An evening celebrating musics past and its bright future. The highlights from beyonce to the beatles today, monday, january 27th, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Im matt lauer. And im Savannah Guthrie alongside al roker and tamron hall who stayed up for the grammys. I did. And i tweeted the whole show. You didnt see it . I watched the today show for the highlights. I stayed up all night. The best grammys, i think, since i was a kid and diana ross hosted. Giving out grammys for best hat. Thats good. Coming up. Weve got an exclusive with jay leno and jimmy fallon. Their first together to talk about the tonight show handoff, their relationship, also, if jay would ever consider returning to late night. Do you guys play poker . We did. But we will begin with todays top story. Here we go again, the historic deep freeze, a new blast of brutal cold is descending on much of the country today. And this one could produce some of the lowest temperatures of the year so far. Nbc cease dylan dreyer is up in boston this morning. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. 2014 hasnt been off to the best start. We have seen unrelenting, almost unusual cold from areas like fargo all the way down to florida. Now, theres still two months left of winter. And with another polar plunge already moving in, so many people have already had enough. Reporter muscle and machinery, both tested in a month of snowstorms and freezing weather. In chicago, dangerous cold forcing officials to close Public Schools this morning. Forecasters say it could feel like 40 below with the windchill. Heavy gusts had visibility near zero in the dakotas on sunday leading police to close some major highways. Icy roads have been a problem as far south as texas. The prolonged cold has led to a shortage of propane gas leading 24 states to declare Energy Emergencies while in florida, worried farmers have been using frost blankets to protect their crops. There has been some fun in the frigid conditions. Some people shooting boiling water from water guns only to watch it turn into frozen mist. And as players arrived in new jersey ahead of the super bowl next sunday, a question a lot of sports fans are asking, will the weather affect the big game . The leagues play only calls for a change if local and state officials said it wasnt safe for people to travel to the game. We would all love to play in 70degree weather. But if you tell me its going to be 20 degrees and ive got to play in the super bowl, i dont think theres one guy that will shy away from it. Reporter now, the game is going to be played on sunday, february 2nd, thats groundhogs day, which al, as youve mentioned is a story in and of itself. But itll be interesting to see if a new month will bring in, finally, a new weather pattern. Looks like we will see that. Thanks so much. But lets talk about this brutal cold air. Another piece of the polar vortex pushing down and bringing that cold air from the dakotas all the way down into florida, which is going to set up for a big winter storm. Well tell you about that. Look at this right now. Feels like 14 below in minneapolis, 15 in chicago and cleveland, 13 in cincinnati, and these temperatures, its nice and warm, actually, in the northeast. Washington, 40, 31 in boston, but thats going to be changing. Look at the temperatures as they start to drop during the day today. Falling down, gets up to about 42 in boston and then starts falling. Chicago, 6 below, 10 in omaha, and overnight tonight, we continue to watch the mercury fall. By early tomorrow morning, chicago will be 16 below, 17 below in marquette, 24 in charlotte. And then look at this, that cold air sets up, and weve got along this front, were going to be looking at a low pressure developing. So from houston all the way to the carolinas, weve got winter storm warnings, Winter Weather watches. You can see an icy mix from houston all the way to the southeast. Snow to the north of that. And look at what were talking about. Ice, we are looking at up to 1 2 inch of ice developing through the carolinas, and thats going to be brutally, its going to be really crippling, and snowfall by wednesday morning. Were talking carolinas up to a foot and a half of snow. And that is going to be big problems for the southeast. We are talking about school closings, power outages, a real mess for the southeast through wednesday morning. All right. Were going to check with you in a couple of minutes. Thank you very much. Were going to talk now with new developments on that nasty virus that swept through a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Its now hit the passengers and crew aboard that ship. So the cruise is being cut short. Nbcs Kerry Sanders is at the port of miami. Good morning. Reporter well, good morning, matt. The explorer of the seas cruise ship is heading north out of the caribbean. Because so many people have gotten sick on the ship, the captain has set a straight course to the United States bypassing a stop in st. Maarten. Reporter it was supposed to be a tenday vacation through the caribbean. Instead, a highly contagious virus struck 600 passengers and crew, causing vomiting and diarrhea. It was a terrible experience. Reporter a team of experts for the center of Disease Control boarded at st. Thomas, they say it is too early to suspect a cues, but doctors on board suspect the common neurovirus. They arent sure who to blame. I dont blame the ship, i dont blame Royal Caribbean, i blame passengers who came on with it. Frankly, i dont blame them either because if i was sick and paid for my cruise, id want to go on it, too. Reporter the ship bypassed the first scheduled stop to haiti and headed directly to puerto rico where it was sanitized in an effort to kill the virus. Something cruise ship medical teams have learned in the past is no easy feat. Well, the neurovirus can be transmitted readily from person to person. So it can among this confined population spread fast. Reporter Royal Caribbean has apologized to the passengers because this cruise that began in cape liberty, new jersey, has been cut short by two days now. Royal caribbean will compensate the passengers onboard. Savannah. Kerry sanders, thank you so much. And now to russia where overnight security concerns forced the organizers of the Olympic Torch Relay to reroute the flames path. Lets get to Nbcs Richard Engel in russias dangerous dagestan region. Richard, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. For days, weve been talking about the Terror Threat to the games. Well, the threat comes from here, from dagestan and other parts of the north caucuses. And today, the olympic flame passed through. Reporter the olympic torch made the most dangerous stop today, to the russian republic of dagestan. But threats of terrorism dramatically curtailed the traditional relay. So organizers invited a few thousand spectators to a soccer stadium to watch the torch do laps around the field, a contained event, under heavy guard. A torch relay to nowhere. Islamic militants from dagestan have repeatedly threatened the torch, the Olympic Games and foreign tourists. For the militants, the attention the olympics bring is a chance to publicly and painfully strike back at russia for its commando operations. Like this one just over a week ago. When police and special forces assaulted a suspected Islamic Militant hideout in the capital. Police say seven suspected terrorists were killed in this house. And there are raids like this one almost every day in dagestan. This is russias secret war that extremists say they want to bring to sochi. A neighbor showed us where 1 2 dozen Russian Troops took position in the house. The floor is covered in bullet casings and fired out the window. Dagestan is a war zone that would normally have nothing to do with the olympics but suddenly does because russias the host and theyre being held nearby. On the weekend talk shows, questions were raised about the safety of american athletes. I cannot give them 100 guarantee. The fact is, these are going to be very much threatened olympics. Reporter today the russian intelligence says it does not believe a female suicide bomber has made her way into sochi as police had previously warned. Savannah. Richard engel, thank you. Lets turn to anita defrantz. Shes a member of the International Olympic committee, a former olympian herself from the 1976 u. S. Rowing team. Good morning. Good to see you. Thank you. I was struck by what the Homeland Security chief said over the weekend. The Security Threat to this particular olympics is the greatest hes ever seen. Are you confident in the russians ability to pull this off at the olympics . Yes, because its not only the russians, its the whole world that secures the games. The u. S. Is involved in making sure our team and other athletes are secure. Its something that belongs to the world. And theyve been working on this for seven years. You have been a member of the International Olympic committee for, i guess, almost three decades. Have you ever seen a response in terms of security like youre seeing with what the russians are doing to secure these olympic venues . I think each time theres a new challenge, and were meeting the challenge. The athletes are the ones who we need to focus on and make sure theyre our responsibility. And i believe they will be safe. Theyll have their chance to meet their test of history in these games. Have you seen a dropoff in the number of americans who are planning to attend in light of all the headlines of security concerns . Im not sure about that. Im going. And maybe its better for nbc if theyre watching it from home. But i dont worry about these games. I think that the athletes who are the central focus of the game will have their chance for history. And the spectators will be safe. Its something that we ought to work on. The u. S. Team has been advised on what to do and how to stay safe. And thats what matters. I guess the flip side of this whole discussion is how do you secure the games and still keep that olympic feeling that feeling of comradery and joy and festivity . Do you think the russians will be able to do that . I think so. I competed in 76, which was immediately after munich, which of course, changed everything. They only had four years to prepare for security there. And we saw the barbed wire on the fences and members of the armed forces, and we were upset we couldnt trade anything with them. The Olympic Games, the athletes have prepared for years. And this is their chance. For me, the most exciting thing is when i get to present medals to them. And every once in a while, therell be an athlete that 3 c1 started a program that the l. A. 84 foundation to help get them on their way and look them in the eye and say for now and forever you are first an olympic champion. Well, there are so many moments that send a chill up your spine because theyre so exciting. Theres also new events this year. Snowboard slope style events. Is this an effort to update the Olympic Games and get them ready for the next generation . Certainly. We heard from the younger folks. We care about what the athletes have to say. We have athletes who competed in the 2010 ioc members, so we want to be relevant to those who are competing and doing their best to say we want to be the best in the world. Well, we are excited to see them get underway. Less than two weeks, well see you in sochi. Thank you. Meantime, we are learning more about the terrifying mall shooting in this country in maryland over the weekend. Tamrons here for natalie with more on that. Good morning to you. Good morning, savannah. Good morning, everyone. Investigators searching for motive to the morning behind that deadly shooting at a maryland mall. A gunman opened fire inside a mall near baltimore saturday killing two skate shop workers. Police say the shooter 19yearold darion marcus aguilar. A woman who identified herself as his mother told reporters over the phone there were now clues. Never been interested in guns, never been interested in anything like that. I dont know what happened. Well, investigators have not been able to find any link between aguilar and the victims. They did find a journal and say he expressed general unhappiness with his life. President obamas putting the final touches on tomorrows state of the union address. And minutes ago, we learned which special guests are invited to sit with the first Lady Michelle obama. And they include Boston Marathon bomb survivors carlos and jeff who will be remembered for this image in the moments after the bombings. Also, gary burr, the fire chief of moore, oklahoma, who rallied that Community Together after the devastating tornado. And Jason Collins who made headlines for being the first male player in Major Team Sports to come out openly gay. Trey radell who was charged with buying cocaine has plead one count to cocaine possession. He pledged to a year absence, but authorities requested he step down. And then frightening moments when an australian woman jumped on the train. She gets up and walked up to the Freight Train and jumps. She slips between two cars. It is hard to tell what happened to the woman until the train passes. Then you can see her lying motionless on the tracks. Amazingly, you see her there, she got up, shes expected to be okay. Wait, wait, wait. Go back. Is that guy on the platform shooting video of her and not jumping down to help her . Someone was shooting because we have the Surveillance Video. But the guy standing there. We cant tell but he stands there, hes looking with the phone. Wow. Bizarre. I hope he was calling 911. That Surveillance Video was the platform the train station video, not from his camera. No. Hard to tell. Hopefully he was calling 911. It is crazy. And Something Else a lot of people have talked about. I thought this was fake over the weekend. A symbolic gesture of peace and reconciliation by pope francis went terribly wrong. Minutes after the popes prayer for peace, he released two white doves as part of the annual tradition. One of the doves was attacked by a passing sea gull. Shortly after francis released it. A black crow tried to attack. I did see a report that one of the doves lost feathers and it was okay. Nevertheless, i thought it was one of those fake photoshop things. Hope you dont believe in metaphors. We dont. Before that happened. You dont know the story. The doves were talking smack. Good feathers. Youre on. That was genius. Actually, i cant take credit for that. That was from anamaniacs. There was a segment called the good feathers. You would have gotten away with that. I know, but someone would tweet it. I dont want to take credit. Anyway, thats whats going on around the country, heres whats happening in your neck of the woods. [ woman ] too weak. Wears off. Been there. Tried that. Ladybug body milk . No thanks. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. Eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. Its so powerful you can skip a day. But light enough you wont want to. Dermatologist recommended eucerin. The end of trial and error has arrived. Try a free sample at eucerinus. Com. Good morning to you bay area. We have thick fog out there. Want to make sure youre aware before you head to work. Maybe youre taking the little ones to school. Watch out for pockets. In the north bay we have thick pockets developing along the peninsula and here in san jose down to a mile and a quarter. Nonetheless going to be nice today later on in the south bay temperatures to climb to about 60 degrees at lunch time. Then in the upper 60s so its going to be comfortable. 66 along the peninsula. Flight cancellations already from chicagos ohare. Mostly flights going into the southeast for tomorrow, they dont want their planes out of place. Its going to be rough. Here we go again. Thanks, al. Appreciate it very much. The stars out in force at the grammys last night. Joe fryer, what can you tell us . Good morning, matt. The grammys spread the love with honors going to lorde, jayz and more. But it was daft punk who took top honors on a night highlighted by a big wedding and memorable reunion. The grammys may reward todays stars, but last night in los angeles, yesterday was honored, as well as Paul Mccartney sang with ringo starr complete with yoko ono dancing in the aisle. Modern day causes took the stage. Macklemore and ryan lewis performed same love while 33 couples tied the knot, a wedding officiated by Queen Latifah. I now pronounce you a married couple the reception by madonna. Give your heart to me reporter as for the awards, it was a breakout night for 17yearold lorde. Youll never be royal reporter while album of the year and record of the year went to daft punk, the helmetheaded guys who never speak publicly. Beyond that, it was all about the performances. Taylor swift tossed her hair at the piano, pink twisted her body in the air and Kendrick Lamar combining hits into one show stopper. You know, it was a slightly schizophrenic grammys, became a sort of well, old persons show as well as really Young Persons show. Reporter generations collided with unlikely collaborations. Robin thicke with chicago. Sarah bareilles with carroll king. And let the words fall out reporter and daft punk and pharrell with stevie wonder, a reminder musics past and future are always intertwined. Macklemore and ryan lewis taking home four grammys, including best new artist, and Country SingerKacey Musgraves surprised winning over taylor swift, all in all, a good night for newcomers. All right. J