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Brody Jenner gave MTV his filming preference -- he'd only resume filming "The Hills: New Beginnings" if it's shot in L.A. and nowhere else, and guess what? The network said okay.

Production sources tell TMZ ... other cast members were willing to leave LaLa land and film in a bubble at a house that would house the full cast, similar to what they do in "Big Brother" and "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation." Some of the locations being considered ... Colorado and Montana. But, Brody was NOT having it.

We're told in early August, Brody's team started conversations with the network and insisted he'd only film the show in L.A. We're told he explained the show's supposed to be about cast members and their lives revolving around the things they do in L.A., not some random location outside of SoCal.

Brody also told the network he'd be willing to wait and resume production of season 2 until there was a vaccine for COVID-19. The pandemic shut down the season 3 episodes in.

We're told MTV continued pressuring Brody into relenting ... but Brody put his foot down.

Finally, MTV came back to him one last time and when Brody AGAIN said no to filming outside of L.A., MTV gave in, realizing it couldn't do the show without him. We're told season 2 will resume production in L.A. in the next 2 to 4 weeks.

"Saturday Night Live" came back with a flurry Saturday night, with a strong measure of social justice ... calling out Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, playing audio saying he's no different than "the sellout negroes that sold our people into slavery."

Megan was performing her song, "Savage," when suddenly you hear the sounds of gunshots. She stops singing and says ... “We need to protect our Black women and love our Black women, because at the end of the day we need our Black women,” Megan goes on ... “We need to protect our Black men and stand up for our Black men, because at the end of the day, we’re tired of seeing hashtags of our Black men."

The cold open was hysterical ... lampooning Tuesday's debate with Jim Carrey as Biden and, of course, Alec Baldwin as the Prez. Beck Bennett had the unenviable task of playing moderator Chris Wallace. He had a funny/ominous line ... "Just to ensure this is the worst presidential debate in history, I'd like to close with white supremacy."

The most hilarious part of the open ... Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, who made it clear, there's an endgame to all of this.

The season 46 premiere returned after a 4-month hiatus. There was a small, masked studio audience -- those seats were filled by first responders.

The cast did not hold back telling jokes about the latest -- Trump's coronavirus diagnosis. Colin Jost and Michael Che yukked it up about the irony of it all, as Michael wished Trump a lengthy recovery.

Colin said there was a major scramble to address the developments over the last 72 hours ... “This news was a lot for us to process a day before we came back on the air after four months off,” Jost went on ... “It’s been very weird to see all these people who clearly hate Trump come out and say ‘We wish him well.’ I think a lot of them are just guilty that their first wish came true.”

Chris Rock hosted, and had a hilarious line ... “The elephant in the room, President Trump’s in the hospital from COVID. And, I just want to say, my heart goes out to COVID."

"Love Island" cast member Noah Purvis was suddenly no longer a resident, and it's because of some of his old racy videos and photos ... he confirms with TMZ.

The rumors began to swirl when viewers noticed Noah was absent from the villa a couple weeks back, and CBS later addressed it, claiming he "provided false information on his application ... which violates his contestant agreement."

Noah explains the situation in more detail though, telling us the producers informed him they learned about an alias he used in the past while shooting adult videos and photos ... and at that point, he knew he was screwed.

Noah says he'd forgotten about the porn and even told producers he was promised it would never surface, but it did ... and "Love Island" didn't love it and gave him the ax.

As for why he chose to dabble in porn ... Noah says it was mostly for the money, but he also hoped it would gain him some exposure with producers.

Ironically it did ... but not in the way he hoped.

The "Saturday Night Live" cast and host, Chris Rock, are trying like hell to keep up with the constantly changing news about President Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis ahead of the season premiere.

Leading up to Saturday's Season 46 kickoff, the first Presidential debate was the big story we all expected to see lampooned, but that all changed early Friday morning with the President and First Lady testing positive.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ ... writers and producers are now trying to figure out how to address the topic, and what adjustments, if any, have to be made the cold open or Rock's opening monologue.

We're told it's a very fluid situation, but 'SNL' wants to be sensitive ... and our sources say meetings and discussions were going on late into Friday night.

The good news -- for 'SNL' cast and crew anyway -- is we're told production and the writing staff isn't making drastic changes to what they had planned. Of course, you can expect to see the President's health addressed during the "Weekend Update" segment.

Our sources say the episode still won't shy away from the debate or campaign battles. Aside from Rock hosting, the premiere's heavily anticipated because Jim Carrey is taking on the role of Joe Biden, while Maya Rudolph returns as Kamala Harris.

If that wasn't enough for ya ... Megan Thee Stallion is the musical guest.

Tim Allen and his good buddy Richard Karn are providing a sweet dose of nostalgia for '90s kids ... filming together again for a show they'll co-host together.

The "Home Improvement" stars are working together again for the competition show "Assembly Required" on the History channel. Richard was so excited about the reunion, he posted a pic. If you have any doubts about how much fans wanna see 'em back together -- it racked up nearly 20,000 likes in just a few minutes!

Tim might have given just a smirk for the pic, but he's been excited about this since back in August when he announced they were gonna be doing the show. As he put it then, "I created a competition show with @History and my old buddy @TheRichardKarn to challenge the people who love to get stuff done!"

The series -- which doesn't have a premiere date yet -- will feature builders from across the country who are tasked to fix all kinds of household items.

For those of you too young ... Tim and Richard's "Home Improvement" was a hit sitcom on ABC from 1991 to 1999. Since then, Richard has guest-starred on Tim's "Last Man Standing" -- but this new series is the closest we've come to a "Home Improvement" reboot.

Towanda Braxton apparently didn't tell her family she's getting hitched ... which explains the shock her sister, Trina, and mom, Evelyn, had when a photog broke the news to them.

Trina and her mother were at LAX Wednesday when they found out about Towanda's secret, apparently, engagement to family friend and music producer Sean Hall. Check out the video ... the photog tells Trina, and the absolute surprise is written all over her face -- and then she had to break it to the Braxton matriarch.

Ya gotta see Evelyn's reaction too!

Now, the reason the photog had this info is he'd seen Towanda and Sean on Tuesday, and they let the cat out of the bag about getting married.

Somehow, it slipped their minds to clue in Trina and Evelyn ... and we gotta wonder if anyone else in the fam got the engagement alert.

Speaking of the other Braxtons ... Tamar's feud with her now ex-BF, David Adefeso, and the ensuing restraining order are still weighing on the family. Naturally.

Carole Baskin's reality TV dreams are keeping her in Hollywood, but we're told her animal rescue center won't take a hit while she's on the other side of the country.

The 'Tiger King' star was booted from "Dancing with the Stars" Monday, and now she's setting her sights on shopping a new reality show about animal exploitation ... but fear not, our sources say Carole's Big Cat Rescue is in good hands.

Sources close to Carole tell TMZ ... her daughter, Jaime, runs the animal care part of BCR -- Carole's mainly been doing advocacy anyway -- so the exotic animals at the Tampa sanctuary won't suffer while Carole's away.

We're told Jaime's overseeing hundreds of volunteers at the sanctuary, and they handle the day-to-day animal care, so that essential function's not in peril.

The volunteers are super valuable right now ... our sources say Carole and her husband, Howard, were among the 10 staff members who were laid off at Big Cat Rescue when the pandemic hit, and the rescue still can't hire any more staff to help out.

Carole and Howard are still working full time advocating for Big Cat Rescue, we're told, but they aren't collecting a paycheck at this point.

Fact is ... Carole's got other revenue streams anyways. She had a busy stint on 'DWTS' and now she's producing and starring in a reality show she's actively shopping.

Our sources say the show is primarily about the work Carole and Howard have been undertaking for years -- tracking down animal abusers, exposing them and bringing them to justice through the legal system -- only now there's a film crew in tow.

Sophia Hutchins and Caitlyn Jenner have signaled publicly how much they want to be part of 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' ... and now we're told they're actively trying to make it happen.

Sources close to the gal pals tell TMZ ... Sophia recently sat down for dinner with former 'Housewives' castmate Eileen Davidson, and they talked about the show and the possibility of Sophia filling a vacancy.

We're told they also chatted about Eileen's experience on the show and Sophia got enough good feedback that she decided 'RHOBH' was something she wanted to do.

Our sources say Sophia's camp reached out to production and the sides have been talking about the possibility of her joining the show, possibly as a main cast member ... and Sophia's roommate Caitlyn would also make appearances.

Sophia seems like a good fit ... she knows Lisa Rinna socially, and Caitlyn knows Harry Hamlin ... so it could be organic for them to come aboard.

We got Sophia outside Craig's in West Hollywood and she was coy about joining the show, but our sources say Caitlyn advised Sophia to pursue a spot and wants to be a "friend of the show" herself.

As you know, Sophia and Caitlyn live out in Malibu, but that wouldn't be unprecedented on 'RHOBH' ... a lot of the housewives have lived in the 'Bu, including Denise Richards.

We broke the story ... Kathy Hilton is also in talks to become a series regular, but hasn't pulled the trigger on Bravo's offer.

As for Sophia and Caitlyn, our sources say nothing has been signed but they are hoping to snag spots.

"Family Guy" showrunners have found their new Cleveland Brown voice -- it's a Black YouTuber who can handle the role with ease, and probably a few others on the show too.

Arif Zahir has been cast to voice Cleveland for the 19th season come 2021-2022. The former longtime white voice actor for Cleveland, Mike Henry, will have his last go-round for the 18th season, which premieres Sunday. He announced in June he was dropping the role.

Zahir is a great pick ... for one, he's African-American, something 'FG' producers and Henry himself wanted in the new actor to take up the mantle. More importantly, the guy's spot-on with his impression ... something he's showcased on his channel for a while now.

He's famous for his impersonations, which include Cleveland, Obama, Trump, Ted, Stewie Griffin, 21 Savage ... and others. In case you didn't catch it -- that's THREE characters in the MacFarland-verse that Zahir can pull off no problem -- and he could probably do Peter just as easily. So, if Seth was ever sick during a recording day, Arif could potentially fill in.

The point is ... the dude's a catch-all talent, and Henry himself acknowledged as much. He says of the casting, "I welcome Arif to the Family Guy team. Arif’s vocal talent is obvious, but his understanding of Cleveland and his respect for the character give me confidence that he is in the right hands." He adds, "I look forward to getting to know Arif and working with him to make sure Cleveland stays every bit as awesome as he has always been."

Larissa Lima says she's out of the '90 Day Fiance' universe for good -- but it's not because she wanted to leave ... it sounds like she's accusing the network of giving her the boot.

The Brazilian reality star made the announcement Saturday, which seemed to tie up a rocky week-and-a-half-plus she and her current boyfriend, Eric, have gone through ... ever since she raised a boatload of cash with a camgirl sesh, with a Kylie-esque makeover to show off.

Of course, shortly after that good fortune ... Larissa and Eric tried getting outta Dodge for the Rocky Mountains -- they said they were leaving Las Vegas and moving to Colorado Springs, presumably to start fresh. Their plans for '90 Day' were a bit unclear at the time.

Now, they're crystal clear ... because Larissa says she's out, and supposedly -- it's because TLC, which airs the series as well as its spinoffs, released her from her contract.

Larissa writes, "Dear Friends and Followers, I want to make a statement for you, I am no longer a cast member of the show '90 Day Fiance.'" She goes on to say, "Because of my show with CamSoda, I was released from my contract with TLC by phone the day before ICE arrested me." Larissa says she'll continue producing her own content on her own platforms.

As we reported ... Larissa dropped a small fortune -- upwards of $72k -- for a handful of cosmetic surgeries, all with the goal of looking as close to Kylie Jenner as possible. It would appear the investment paid off -- because we've heard her cam show raked in more than $100k for the one hour it was on. Assuming Larissa received anywhere north of half of that in her agreement with the porn company, she likely made her money back, and maybe some.

That might all be for naught, however, because we also learned ICE might be gunning to deport her after her brief detainment a week ago.

Here's Javicia Leslie taking over as the new "Batwoman" ... and TMZ has the first look at the new getup.

Javicia's in her full 'Batwoman' gear after taking over for Ruby Rose on the CW series ... and this is the first time she's been spotted filming for season 2 in the new-look costume.

As you know ... Javicia is making history here as the first Black woman to take on the role of 'Batwoman.'

Javicia's been teasing the new suit for a while on her social media, and now fans are finally seeing what it's all about ... and we gotta say, she looks like a badass who is more than ready to fight some crime.

As you can see, the suit is black with red accents, and Javicia's got red hair to top it all off. Her boots look like they could kick some serious butt.

Bad guys beware, there's a new 'Batwoman' in town!!!

Nelly's found the ultimate way to appease the judges on "Dancing with the Stars" who told him to ditch his sneakers for dancing shoes -- instead, he has the best of both worlds.

Despite wowing the crowd with his "Ride Wit Me" salsa dance on last week's show -- culminating with a backflip -- the rapper took some heat for wearing Jordans instead of traditional dance shoes.

Nelly insists the judges are just hating on hip-hop with their criticism, but instead of pushing back ... he got creative.

Check it out -- Nelly, aka Yung Swivel, might just have the dopest dancing shoes of all time on 'DWTS.' They look like Air Jordans on the upper with traditional ballroom dancing soles -- or as Nelly put it on IG ... "HIPHOP 4DA WIN!!!"

If you haven't been watching, Nelly's become an early fan favorite on season 29 of the reality dance competition ... because he looks like he's having the most fun.

The first elimination goes down Tuesday night, and though Carole Baskin received the lowest score during the premiere, she's not expected to go home.

Regina King pulled a real-life hero move by wearing a Breonna Taylor shirt while accepting her Emmy for playing a superhero ... so says Breonna's family attorney, Ben Crump.

The civil rights lawyer was at LAX Monday, sporting a Breonna mask himself, when he lauded the "Watchmen" star and all the other celebs who used their very public platforms at the 2020 Emmys to remind everyone ... justice still hasn't been served.

Crump tells us what Regina and others did keeps Black victims' stories from being swept under the rug. He also said the gesture -- also made by Uzo Aduba during her acceptance -- reminds him of something the iconic Harry Belafonte once said about how and when to use your influence.

Ben added, the continued public support for justice for Breonna keeps him hopeful the cops who killed her will soon be charged.

As we've reported ... no criminal charges have been brought in the case of Breonna's death, but the City of Louisville did reach a settlement last week with her estate. Louisville will pay out a historic amount of money, and also pledged major police reforms.

The "Full House" cast joined a band and dropped a new music video ... all to celebrate dogs!!!

Bob Saget, John Stamos, Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, Andrea Barber and Dave Coulier joined forces to help "Full House" creator Jeff Franklin celebrate National Dog Week with a music video pushing for animal awareness.

The group -- dubbed The Full Dog-House -- performed "Gotta Love a Golden" ... an original song written by Franklin himself and a tribute to his favorite breed, golden retrievers. The music video aims to raise awareness and fight animal homelessness around the U.S. of A.

Check out the music video ... which features the puppies Woody and Lola living the dream (shout out to Comet and Cosmo in "Fuller House!!!"). Of course, Stamos is playing the congas, as he tends to do, while the rest of the TV fam showed off their singing pipes.

Franklin's original song is available for purchase ... with proceeds going to PetSmart Charities to celebrate National Dog Week. Fans can also hit up the popular pet store and make a contribution there.

The creator says, "As the proud owner of two awesome golden retrievers, I know firsthand how important the consistent comfort and unconditional love that a pet can provide." He added, "Creating forever homes for our pets continues to be one of my life missions."

Awesomeness all around!!!

Carole Baskin participating in "Dancing with the Stars" proves she doesn't give a rip about the animals in her care ... or so claims Doc Antle, who has some harsh thoughts.

The 'Tiger King' star tore into Carole in this exclusive clip, obtained by TMZ. In what's part of a new documentary Doc's heavily featured in, he openly wonders how Carole could be away for weeks of 'DWTS' ... IF she really cares for the animals at her sanctuary.

For him, it just doesn't add up ... and he essentially calls Carole a hypocrite for something she's previously said about her "best friends."

As we're told ... Carole's hubby, Howard, is handling the day-to-day operation of her Big Cat Rescue ... along with her daughter, Jamie. Our sources say they also have 100 volunteers helping out.

Still, Doc says that wouldn't fly at most reputable animal sanctuaries, and he thinks it reflects poorly on Carole.

As for how he thinks she's doing so far on the pasodoble front, Doc tells TMZ he thinks Carole's a "terrible dancer." Aside from that, he's digging the season thus far.

Turns out Jennifer Aniston is a boss with a fire extinguisher, lucky for Jimmy Kimmel ... as their dumpster fire bit at the Emmys, inadvertently, turned into a recreation of 2020.

The fire gag went down early in Sunday's live broadcast of the Emmys from Staples Center ... Jennifer was the night's first awards presenter. The fiery joke showed them first cleaning any potential coronavirus off the envelope ... by spraying it with Lysol and lighting it on fire, naturally.

Thing is ... the envelope wouldn't stop burning!!! Jimmy and Jen looked shocked, and she had to blast the extinguisher 5 times before the fire finally went out.

It all played like a metaphor for the massive wildfires currently burning in California and Oregon. Hell, you could even extend that metaphor to all of 2020 -- COVID-19, racism, social injustice, politics, hurricanes, etc ...

Ya get the point ... someone please extinguish this year.