Entertainment
Kelly Clarkson staffers fear show’s ‘collapse’ as singer’s uncertain TV future looms

Kelly Clarkson has reportedly made her eponymous talk show staffers fear for their jobs as rumors continue to swirl that she wants to quit her show.
A producer on the “Kelly Clarkson Show” talked to the Daily Mail on Monday about the general feeling of unease among staff members.
“Not feeling too stable,” the staffer alleged. “She could bolt at any time. Where does that leave me?”
The producer clarified that, although “everyone loves Kelly” and is “a wonderful person,” they would “understand” if she wanted to leave because she’s “unhappy.”
“She should move on,” the source pointed out.
The insider also addressed the possibility of “Today” show alum Hoda Kotb taking over for the “Behind These Hazel Eyes” singer.
“Maybe Hoda would be a better boss. I know she’s universally beloved and respected by her former coworkers. Maybe she would be good. She sure would be a lot more stable than what we’ve been going through,” the producer said.
“If Hoda wants to do it, it could be win-win for everyone.”
Reps for the show and Clarkson did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Back in March, Clarkson worried fans when she was absent from the show for over two weeks without any explanation.
However, a source told TMZ at the time that the “Since U Been Gone” singer, 43, was “completely fine,” but had been “dealing with a personal matter that does not directly involve her.”
The undisclosed matter wasn’t “a cause for alarm.”
In April, Page Six exclusively revealed she wanted to leave the show once her contract expires in 2026 to spend more time with daughter River Rose, 10, and son Remy, 8.
“Kelly’s No. 1 priority is her children, and they always will be. The show is grueling. It’s a whole lot of work, and I hear that Kelly would like to spend more time down South,” an industry insider told us, referencing her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas.
Before moving to NYC for her show, Clarkson lived in Encino, Calif., and Montana with her two kids and now-ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock.
Additionally, it seems like her decision to stay or leave will be based on the success of her upcoming ninth album and Las Vegas residency, which are both set to debut this summer.
Amid the “American Idol” winner’s desires to leave and the uncertainty of the show, we revealed that NBC executives were willing to do anything to make her stay.
But it seems like they have given up as they started to build a list of possible replacements, including their very own Kotb.
“There’s a long list of names and Hoda is part of that list,” a source told The Post earlier this month.
“NBC never wanted Hoda to leave. The question is, would Hoda want to do it?”
Kotb, 60, took a step back from NBC when she quit the “Today” show in January after 26 years with the network to focus on her daughters.
The insider claimed that execs want to replace Clarkson with someone who already has a fanbase and a diverse background.
“Hoda ticks a lot of boxes. She’s an Egyptian, older Kelly Clarkson,” the source said.
The “Kelly Clarkson Show” has earned 22 Daytime Emmys and an average of 1.2 million viewers per day in the 2024-2025 season.
Entertainment
Country star Kane Brown suffers freak golf ball accident

Country star Kane Brown is thanking his lucky stars after he was hit by a golf ball at a high rate of speed — and lived to tell about it.
“Shot in the head by a golf ball,” he wrote via Instagram Stories on Tuesday, including a photo of his badly injured ear.
In another pic, the “Heaven” hitmaker shared pics of the split ear with stitches, writing atop the pic, “Just a scratch.”
Via TikTok, he shared a clip of himself in a vehicle with a view of his stitches, saying, “23 stitches later, and a slight concussion,” joking that he was now “at Chick-Fil-A” for a snack.
“They said it will prob get worse next 48 hours but I’m alive and that’s all that matters … holy crap,” he added atop the clip, adding, “Hurt 😢 asf but I’m alive that’s what matters” in the caption.
He broke down the entire incident in more graphic detail in another TikTok.
“Story time,” he began in the clip, in which blood stains could be seen on his collar, noting that he “got hit in the ear with a golf ball.”
“A lot of people, they think that the ball came over multiple fairways,” he continued. “No, this one, it was my own buddy.”
While Brown noted that he would not “name any names,” he also divulged that the friend “feels terrible.”
“But he needs to know that I’m good,” Brown explained, sharing that he “went to the hospital” and had “everything checked out.”
“I just had a split ear and some swelling,” he continued. “But if it would have been right here,” he said, tapping the side of his face and the back of his head, “I wouldn’t be here.”
“It was about a 150 to 180 mile an hour ball, a three-wood slice,” he recalled, noting that there was “just enough time” after the pal swung his golf club for him to turn his head before the moment of impact.
Brown insisted that his ear was “technically the best possible place” the golf ball could have hit him.
“I’m just glad I’m here,” Brown — who had to miss the Tight End University concert on Tuesday due to the injury — exclaimed.
“Yall be careful out there when playing golf,” Brown, 32, captioned the video on Wednesday.
Fans flooded to the comments thread to wish the singer — who shares three children with wife Katelyn Brown — well following the incident.
“Awwwww. Glad you’re doing ok Kane. Wifey and kids need you. And your fans!!!!!!! ❤️❤️” one person wrote, while another chimed in, “So glad you are ok. Angels watching over you ♥️”
A third chimed in, “Yikes that must hurt.. hope it heals quickly 🙏🏻”
Katelyn took to her own Instagram Stories on Wednesday, saying that the freak accident “could have been so much worse” and that they “were so relieved” that it had amounted to only “a minor concussion.”
Entertainment
Teddi Mellencamp gives rare update on what ‘cancer recovery looks like’ in tearful video

Teddi Mellencamp posted a vulnerable video revealing what her cancer recovery looks like.
“This is what recovery looks like. One day, I’m hopping around doing a million things, and then the next day, I am shaking so bad I can barely get up the stairs. My anxiety is a 10,” she tearfully shared on her Instagram Stories Wednesday.
The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum noted that she had to use both hands to hold her phone and record the video because her hands are “so shaky.”
“They added in a new medication on Monday and I guess it’s just hitting me really weird,” she explained.
“Tam, you’re gonna have a lot to work with today,” Mellencamp quipped, referring to her “Two Ts In A Pod” co-host, Tamra Judge. “Godspeed.”
The former Bravo star subsequently posted a screenshot listing the common side effects of her medication, which includes weight gain, headache, dizziness, common cold symptoms and akathisia (an inner sense of restlessness).
“Wow. This is a blast,” she sarcastically wrote atop the screengrab.
Her last health update came in April, when she bravely showcased her brain surgery scars and shared her hair growth following several rounds of radiation therapy.
“The hair is too long for the wigs and I’m sick of the wigs. But like, what are we supposed to do here?” she asked her social media followers, looking for new tips on hairstyles.
Mellencamp announced her Stage 2 melanoma diagnosis in October 2022.
She underwent more than a dozen surgeries to address the disease, including an emergency procedure in 2025 to remove several tumors in her brain.
Last October, she revealed her cancer — which had also spread to her lungs — was “gone.” However, she previously explained that it will take some time before doctors declare that she’s officially in remission.
Since receiving the positive update on her physical health, Mellencamp has been focused on recovering emotionally and mentally as well.
“I’ve been in therapy,” she told Page Six in February. “I’ve been working really hard trying to figure out, find that peace, find that happiness, find that joy, find myself again.”
The reality star — who shares three kids with estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave — also revealed in April that she is in a new relationship with an “older man.”
Though she didn’t divulge too many details on the mystery suitor, she did gush that he makes her laugh a lot on an episode of her podcast “Two Ts In A Pod.”
Entertainment
Clay Aiken says Kelly Ripa feud sparked ‘most catastrophic week’ of his life

Clay Aiken spoke out about the moment he contentiously placed his hand over Kelly Ripa’s mouth more than two decades after their intense on-air clash on “Live with Regis and Kelly” in 2006.
The “American Idol” alum, 47, recalled stepping in as a co-host on the daytime show and attempting to stop Ripa from talking so he could ask their guests questions.
When asked if they had spoken since, he responded on Wednesday’s podcast episode of “Hollywood Raw,” “No. I didn’t have the problem.”
Aiken, who has been active in the New York City Broadway scene and society, explained he’s seen Ripa, 55, at some events.
“Maybe I should feel bad that I have not gone up and said something myself, but she hasn’t either,” he said. “We’re talking about something that happened — 20 years ago — which became this huge blowup.”
“That was the most catastrophic week of my life,” the musician added. “No one would remember but me because I was the one with the scars.”
“I’m on the show because I wanted to show them I could handle this myself; I could host something and I wasn’t getting to talk,” he said.
“Like, there were cue cards. They had my name on them. So I tried to be funny, and I did what I did, which was incredibly innocent. And then it got a little cold in the room.”
Aiken admitted that he felt bad and was “worried” that he had upset Ripa after seeing the audience “frozen.”
“Is that a no-no?” Aiken asked Ripa at the time, to which she responded, “Oh, that’s a no, no, no. Don’t know where that hand’s been, honey.”
The TV personality shared on the podcast that he didn’t remember how he and Ripa parted ways, but it wasn’t until the following week, when the latter’s co-host, Regis Philbin, had returned, that the situation escalated.
At the time, Philbin, who died in 2020, and Ripa discussed Aiken’s “hostility.”
“There was a lack of respect, and when you’re a certain person, you’re in the public eye, you have to be respectful of other people,” Ripa told her co-host.
“And I don’t think that he was respectful in any way. If that upsets his fans, I’m sorry to hear that, but you don’t put your hands over somebody’s face and mouth when they’re conducting an interview, even if it’s for a laugh. And that’s all I’m gonna say.”
Then the following day, Rosie O’Donnell addressed the incident on “The View” and referred to Ripa as “homophobic” despite Aiken not having been out yet.
Ripa responded to the actress by calling into the talk show to defend herself, stating, “I have three kids. He’s shaking hands with everybody in the audience.”
“I mean, it’s cold and flu season. That’s what I meant. To imply that it’s anything homophobic is outrageous, Rosie, and you know better. You should be more responsible,” the TV personality told O’Donnell.
Recalling the “blow up,” Aiken said, “I was not out at the time. I was to Rosie … I was out to people who I knew, but I wasn’t publicly out about it.”
“I was not out to my grandparents and the people in my family. And not only does Rosie call it a homophobic remark — which I think she accidentally said, and then she tried to walk it back a little bit — but then Kelly calls in live to ‘The View’ that day and they get in an argument over it.”
The actor added, “Not only did she out me, but they had a big argument about whether I was gay and who talked about me being gay.”
That same week, Aiken reflected on how his “wonderful publicist” and interns did “great work” on finding videos of Ripa placing her hand over Philbin’s mouth throughout the years and sending the clips to the media.
“The tides sort of turned,” Aiken said, explaining that he then sent Ripa flowers, which she thanked him for and allegedly apologized for “blowing” the situation out of proportion.
Per Aiken, Ripa extended an olive branch to him and an offer to return to the show. However, the Broadway star alleged that he’s “tried” to appear on the show but has been unable to return.
A rep for Ripa wasn’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.
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