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Two news sources, the Wall Street Journal and the Hollywood Reporter, have reported that Ryan Seacrest has been courted by NBC to take over as host of the Today show should Matt Lauer decide to leave next year.

Seacrest, the host of Fox’s American Idol, E! News and his own radio show, reportedly met with high-level executives at the network Tuesday night to talk about possibly taking on the role, according to the Journal.

The Journal adds that talks are highly preliminary. However, with Lauer possibly signaling that he was leaving the anchor position after 12 years, NBC has been looking at potential replacements.

Link courtesy AllAccess.com.

By DAN CORCORAN

A Palm Beach County man is doing all that he can to get the attention of Ellen DeGeneres. Renda Writer is a poet who has been struggling for years to share his work on the Ellen show. “It’s a struggle, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” said Renda, 33.

Renda said he fell in love with the spoken word as a child, often listening to hip-hop music and later crafting his own unique poetry. He said he always dreamed of getting his words out to the masses. “It’s a goal. And I feel like everyone has to have some sort of a goal in their life, something to focus on,” he said. Renda is focusing on appearing on his favorite talk show, next to one of his favorite comedians, Ellen DeGeneres.
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By RODNEY HO

Anderson Cooper was already a busy man at CNN. But like many of his peers at CNN and sister station HLN (Joy Behar, Dr. Drew, Piers Morgan), he is deciding to do double duty on TV.

Besides Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN at 8 p.m., he debuted his his syndicated chat show on Monday with family members of the late Amy Winehouse. (Currently, Anderson airs weekdays at 10 a.m. on WPBF-TV 25.) That’s the type of scoop that Oprah Winfrey might have gotten if she were still around doing her daily talk show.

But Cooper isn’t arrogant enough to say he’s filling Oprah’s shoes.

“I wouldn’t even dare try,” he said in an interview last week. “Oprah’s extraordinary. She’s not going anywhere. Her network is going through some ratings trouble but I have no doubt she’ll do well.”

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WALTER SCOTT ASKS…Anderson Cooper

The 44-year-old CNN anchor’s new syndicated daytime talk show, Anderson, premieres Sept. 12 (check your local listings).

What do you remember about Sept. 11?
“What was remarkable about being in New York at the time was the sense of the city pulling together. All of a sudden people had a common purpose and a sense of belonging.”
Ten years later, how can we best honor the people who died that day?
“With every new generation, we must remind people not only of those who were lost, but of the vulnerability we experienced and the threat that is out there.”

Monday, your show Anderson launches. What appeals to you about daytime TV?
“I like the intimacy of it and the connection you can build with an audience. I’ve always tried to give everyday people a voice. I want this show to be a place where they can tell their stories.”

Read more from our exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper

George and Cindy Anthony revealed to Dr. Phil McGraw that seizures may be to blame for Casey Anthony’s bizarre behavior surrounding her toddler’s death, according to a news report on the upcoming television episode.

McGraw’s publicist would not comment on his interview with Anthony’s parents, but Cindy Anthony reportedly said the seizures may be part of a mental-health condition that makes it difficult for her daughter to tell fact from fiction, possibly explaining the young woman’s lies, according to MyFoxOrlando.com.

This summer, a jury comprised of Pinellas County residents found Casey Anthony, 25, not-guilty of charges that she killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie in 2008.

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Soon, the Kardashian sisters are going to have a hard time keeping up with their mom, Kris Jenner.

Jenner appears on the E! reality show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and manages the careers of her daughters Khloe, Kourtney and Kim. She is also set to serve as a guest co-host on CBS‘ daytime show “The Talk” this fall.

“I hope a little bit of my own personality and the way that I am with my family is the same thing I am going to bring to ‘The Talk’ — as a mother and a wife and a businesswoman and a friend and all those things,” Jenner said in an interview Wednesday night at a party for the Kardashian Kollection at Sears.

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By DAVID BAUDER

With Oprah Winfrey gone, daytime television is ready for a new monarch.

Barbara Walters and the show she invented 15 years ago, “The View,” pronounce themselves ready to step up. She may be past 80 now, but would YOU bet against her?

The show begins its new season Tuesday, with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as guest. In a muddled daytime picture, “The View” plans to compete aggressively for displaced Winfrey viewers with a more topical feel, aggressive booking of guests and a few pages ripped from Oprah’s playbook.

“Oprah was the only other show that did some of the things that we did,” said Bill Geddie, executive producer. “Quite honestly, some of the people that we might have gotten second, we’ll be getting first now.”

“The View” has just as much chance as any to become the daytime talk leader. Late afternoon, where Winfrey’s show ran across most of the country, is considered a more desired time slot than the 11 a.m. home of “The View.” But a big mixture of personalities like Dr. Phil, Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper and Dr. Oz will now be competing in the afternoon, some of them new to their time slots or new to the business, and none goes in with a huge advantage in the ratings, said Bill Carroll, an expert in the daytime market for Katz Media.

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ABC on Friday apologized to its viewers for Nicki Minaj’s wardrobe slip up that exposed the singer’s bare breast during her summer concert performance on morning news show Good Morning America.

Usually known for her outlandish outfits and offbeat fashion, the rapper and R&B singer’s crop top slipped down while she was rocking the stage at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield during the live broadcast.

The costuming snafu brought immediate complaints from some viewers and prompted ABC to apologize and remove the images from later, time-delayed broadcasts of GMA.

“Although we had a five-second delay in place for the Nicki Minaj concert on GMA, the live East Coast feed of the concert regrettably included certain fleeting images of the performer that were taken out of later feeds of the broadcast in other time zones. We are sorry that this occurred,” ABC said in its statement.

For Minaj, the show went on, as she continued her music set with her hit songs “Moment for Life” and “Super Bass.”