TV

ABC wants to move forward with a second reboot of "Roseanne" and we're told an announcement could be imminent.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... network executives kicked negotiations into third gear when Tom Werner, who produced "Roseanne" through his company Carsey-Werner, got involved over the weekend in direct talks with top network brass. His involvement has all but sealed the deal.

Our sources say the network's fine tuning last-minute details ... particularly around Roseanne, who was not only the face of the show, but also served as an executive producer.

TMZ broke the story ... ABC has been exploring the possibility of rebranding the show and focus on Sara Gilbert's character, Darlene. John Goodman is "very interested" ... as is the rest of the cast and crew.

There is a possible snag. Although ABC seems to have good cause to fire Roseanne as both the star and Executive Producer, the network may be contractually bound to pay her a fee or back end or both for her participation in creating the show. ABC, of course, could argue it's now a different show.

We were told ABC was desperately trying to salvage the jobs of those affected by ABC's swift decision to axe the show ... but there's reason for optimism ... especially for crew members who passed on other jobs in town, believing Season 2 was a go.

And now it is ... albeit a rebranded version. We're told an announcement could come as early as this week.

Oprah Winfrey is now a Pacific Northwest land owner, but you'll have to take a ferry to find her new crib ... and she dropped major coin to keep it that way.

O just bought a sprawling 43-acre estate on Orcas Island tucked away in an inlet, north of Seattle. The property she purchased is known as Madroneagle, and she spent $8.275 million to have it all to herself.

The estate comes with a main house, a guest house, a gazebo with glass walls, a barn and workshop, a sauna and a craft shed. The main house is 3 stories with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The guest house is also a 4 bed, 3 bath, but significantly smaller in square footage.

Sources close to the deal tell us Oprah never set foot on the island to see the new pad in person. She clearly read enough to pull the trigger, though. We don't know if she's planning to actually live there part-time, but it looks like she should!

Kenya Moore is shutting down any haters who doubt she's preggo at 49 by sharing the ultrasound.

The Atlanta 'Housewife' first hinted about pregnancy during the season 10 reunion episode back in April. She said she and her husband, Marc Daly, "will definitely be welcoming a boy or girl in late this year."

Many didn't believe her due to her age, but the ultrasound appears to be proof it's on the up and up.

Kenya has been struggling to get pregnant since marrying Daly in 2017. She flew to Barbados in November for IVF treatment at a world-renowned fertility center.

Kenya's not saying yet how far along she is right now. She says the ultrasound was captured earlier in in her pregnancy.

Sara Gilbert is finally speaking out about Roseanne Barr and ABC pulling the plug on the "Roseanne" reboot ... and she's in complete agreement with the network.

Sara made her first on-camera remarks Monday on her other show, "The Talk," and right off the bat admitted, it's "been a very difficult week." She also talked about how hurtful Roseanne's tweets were to everyone, cast and crew, who worked on the show.

TMZ broke the story ... there are talks going on about possibly bringing the show back, but having it center around Sara's character. She did not talk about that.

Tom Arnold says his ex-wife, Roseanne, is undeniably racist ... also acknowledging she's plagued by mental illness.

Tom was on "Good Morning Britain" Monday when Piers Morgan asked him about the tweet that tanked the show. He says Roseanne has been off the rails the last 6 months ... so he's not surprised.

He says Roseanne suffers from mental illness -- multiple personality disorder -- but that doesn't excuse what she said. He talked about her meds, but didn't think the Ambien defense holds water.

Jay Leno may have scared the crap out of people Saturday, when he drove what looked like a super-fortified tank through the streets of Los Angeles.

Jay -- an avid car collector who seems to have just about every model built -- was in the driver's seat of the Ferret Scout armored car.

The vehicle was built in 1949 ... after WWII. it was used until 1971 as a fighting vehicle. It was built in Great Britain.

Ben Stein's not going to pile on Roseanne after her racist tweet got her show canceled -- in fact ... he sympathizes and believes her claim that Ambien made her do it.

The "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" actor was leaving Mr Chow in Bev Hills Friday night when he got asked about the Roseanne debacle ... he says it's not her fault and he feels sorry for her.

Unlike many other celebs, Stein doesn't think Barr's a racist but was just screwed up from her medicine ... and seems upset people are being mean to her.

As we reported ... ABC canned "Roseanne" shortly after her racist tweet went viral, but she claimed her comment was Ambien-induced. Ambien quickly denounced that.

"Roseanne" may be on the verge of rising from the dead with a second reboot, but this time centered around Sara Gilbert's character ... TMZ has learned.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... the powers that be at ABC are exploring the possibility of re-branding the show and focusing on the character Darlene instead of Roseanne.

We're told Sara's been calling cast members to gauge their interest in the event ABC gives the reboot the green light. We're told John Goodman is "very interested."

Our sources say Tom Werner, who produced "Roseanne" through his company Carsey-Werner, is involved in the effort to reboot the show around Sara.

What's more ... ABC is desperately trying to salvage the jobs of those who were affected by its swift decision to cancel the show earlier this week ... especially for the writers and crew.

Lil Rel feels Tracy Morgan disrespected and "hated" on Tiffany Haddish during a recent interview -- and says Tracy's show, "The Last O.G.," would be irrelevant without her!!!

Rel -- who starred on "The Carmichael Show" with Haddish -- is responding to Morgan's appearance on 'Vulture Spot' last week when he was asked if it's been cool watching Tiffany's career blow up!

Softball question, right? Wrong.

"We're not gonna go there," Morgan said ... "because this isn't Tiffany's show. This is Tracy Morgan. This is 'The Last O.G.'"

He continued, "You gonna ask that about Tiffany, ask that about Cedric [the Entertainer] and ask that about craft services."

Morgan says he was trying to make the point he didn't want to "just shine a light on Tiffany."

But, Rel ain't havin' it and went off on Morgan on Twitter, saying, "This is one hating ass dude right here."

"That show would be nothing if @TiffanyHaddish wasn’t on it... Don’t bite the hand that keeps you relevant!!!"

We should note Rel only posted a portion of the 'Vulture' interview -- but we found the expanded version in which Morgan tries to do some damage control saying ... he "loves" Tiffany and considers all of the actors on his show to be a family.

Lena Dunham was apparently yanking our chain when she said she'd be down to write a new show for the remaining characters on "Roseanne." Joke's on us.

We got the "Girls" creator -- who acted in and wrote for the HBO show -- at LAX Thursday, where we asked if she was serious about her Twitter offer to "do the spin off of your show starring Darlene's cool kids."

Lena had retweeted Mindy Kaling, who offered to "write things" for John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf -- just a couple of the many folks who are now out of a job after ABC pulled the plug. As you might've heard, Roseanne's racist tweet completely tanked the show.

Welp ... turns out Lena is NOT actually interested at the moment. She tells our photog, on a scale of 0-10 as far as seriousness ... it's at the very bottom.

'Jersey Shore' outcast Angelina Pivarnick's made her return and, even though it got a little nasty with the crew, she says they went out on good terms ... until JWoww started running her mouth again.

Angelina tells TMZ ... despite a heated confrontation with JWoww and Snooki on Thursday night's episode of "Jersey Shore Family Vacation," she was actually in a decent place with everyone once her reunion with the cast was done filming.

Then ... she heard JWoww was trashing her about a fan's Change.org petition, which Angelina claims is both immature and incorrect. She tells us this is what led to her "Jersey Whore" diss toward JWoww last week.

There's a soft side to this feud, though -- Ang concedes JWoww's a good person and respects her for being a good mom ... but believes they need to work out their differences in a more grown-up way.

Sean Spicer supports Samantha Bee apologizing for calling Ivanka Trump the c-word on her show, but doesn't think it's enough ... and he wants TBS to follow ABC's lead.

The former White House Press Secretary was out in NYC Thursday and weighed in on the controversy, telling TMZ he believes there's clearly a double standard ... because Roseanne's show got canceled almost immediately after she made a racist comment on Twitter.

Sean says Bee's comment was just as inappropriate, and the right thing to do would be to give her show the axe as well.

Spicer also gave his take on another hot-button issue -- Donald Trump's pardon of Dinesh D'Souza.

Drake should NOT stoop down to Pusha T's level in their war of words, because it's not worth his bottom line ... so says Damon Wayans Jr., who also admits he's enjoying the HELL outta their beef.

We got Damon Thursday at LAX, and he had a strong take on Drake vs. Pusha. Specifically, whether Drake should fire back after Pusha's brutal diss track about Drake's ethnicity, his childhood and his alleged secret son.

He's confident Drake's got it in him to be just as savage ... IF he chooses to respond to Pusha's "Story of Adidon." However ... Damon says there are millions of reasons (or dollars) why it's not a good idea.

Talk show legend Montel Williams was rushed to the hospital in NYC Wednesday after suffering a medical emergency during a workout at a local gym ... TMZ has learned.

The good news ... we're told he's doing well and expects to be discharged soon.

We spoke with Montel's rep, Jonathan Franks, who tells us Williams was doing dumbbell squats when something went wrong. We're told he didn't feel right and went back up to his room. While there, he realized the situation was serious and he needed medical attention so he called for help.

We're told emergency responders got to Montel in less than 5 MINUTES and he was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

"The Williams family will be forever grateful for the quick response from NYFD and the excellent care he has received," Franks says.

Williams is expected to make a full recovery -- but his rep tells us, "We don't take any chances when it comes to somebody with Multiple Sclerosis."

"He's doing well," the rep adds ... noting Montel already wants to get back to work.

"We just had to cancel a speech and he's extremely unhappy he won't be able to give his speech tomorrow."

David Arquette is fed up with you damn haters, and tells TMZ Sports he's coming back to pro wrestling to shut up everyone who's been dissing his foray into the squared circle 20 years ago.

You might not remember ... but David was once WCW Heavyweight Champion (yes, it happened) back in 2000 as a story line to promote Arquette's movie "Ready To Rumble."

Fans hated it from the get-go, and it's been almost universally viewed as one of the absolute worst moments in professional wrestling history ever since.

David told our guy in NYC he's tired of the disrespect ... and is returning to the ring to clear his name.

"People have been giving me a hard time for 18 years and I'm sick of it."

Arquette says he's taking it seriously too, hiring a bevy of champion coaches to make him into a real deal LEGIT wrestler this time around so that the fans do the one thing he wants.

DuShon Monique Brown -- who played Connie on "Chicago Fire" -- died of a blood infection, but it's unclear how her system became contaminated ... TMZ has learned.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office tells us Brown's cause of death was sepsis, with an unknown origin. Sepsis typically occurs when harmful bacteria infiltrates the blood, often from an untreated wound.

We're told other contributing factors to her death include high blood pressure and obesity.

As we reported ... DuShon died back in March after falling ill while she was at home in Chicago. She'd just been released from a hospital a few days prior ... after she'd received treatment for chest pains.

She starred on "Chicago Fire" ever since the show debuted in 2012 -- and also had a role on the FOX show "Prison Break" from 2005 to 2007.

She is survived by a daughter. DuShon was 49.