NBC

Tucker Carlson is open to playing GOP candidate wrangler for a debate, but the Republicans would have to be down with the parameters he'd demand ... TMZ has learned.

In case you missed this week's debate, Vivek Ramaswamy gave a full-throated endorsement for Tucker to moderate a future Republican debate, predicting it would spark a major ratings boost.

Well, sources with direct knowledge tell us ... Vivek has personally verbalized this wish to Tucker himself, and while the former Fox News firebrand likes the idea of doing it -- he's not keen about doing it on a traditional TV network.

We're told Tucker actually spoke to GOP officials about the role back in the summer, after Fox News let him go ... but he didn't want to fall back in with corporate media, which he thinks is all buddy-buddy with the RNC.

So, the only way Vivek's dream will come true is if the party approves the debate airing exclusively on X. Obviously, Elon Musk would love that, but our source adds the real benefit for the RNC could be finally landing Donald Trump ... who's been absent from previous debates.

The feeling is Tucker's involvement might prompt Trump to participate.

Tucker's potential involvement came about after GOP candidate Vivek took aim at NBC's Lester Holt, Hugh Hewitt, and Kristen Welker during Wednesday night's third battle of Republican candidates.

As it turns out, the journalists got off easy ... relative to Ramaswamy's attack on Nikki Haley, who he called "Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels."

Tucker Carlson está abierto a ser moderador de un debate, pero el republicano tiene algunas exigencias, TMZ ha indagado.

En caso de que te hayas perdido el debate de esta semana, Vivek Ramaswamy le dio un respaldo a toda voz a Tucker para moderar un futuro debate republicano, prediciendo que provocaría un aumento de audiencia importante.

Fuentes directas nos dicen que Vivek ha verbalizado personalmente el deseo de Tucker a sí mismo, y mientras que al ex incombustible de Fox News le gusta la idea de hacerlo, dice que no está dispuesto a hacerlo en una cadena de televisión tradicional.

Nos dicen que Tucker habló con funcionarios del Partido Republicano sobre su papel en el verano, luego de que Fox News lo dejara ir, pero él no quería volver a caer en los medios de comunicación corporativos.

Por lo tanto, la única manera de que el sueño de Vivek se haga realidad es si el partido aprueba que el debate se emita exclusivamente por X. Obviamente, a Elon Musk le encantaría, pero nuestra fuente añade que el beneficio real para el RNC podría ser finalmente conseguir a Donald Trump, que ha estado ausente en los debates anteriores.

La sensación es que la participación de Tucker podría incitar a Trump a participar.

La posible participación de Tucker se produjo después de que el candidato del Partido Republicano Vivek apuntara a Lester Holt, Hugh Hewitt y Kristen Welker de la NBC durante la tercera batalla de candidatos republicanos del miércoles por la noche.

Resulta que salieron bien parados en relación al ataque de Ramaswamy a Nikki Haley, a quien llamó "Dick Cheney en tacones de 3 pulgadas".

Más fuegos artificiales entre Vivek y Nikki, esto después de que Vivek atacara a su familia sobre el modo en que usan TikTok, lo que provocó que ella le dijera que mantuviera los nombres de sus hijas alejados de su boca.

Las palabras de Will Smith siguen vivas....

Vivek Ramaswamy salió golpeando en el tercer debate republicano de esta semana, pero no fue tanto a sus rivales políticos sino a los moderadores.

El candidato del Partido Republicano, amigo de la polarización, fue a la ofensiva este miércoles en Miami, después de que uno de los moderadores de la NBC, Lester Holt, le preguntara por qué pensaba que debería ser el candidato republicano en lugar de Donald Trump, el que sigue liderando la carrera por mucho.

En lugar de responder la pregunta directamente, el candidato empezó a despotricar en contra del partido en general, después de algunas duras pérdidas en las elecciones nacionales del martes, y calificó al Partido Republicano de "perdedores."

Culpó a su presidenta, Ronna McDaniel por eso y luego se centró en Lester, Hugh Hewitt y Kristen Welker, todos quienes estaban moderando. Les dijo que no merecían estar moderando esto el encuentro y que Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan y Elon Musk sí.

Yendo a los que nos importa, Vivek ha estado muy cercano a Tucker últimamente y parece ser un fan de Joe Rogan y Elon Musk. Lester terminó cortando la brevísima intervención de Vivek, que quedó claro que fue solo incendiaria.

Finalmente, Vivek fue tras los otros candidatos, incluyendo un golpe a Nikki Haley, a quien caracterizó como un neo-con Dick Cheney-esque en "tacones de 3 pulgadas".

Golpe bajo, sin duda.

6:08 PM PT -- More fireworks between Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley ... this after he attacked her family over their use of TikTok, which spurred her to tell him to keep her daughters' names out of his mouth.

Will Smith's words live on ...

Vivek Ramaswamy came out swinging at the third Republican debate this week -- but it wasn't so much at his political rivals ... instead, he took aim at the moderators.

The polarizing GOP candidate went on the offensive right out the gate Wednesday in Miami ... this after one of the NBC moderators, Lester Holt, asked why he thought he should be the Republican nominee instead of Donald Trump ... who's still leading the pack by a lot.

Instead of answering the question directly, VR went on a rant bashing the party at large -- this after some tough losses in national elections Tuesday -- and called the GOP "losers."

He blamed the GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel for that, but then turned his focus on Lester, Hugh Hewitt and Kristen Welker -- all of whom were moderating ... saying they didn't deserve to be moderating this ... and that Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk did.

FWIW ... Vivek's done a lot of sit-downs with Tucker lately -- and he seems to be a fan of JR and EM, too. Lester ended up cutting him short once it became clear he was just bashing.

Vivek did eventually go after the other candidates, though ... including a shot at Nikki Haley -- whom he characterized as a Dick Cheney-esque neo-con in "3-inch heels." Low blow, indeed.

Internet está en un frenesí en este momento sobre lo que parece ser una nueva noticia sobre "Shrek". Un interno accidentalmente filtró la fecha de lanzamiento de la quinta película.

Esta la cosa, "Shrek 5" es tendencia, y todo por una captura de pantalla de un supuesto curriculum vitae de LinkedIn de una joven que recientemente trabajó en NBCUniversal, que ahora es la empresa matriz de DreamWorks, el estudio de animación famoso detrás de la película.

Suponiendo que esta captura de pantalla es legítima, ciertamente parece ser un error por parte de esta pobre chica, ya que está exagerando el hecho de que trabajó en "Shrek 5" este año. Ella dice que el estreno está programado para salir en 2025.

En cuanto a lo que ella dice que estaba haciendo en relación con la película... trabajo en productos de consumo, es decir, averiguando la manera de meter sutilmente las marcas en la película para hacer que los espectadores quieran comprar.

Desde que esto se publicó y fue ampliamente compartido, el perfil de la chica ha sido modificado, con la mención "Shrek" borrada. NBCU aún no ha anunciado oficialmente "Shrek 5", pero sí que lo ha insinuado en las últimas películas relacionadas con Shrek.

Obviamente, hay una ENORME base de fans de "Shrek" y la gente ha estado esperando durante mucho tiempo la próxima entrega, esto luego de que las dos últimas no tuvieran el éxito esperado.

NBCU no ha comentado nada sobre la supuesta filtración, pero la gente ya lo da por hecho y creen que se anunciará pronto ya que "puede" que ya se sepa.

Por cierto, hablando de "Shrek", han aparecido otras noticias relacionadas, como la de Rita Ora vistiéndose como la princesa Fiona (versión ogro) y visitando la nueva casa del pantano de Shrek que AirBnB ha promocionado recientemente. Ella estuvo en el célebre pantano este fin de semana y parecía impresionante.

The Internet is in a frenzy right now over what looks like big 'Shrek' news -- the apparent leaking of the release date for the 5th movie ... courtesy of an intern, of all people.

Here's the deal ... "Shrek 5" is trending, and it all has to do with a screengrab of an alleged LinkedIn resume from a young woman who claims to have recently worked at NBCUniversal -- the parent company of the green guy's studio, DreamWorks.

If the screenshot is legit, the woman made a big blunder ... because she's hyping the fact she worked on 'Shrek 5' this year, which she says is set to come out in 2025.

As far as what she says she was doing on the film -- she says consumer product work ... aka, figuring out how to subtly shove brands into the movie, or product integration, if you will.

Since it was posted and widely shared ... the woman's profile's been tweaked, with the 'Shrek' mention scrubbed. NBCU hasn't officially announced a 'Shrek 5' just yet, but has certainly teased it in recent 'Shrek'-adjacent films.

Obviously, there's a HUGE fanbase for 'Shrek' ... and folks have long been waiting for the next installment -- even though the last 2 had less than great reception.

NBCU hasn't commented on the purported leak ... but some people think this will force an official announcement to come soon.

BTW, speaking of 'Shrek' ... there were some other related updates that surfaced, including Rita Ora dressing up as Princess Fiona (ogre version) and cruising the new Shrek swamp house that AirBnB was plugging recently. She did a weekend stay, and it looked awesome.

Jonathan Goodwin, who nearly died doing a stunt for 'AGT: Extreme,' is suing NBC over his gruesome injuries, alleging the network didn't do enough to ensure safety on set.

According to a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Jonathan claims NBC and producers kept upping the ante on stunts to go bigger and bolder to keep eyeballs on the 'AGT' franchise, and he says that led to producers signing up contestants to perform extreme stunts ... while cutting corners on safety.

In the docs, Jonathan claims the show controlled, designed and interfered with the safe performance of stunts ... which he says nearly cost him his life when he got seriously injured on set.

Jonathan says he was "catastrophically injured" during an October 21 rehearsal at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia, where he was crushed and burned by 2 exploding cars before falling more than 20 feet to the ground and landing violently.

In his suit, Jonathan claims he dislocated his spinal cord, lost his left kidney, suffered 3rd-degree burns and fractured his legs, ribs and shoulders.

Remember ... we first obtained video of the stunt, and it shows Jonathan suspended in the air, hanging from a wire and attempting to free himself from a straightjacket before two swinging cars smash together.

The footage shows the cars sandwiching Jonathan in midair ... and sources on set told us folks who were there thought Jonathan had died.

It's been nearly 2 years since the incident, and Jonathan says there's no end to his suffering from his mental, physical and emotional injuries from the "catastrophic, life-altering" incident.

In his suit, Jonathan's blasting the show for what he says was a failure to implement industry safety standards. He says the production hired unqualified people to oversee and design the stunt, which he says wasn't tested with a crash dummy before he got in the ring.

He's suing for damages.

Travis Kelce is being painted as a cheater by one of his ex-flings ... but sources close to the NFL superstar say she's full of it, and only trying to grab her 15 minutes of fame.

If you missed it, Maya Benberry, who won Travis' E! dating show "Catching Kelce" back in 2016 just did an interview where she called Kelce a cheater, warning Taylor Swift, "Taylor seems like such a fun girl with a beautiful spirit so I wish her the best of luck but I wouldn’t be a girls' girl if I didn’t advise her to be smart!"

Maya told Daily Mail, "Once a cheater always a cheater."

Sources close to Kelce tell us the two only dated for a month after the show, and couldn't publicly announce their actual split because of a contract they had in place with the network.

The source tells us Travis never cheated on Maya.

Our source adds Kelce and Maya haven't spoken in about 5 years ... and her interview is, "A poor excuse of someone trying to get her 15 min of fame."

Hay una nueva presentadora en 'Meet the Press', y en el primer día de trabajo consiguió que Donald Trump admitiera que necesitaba votos para ganar las elecciones de 2020, lo cual es bastante.

Kristen Welker está ahora al timón después de que Chuck Todd renunciara, y su primer programa del domingo contó con una larga entrevista que hizo con el ex presidente. Hay un interesante fragmento de sonido donde ella le pregunta acerca de su negativa a aceptar los resultados de las elecciones.

Échale un vistazo a este intercambio, Welker señala que Trump ha dicho en repetidas ocasiones que sólo necesitaba unos pocos miles de votos en cada estado para ganar, por no hablar de llamar a algunos Secretarios de Estado en un intento de presionarlos para "encontrar" votos, y él reconoce que eso es cierto.

Entonces Welker pregunta lo obvio: "Cuando dice que necesitaba una décima de punto, ¿necesitaba una décima de punto para ganar?". Trump admite que sólo necesitaba un puñado de votos.

Ella vuelve a presionar: "¿Para ganar?" Trump responde: "Sí". Welker entonces va al siguiente hecho obvio aquí: "Pero señor presidente, usted está diciendo que necesitaba más votos para ganar las elecciones, ¿está reconociendo que no ganó?". Eso envía a Trump a un frenesí de "Disculpe".

Cuando ella finalmente le pregunta si está admitiendo haber perdido, él dice que no, insistiendo en que estaba amañado.

Hay otros puntos interesantes de la entrevista, como la pregunta de Welker a Trump sobre si teme ir a la cárcel. Él le dice que no porque al parecer ni siquiera piensa en ello.

Ahora, debemos señalar que Welker/NBC está recibiendo algunas críticas por su decisión de entrevistar a Trump y darle una "plataforma". Eso es una tontería, sin embargo el tipo se dirige a convertirse en el candidato republicano, y sigue siendo de interés periodístico. 🤷🏽‍♂️

There's a new host over at 'Meet the Press' -- and on day one of the job, she got Donald Trump to admit he needed votes to win the 2020 election ... which is quite something.

Kristen Welker is now at the helm after Chuck Todd stepped down, and her first show Sunday featured a lengthy interview she did with the former President ... and it contains an interesting soundbite where she asks him about his refusal to accept the election results.

Check out this exchange ... Welker points out that Trump has repeatedly said he only needed a few thousands votes in each state to win -- not to mention calling some Secretaries of State in an attempt to pressure them to "find" votes -- and he acknowledges that's true.

Then Welker asks the obvious ... "When you say you needed one-tenth of a point, you needed one-tenth of a point to win?" Trump concedes he needed only a smattering of votes.

She again presses ... "To win?" DT responds, "Yeah." Welker then goes to the next obvious fact here ... "But Mr. President, you’re saying you needed more votes to win the election, are you acknowledging you didn’t win?" That sends Trump into an "Excuse me" frenzy.

When she finally asks him if he's admitting to losing ... he says no, insisting it was rigged.

There are other interesting takeaways from the sit-down ... including Welker asking Trump if he fears going to prison. He tells her no, because apparently, he doesn't even think about it.

Now, we should point out ... Welker/NBC is catching a bit of flak over their decision to interview Trump at all and to give him a "platform." That's silly, though -- the guy is headed toward becoming the Republican nominee, and he continues to be newsworthy. 🤷🏽‍♂️

The lawyers going after NBCUniversal and Bravo with both barrels over alleged mistreatment of their reality stars have turned up the heat even higher ... demanding the companies release these stars from what the lawyers call a draconian confidentiality agreement.

Attorney Bryan Freedman fired off another letter to the companies, claiming the NDAs violate California law, which prohibits companies from forcing employees to sign NDAs prohibiting them from disclosing unlawful conduct.

As for the unlawful conduct Freedman alleges ... racism, sexism, sexual violence, revenge porn, child labor violations, forced intoxication, and psychological, emotional and physical abuse.

Freedman wants NBCUniversal and Bravo to fully release their reality stars from their NDAs, but at a minimum acknowledge they can discuss alleged illegal conduct during production.

The attorney, along with co-counsel Mark Geragos, has been blasting NBC claiming the networks are manufacturing mental instability by plying cast members with alcohol while depriving them of food and sleep. Freedman also says they have deprived cast members of mental health treatment even when they display alarming signs of mental deterioration.

We reached out to NBCUniversal ... so far, no word back. NBC issued a statement previously, saying they're “committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows.”

Bethenny Frankel and her powerhouse attorneys have reportedly been hearing from dozens of angry NBC reality stars ... this after they fired off a legal threat to the company, detailing allegations of horrible treatment on their shows.

According to the New York Post ... roughly 80 cast members -- both men and women -- have reached out to Bethenny and lawyers Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos about the alleged abuse by the Peacock Network and its subsidiary Bravo, which broadcasts many of the reality programs. Bethenny -- who shot to fame on the 'Real Housewives of New York' -- is spearheading the fight against NBC, but there's no word yet on next legal steps.

TMZ broke the story Friday ... Freedman and Geragos sent the letter to NBC execs, accusing production employees of subjecting cast and crew to a litany of torment. Among their grievances were distributing porn, exploiting minors, covering up acts of violence, plying cast members with booze and denying them food, sleep and mental health treatment.

Freedman talked all about it Friday on TMZ Live ... saying there's been hundreds of mentally ill people exploited by these reality shows, and he finds it "deplorable."

A spokesperson for NBC issued a statement, claiming they're “committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows.”

Some reality stars have gone scorched earth against NBC and, it appears, in particular, Bravo ... claiming its reality stars have been subjected to "grotesque and depraved mistreatment."

TMZ has obtained a letter sent by attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos to NBC, claiming current and former cast and crew members of its reality shows have been tormented. Among the allegations:

-- Deliberate attempts to manufacture mental instability by plying cast members with alcohol while depriving them of food and sleep

-- Denying mental health treatment to cast members displaying obvious and alarming signs of mental deterioration

-- Exploiting minors for uncompensated and sometimes long-term appearances on NBC reality TV shows

-- Distributing and/or condoning the distribution of non-consensual pornography

-- Covering up acts of sexual violence

-- Refusing to allow cast members the freedom to leave their shows, even under dire circumstances

The pornography claim is interesting ... in the letter, the lawyers mention "distribution of revenge porn," though they do not elaborate.

The letter demands that NBC retain a slew of information, including "nonconsensual pornography in connection with cast members ... [and] alleged sexual violence perpetrated by or against cast members ..."

The lawyers claim NBC has "threatened [cast members] with ruin should they decide to speak out about their mistreatment."

This aligns with Bethenny Frankel's call to unionize reality stars.

We reached out to NBC for comment ... so far, no word back.

Jimmy Fallon says he wouldn't have a late-night show without his writers, and he supports them in their strike, but a 'Tonight Show' staffer begs to differ ... claiming Jimmy's all talk.

Sarah Kobos, a senior photo research coordinator on Jimmy's talk show, ripped him Tuesday on social media as the writers' strike began, saying ... "He wasn't even at the meeting this morning to tell us we won't get paid after this week."

Sarah tagged Jimmy in her tweet, adding ... "@jimmyfallon please support your staff. Had fun bowling with ya last week, but a fun party won't pay my rent."

Jimmy, like all other late-night hosts, is scrambling to figure out how to handle personnel matters during the writer's strike, which will affect all employees -- including non-writers -- because all the network talk shows are shutting down.

Monday at the Met Gala, Jimmy was asked about the strike and told Variety, "I wouldn’t have a show if it wasn't for my writers, I support them all the way."

In follow-up tweets, Sarah says she's not a striking worker because she isn't a member of the Writers Guild of America, but again ... with all the shows airing reruns, her livelihood will be impacted nonetheless.

She adds 'Tonight Show' employees were told "NBC decided to stop paying us after this week and end our health insurance after this month if the strike is ongoing. They won't even tell us if we will technically be furloughed. Just active employees who aren't paid."

Fairly or not, Sarah also openly compared Jimmy to Seth Meyers, who hosts 'Late Night' on NBC ... saying she was told Seth was on a Zoom meeting telling his staff and crew he would try to take care of them financially "after NBC stops paying."

Johnny Depp's star lawyer, Camille Vasquez, has a sweet new TV gig ... she's working for NBC as an on-air legal analyst, and on her first day she's tackling the biggest criminal case in the country.

Camille appeared Monday on the "Today" show, where she joined Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie to discuss Bryan Kohberger ... who's been charged for the quadruple murder in Idaho. The 2 cohosts asked her to size it all up, and to weigh in on how strong the state's case is against him, based on what we know so far.

According to CV ... Kohberger has a steep hill to climb, because she says investigators and prosecutors aren't in the habit of revealing all their cards from the get-go. On the contrary, she suggests there might be even more damning evidence beyond what's been revealed so far in the police affidavit ... which includes DNA, cell phone data and eyewitness accounts.

Camille says they probably put just enough in the docs to get probable cause for an arrest, but notes there could be more revealed in court. She also talked about the pros and cons of having the public so engaged in this case ... saying tips could certainly be helpful, but too much sleuthing could also be a red herring.

Pretty solid first outing as a media personality for Camille ... a job that came after 4 major networks were clamoring for her expertise since she won the defamation case for Depp.

She's not going fully Hollywood ... Camille is still a partner at her firm, Brown Rudnick, so she's quite busy these days.

Keke Palmer made a big reveal during her monologue Saturday night on 'SNL' -- the buzz is real ... she's having a baby!

Keke's having her first kid with BF Darius Jackson, and she didn't just say it ... she showed it!!!

She said, "There's some rumors going around, people have been in my comments saying, 'Keke's having a baby, Keke's pregnant,' and I wanna set the record straight ... I am!"

Not sure how far along she is, but judging from the bump, she's well down the road. She confessed she has lots going on right now and wanted to keep it a secret for as long as she could.

The most hilarious part ... she said, "Even though some people feel a little weird about me having a baby cause I was a child actor, I just wanna say, look, I'm 29, I'm grown, I have sex, I own a home, I stormed the Capitol on January 6, you know? Things adults do."