the ranks. >> you dive down so deep into the story for "vanity fair." wrote one of the definitive stories about what went wrong. are you surprised we're still talking about this that there hasn't been an announcement by nbc? >> no i'm not. from the beginning i felt nbc was going to take as long as possible to come up with a solution. they need to keep their finger in the wind. they need to get a sense how people like you and other media critics are going to react to all the potential roles. i always anticipated and i think we're just now getting to see a series of trial balloons about what brian might be and they want to see i think how the public and how the media react to that. >> there's one thing this story has in comemon with the duggars, and that is nbc doesn't have to do anything and tlc doesn't have to do anything about the duggars because that show isn't currently on the air so they don't have to make a decision about its future. maybe that's what's happening here too. nbc doesn't have to decide today because lester ho elt is doing well and brian williams is on