• Livvy Dunne made her Tonight Show debut on May 13, chatting with Jimmy Fallon about Baywatch and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
• Dunne revealed her first-ever audition was for The White Lotus — she didn’t get it, but landed the Baywatch role via self-tape callback
• She’ll play junior lifeguard Grace in the Fox reboot, alongside Stephen Amell, Hassie Harrison, Shay Mitchell, and Brooks Nader
• The 12-episode series has been pushed to late January 2027
• Fallon closed the segment by donning a long blonde wig and doing the iconic slow-motion Baywatch run with Dunne

Livvy Dunne officially has her late-night moment. The New Jersey-raised gymnast-turned-model-turned-actress made her Tonight Show debut on Wednesday, sitting down with Jimmy Fallon to talk about the upcoming Fox Baywatch reboot, her fourth consecutive Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover shoot, and the audition story that she clearly had been waiting to tell someone.

The Hillsdale, NJ native — who retired from gymnastics after helping LSU win the 2024 national championship — was in New York for a big week: the SI Swimsuit Issue hits newsstands May 14, and Fox held its upfront presentation for the new Baywatch series. She appeared alongside Jim Parsons and Chace Crawford on the episode, which aired at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

The Audition Story She’s Been Sitting On

Before getting into Baywatch, Dunne gave Fallon — and the audience — the full origin story of her acting career. And it starts with a swing and a miss at one of TV’s hottest properties.

“Yeah, so actually my first ever audition was in person. Shout out my acting coach, Caroline. She’s in the audience right now,” Dunne said. “But I was obviously so nervous. And it was different because gymnastics, usually, you just go out there and perform on a four-inch beam. But this I have to talk and perform and play somebody else rather than myself. It was completely different.”

That first audition? The White Lotus. She didn’t book it.

But she kept going — and when the Baywatch opportunity came around, she submitted a self-tape with zero expectations. “I had really no expectation of what was going to happen. I got a callback — I mean, it’s iconic — and that’s the first callback I’ve ever gotten, and I ended up booking it,” she told Fallon.

Year Four of Sports Illustrated — and She’s Got Her Angles Down

Fallon also gave viewers a first look at Dunne’s shoot from the 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue, which she’s now appeared in four years running. She’s clearly made peace with the camera.

“I feel like by year four I’ve perfected my angles, I kind of know what I’m doing at this point,” she said. “But I mean, year one, I was so young and I was a gymnast and it’s so different shooting in a bikini rather than a leotard… it’s just very different.”

The Baywatch Run, Performed Live on NBC

Fallon, being Fallon, wasn’t going to let her leave without a bit. He disappeared backstage and returned in a long blonde wig, ready to attempt the show’s most iconic move. Together, the two did the slow-motion Baywatch run across the studio floor.

He nailed it. Mostly.

In the reboot, Dunne plays Grace, a junior lifeguard, joining a cast that includes Stephen Amell as Hobie Buchannon (son of David Hasselhoff’s original Mitch Buchannon), Jessica Belkin, Hassie Harrison, Shay Mitchell, Brooks Nader, Noah Beck, and David Chokachi, who reprises his role as Cody Madison from the original series. The 12-episode run on Fox was originally expected this fall but has since been pushed to late January 2027.

Dunne has been open about taking acting lessons throughout the process — her coach Caroline, apparently, has a front-row seat to how it’s all going.

The post Livvy Dunne Makes Her Tonight Show Debut appeared first on Cream.

• Robert Irwin, 22, revealed he was “death-rolled” by a 14-foot crocodile he named Jimmy Fallon as a baby
• He appeared on The Tonight Show to share the story — directly with the man the croc is named after
• The research technique of jumping on crocodiles was developed by his late father, Steve Irwin
• Robert also discussed his Dancing With the Stars win with partner Witney Carson during the appearance

Robert Irwin has stared down a lot of wild animals in his 22 years, but nothing quite prepared him for the moment a 700-pound crocodile — one he personally named Jimmy Fallon — pinned him to the ground and tried to spin him into oblivion.

The conservationist and Dancing With the Stars winner stopped by The Tonight Show this week and told the story directly to the man the croc is named after. The look on Fallon’s face? Priceless. The story itself? Genuinely terrifying.

“He’s not a baby anymore. I named this crocodile Jimmy Fallon, like, years ago, and he’s now what we call a boss croc. He’s huge,” Robert told the host. The reason he was jumping on a 14-foot crocodile in the first place, he explained, is science — specifically, the kind of hands-on wildlife research his father pioneered. “Because we research crocodiles in the wild to, like, better conserve them, right? So the way you do that — my dad came up with this — is you actually have to jump on them.”

What a Death Roll Actually Means

So Robert jumped. And Jimmy Fallon — the crocodile — did not appreciate it.

“I jumped onto him. I kid you not, 14 foot of crocodile, big croc, death rolls me,” he said. For the uninitiated: a death roll is when a crocodile clamps its jaws on prey and spins its entire body lengthwise with force. It’s how they dismember things. It is not something you want to be on the receiving end of.

“So I’m stuck underneath him with my arm hanging out. I’ve got like, probably — I don’t know — 700 pounds on top of me. And I’m just like, ‘What do I do?’ And luckily he rolled back the other way, and I was fine. But he’s a goer.”

A goer. Classic Robert Irwin.

His Dad’s Legacy, Carried Forward

The fact that Robert is out in the field jumping on crocodiles at all is a direct line back to Steve Irwin, the beloved Crocodile Hunter who died in September 2006 when a stingray’s barb pierced his heart while he was filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. Robert was just 2 years old. His sister Bindi was 8.

In the years since, Robert, Bindi, and their mother Terri have kept Steve’s mission alive — running Australia Zoo in Queensland and continuing his conservation work with the same fearless energy he was known for. Robert has been open about what that means to him. “To continue this legacy is the honour of my life,” he wrote on Instagram last October, alongside footage of himself as a child with his father. “If I can make my dad proud, I’ve done my job. Behind everything I do is a conservation mission that my dad started.”

That same drive carried him into the ballroom last fall, when Robert competed on — and won — Dancing With the Stars Season 34 alongside partner Witney Carson. His sister Bindi had won the show back in 2015, making them the only siblings to both take home the mirrorball. During his Tonight Show appearance, Robert also touched on a performance he dedicated to his mom, a moment that clearly meant as much to him as any wildlife encounter.

“Coming over from Australia, I didn’t know how it would go. I didn’t think I’d make it this far, because I didn’t realize how incredibly supportive America would be,” he told Men’s Health in December 2025. “It’s impossible to put into words how much that has meant to me, because what I represent is so much more than just a dance.”

“When I step into the ballroom, I’m representing a legacy that my dad created with my mom. I’m representing everything I stand for, not only as a wildlife conservationist, but also as someone who is working really hard to try and spread some positivity and passion. I want to be a role model for young people.”

And also, apparently, a role model for surviving death rolls from 14-foot crocodiles named after late-night hosts. Jimmy Fallon — the human one — seemed very pleased to have a croc named after him. Even if that croc did try to eat Steve Irwin’s son.

The post Robert Irwin Got Death-Rolled by a 14-Ft. Croc Named Jimmy Fallon appeared first on Cream.

• NBC has officially greenlit a primetime game show based on the New York Times’ Wordle puzzle
• Today anchor Savannah Guthrie will host, with Jimmy Fallon executive producing via his Electric Hot Dog banner
• The show pits teams of players against each other in a “Wordle arena” for a cash prize
• Filming begins later this year, with the show expected to premiere in 2027
• Casting is open now — applications close May 29 at wordle.castingcrane.com

Savannah Guthrie is taking her daily Wordle obsession to primetime. NBC has officially greenlit a game show based on the beloved New York Times word puzzle, with Guthrie set to host and Tonight Show star Jimmy Fallon on board as executive producer. The show is expected to premiere in 2027.

Fallon made the announcement in person on Monday’s broadcast of Today, stopping by the studio to share the news alongside Guthrie — who, by all accounts, was already one of the game’s most devoted fans long before any cameras were involved. She plays daily, shares her scores across multiple group texts (one, called “Wordle Nerdle,” includes co-host Carson Daly and his wife), and in March 2025, she solved a mega-sized Wordle on Times Square’s Mega-Zilla screen — a moment she called “every word nerd’s dream and possible nightmare.”

“I feel very honored to be working with Savannah Guthrie on this show,” Fallon said in a statement. “Savannah has that rare combination of intelligence, charm and warmth that makes everyone feel instantly welcome. And she obviously knows how to host a show. I am SUPERPROUD and HAPPY and I think we developed a SOLID GAMER for PRIME-time.”

Yes, he typed it in Wordle colors. Of course he did.

How the Show Will Work

The TV version of Wordle will go bigger than your morning phone ritual. Per NBC, “the most-obsessed and competitive players will team up in squads and go head-to-head in the ‘Wordle’ arena, playing for an incredible cash prize” — though NBC hasn’t disclosed exactly how incredible that prize is just yet. The format challenges players to solve five-letter word puzzles in what the network calls “a supersized battle of smarts, speed and fun,” built around the community spirit that’s made Wordle a daily ritual for millions: solving together, debating strategies, and sharing that little grid of green and gold squares.

The series comes from Universal Television Alternative Studio in partnership with Fallon’s Electric Hot Dog company and The New York Times, which will serve as a production partner — a first for the paper on a primetime broadcast series. Wes Kauble will serve as showrunner and executive producer, alongside Fallon and Jim Juvonen for Electric Hot Dog, and Caitlin Roper and Jonathan Knight for the Times. The show will be filmed in Manchester, England, and is expected to replicate Wordle’s iconic typeface and color scheme.

“‘Wordle’ is one of the most successful and culturally resonant games of the past decade,” said Sharon Vuong, EVP of unscripted programming at NBC. “This series is a natural extension of NBC’s legacy in the game show space.”

For the Times, the deal marks a meaningful new chapter. The company acquired Wordle in 2022 for a low seven-figure sum after creator Josh Wardle — a Welsh software engineer who built the game in 2021 — sold it to the paper. Since then, it’s become one of the most-played games on the internet: 4.8 billion plays in 2023, 5.3 billion in 2024. “Several years ago, The New York Times began developing a ‘Wordle’ game show,” said Roper, the Times’ executive editorial director of film and TV. “Teaming up with Jimmy Fallon to develop the game for NBC was a perfect fit. Like Jimmy, Savannah is a passionate Wordle player — she even solved on TV in Times Square. No one gets what our contestants will go through like she does.”

It’s also worth knowing that this isn’t Fallon’s first game show rodeo at NBC. He already produces the Password reboot hosted by Keke Palmer, and hosts both That’s My Jam and On Brand in addition to The Tonight Show. The man has a type — and that type is games.

“Everything Is Strange Right Now”

The greenlight is genuinely joyful news, but it arrives in the middle of an extraordinarily difficult period for Guthrie. Her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, was taken from her Tucson, Arizona home in the early morning hours of February 1st. No suspects have been identified, and there has been no proof of life since. Guthrie took an extended leave from Today before returning to her anchor seat on April 6th, and filming on Wordle was delayed in the wake of the disappearance.

In an interview, Guthrie revealed that Wordle had actually been a point of connection between her and her mother — and that in December, she had shown Nancy the show’s pilot.

“Everything is strange right now,” Guthrie said. “It’s strange to get up and do the ‘Today’ show every day, and it’s strange to say that I’m going to do a game show when your heart is broken.”

“Nothing about that has changed, and it’s not easy,” she added, “but I’m determined to put one foot in front of the other. And this is a joyous thing.”

Production is set to begin later this year. If you think you’ve got what it takes to compete in the Wordle arena, casting is open now through May 29 at 5 p.m. PT.

The post Savannah Guthrie to Host ‘Wordle’ Game Show on NBC appeared first on Cream.