little bit of a dispintment here, ron paul could probably come in anywhere and get votes going through, michele bachmann, rick santorum, rick perry, they do

. >> i got to go behind the scenes of the christmas spectacular at radio city music hall, including a of santa, the big man is in the building. he's going to make one last stop to visit our crew of super well behaved kids. can we see those kids once again. kids, are you excited about the santa possibility? >> yeah. >> can i get a stronger yes? all right. excellent. that's coming up in just a few minutes. >>> before we get to santa, let's get a check of this morning's news and weather. >> and good morning again and merry christmas. in the news, republican presidential hopeful newt gingrich is blasting virginia's republican primary elections system after he and several other contenders were left off of the primary ballot in that state. gingrich did not get the required number of signatures to appear on the virginia ballot. >>> pope benedict is delivering his annual christmas message of the world to thousands of the faithful in st. peter's square. he called for an end to the violence in syria and a resumption of plink/israeli peace talks. christmas eve/midnight mass was held two hours ea

happy birthday to radio city music hall which opened 79 years ago today back in 1932. happy birthday. >>> all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." >>> finally, here's a look at what's coming up this morning on the "today" show. former "survivor" producer facing murder charges for the death of his wife, the victim's sister speaks out live in the studio. >>> you'll get to meet that 1-month-old polar bear who opened his eyes for the very first time, something you definitely don't want to miss. >>> keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and much more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thank you for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. have a terrific tuesday. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

you know, one of the greatest new york holiday traditions is going to radio city music hall and seeingne," please welcome the rockettes! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ ♪ let christmas shine bright as a diamond clear as a beacon true as a guiding star ♪ ♪ let christmas shine new as tomorrow now past and present form an unbroken line ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ shining on from year to year meaning more and more ♪ ♪ now we see it reappear brighter than ever before ♪ ♪ let christmas shine every december help us remember ♪ ♪ shine out the light of love shine out the light of joy ♪ ♪ shine out the light of hope shine out the light of peace ♪ ♪ every year blazing light crystal clear diamond bright ♪ ♪ let christmas shine

are in the busiest shopping area on avenue of america in midtown manhattan, not too far from radio city music hall and folks in and out joining us through the course of the next 45 minutes or so. but, you know, we never keep that far from politics. last week at this time in iowa, for the big debate, and now the question is whether a revolution could be in the making and that fellow on the left, you see, is the guy who could be bringing it: ron paul. the frontrunner right now in the iowa caucus. he joins us right now from texas. congressman, paul, very if do have you. >>guest: good to be with you. >>neil: have you surprised you have been the frontrunner for better part of a week which in recent polling history is inbound, and with a week and a half so go the pressure is on to main attend it. >>guest: well, i guess i'm not we, i'm supposed to say i expected it all along, i am a bit surprised and pleased. i am convinced that the message was popular and necessary but i was thought sure i would be the messenger to deliver so things are going well and the crowds are get are bigger, and i am talking to m

on this day in 1932, thousands turned out for the grand opening of new york city radio city music halle brainchild of john d. rockefeller jr. he built it as the corner stone of rockefeller complex in a formerly run down manhattan neighborhood. more than 700 films premiered on the stage setting sun the curtains went up 79 years ago

and what happened was about a year ago, when she did a huge show at radio city music hall, i was sitting in the audience with a tremendous number of major celebrities, and her manager came up to me after the show, mr. trump, gaga wants to the see you in the back, nobody else, nobody else. it was a little embarrassing to me. but she was great. she hasn't forgotten. and i know her, and she's a terrific person and a great talent. but we put her on the miss universe contest. and to be honest with you, she was amazing. and the next day, everybody wanted to know, who the hell was that? >> yeah, she's a phenomenal talent. you've got the debate coming up in three weeks. before we go, i want to get a little inkling of what you're going to ask these guys who do turn up, gingrich and the others. what do you think the key issues are? >> i think there are a lot of key issues. you can talk about health care, obama care, what the views are and everything else. you can also talk about opec and talk about how opec is just ripping off this country and how everybody is ripping off the country. that's somet

. >> we have been going to radio city music hall for the christmas spectacular.. they changed it. >> what age? will they get it? >> we loved it. >> charlie is 2 in three months and he was standing on the chair dancing and he loves the 3d portion. the rockettes are in lock step. it's a machine there. >> maybe you need to send a message to hugh jackman that i'm coming. >> are you going? >> yeah. >> people who haven't seen our show yet. sheryl loves men. men love sheryl. >> i'm excited about this! i like the socks. i'm checking out the socks. >> you like those? i need a polish on the shoes. >> those are mary poppin socks. >> those are cute. >> they are green, though! >> kind of hood. michael jackson had his socks. >> i love robert griffin. rg-3 is the man! >> i love the socks! >> we are going to meet you after the show and try to -- he gets away without sheryl pulling a finger, saving it for later. >> a little souvenir. >> samuel jackson is coming. oh, my gosh! >> you're never going home, are you? >> never, never. they could pay me -- maybe not. but i got to meet do

it is jam packed, and that's radio city music hall right there, and they're walking, doing shopping back there. it's a lovely day to be in new york, but it is packed on the streets. and it is also packed, long lines at security for just about anybody who had to fly this holiday. now, however, you may have to deal with tsa screenings while traveling even if you manage to avoid the airports. trace gallagher has that lovely update for you live from our west coast newsroom. hey, t.g., belated happy merry christmas. >> reporter: happy belated christmas to you as well, megyn. you're going to see these tsa agents in train stations, bus depots, even at sporting events. viper teams, and it stands for is visible intermodal prevention and response. they've got 25 teams so far, they'd like to add about a dozen more, and what they do is they go in, and they look for unusual behavior. they also have bomb-sniffing dogs. as you see there about 9,000 of these unannounced checkpoint searches. the tsa points out that when they raided bin laden's come pound, they actually found evidence he was trying to att

but first, on this day in history in 1932, radio city music hall opened in new york city.in 1971, brand new keys by melanie was the number one song. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! nner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles! i want a mace, a sword, a... oww! [ male announcer ] get the nture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitaloneom. i wonder what it could be?! what's in your wallet? >> welcome back. the answer to the question of the day, john amos. winner is sue from vermont. congratulations, sue. well, just minutes ago, you heard the success story of one of our viewers that watched this segment, exactly this segment and landed a brand new job. cheryl casone from the fox b

screen left and, you can also see a christmas tree on radio city music hall across the way.rm system moving into the northeast down through the mid atlantic and portions of dixie land as well. also, a little bit of snow moving through portions of the central mississippi valley at this hour. the current temperatures, as you head out the door at zero in rapid city. they lost 1 degree, as you can see right there, 21 in kansas city. it's freezing in dallas. 63 in tampa. beautiful temperatures today. for the most part, 70's and 80's across much of florida, 40's and 50's across much of the gulf coast. and portions of the northeast. bitterly cold in the northern plains. and snow, by the way, could fall from the appalachians to new england tomorrow with the heaviest falling through parts of the virginias. so get out your shovel! >> all right. next on the rundown, you will only see it here on "fox & friends." we have the very first polls out of the very important state of south carolina. so which republican candidate is ahead right now? stick around for the exclusive results. >> it w

. >> we are looking at this unbelievableable radio city music hall. that is inspiring.e try to create a variety with the candies and shapes. it's a good color. >> it is actually gorgeous. this is something we love to do at home. right? let's show people how we can make it from the ground up. >> something that the family will enjoy. >> a few quick tricks when building a house. you can find the templates at michael's craft store. >> okay. >> roll your gingerbread, cut it out, bake it. >> you can buy some of those kits. that's not the real deal right? >> we make our own. >> okay. >> once you have your gingerbread baked, simply pipe your icing on each side of where you want to build it. >> is there a trick to making sure the icing sticks? >> just make it thick. >> okay. make it thick. okay. >> that is the best way. >> we use some water bottles as your holder for the gingerbread house. >> okay. >> so that will hold up that end. that will hold up that end. >> a nice little trick. >> it takes about six hours. you can finish that and then you move to this one where we have the