guy in the business. cut forward to a year. a picture from the same set, hollywood reporter had, and that tells the story. not a good morning. hard to think of anyone who hasn't been involved in a tiger woods scandal or anything of that nature whose brand has been so apparently damaged in such a short space of time over somebody leaving the show that most experts agreed probably wasn't working on the show. >> well, you're right. it's been one of the most incredible arcs that we've seen in tv. i think part of it is the view people had of him before and after was such a wide one. the viewers made a judgment on him that was profound when ann curry left. and -- >> was it fair, though? >> i think it was -- it doesn't really matter if it was fair. the viewers were the judge. they are the judge of who has the highest ratings and they have to believe that what they're seeing on the screen, that these people are nice people, they're a family. i believe that, and at the moment they don't believe it, they don't believe it. and i don't think it helped that behind the scenes there were things that were upsetting and, you know, back-stabbing going