Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking Pittsburgh’s market rank drops again, Zachary Quinto’s new NBC series

In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment including Pittsburgh’s Nielsen market rank, which fell yet again. Previously the No. 26 largest TV market nationally, Pittsburgh has fallen to No. 28 for the 2023-24 TV season, declining from 1.174 million TV homes to 1.164 million TV homes, a loss of 10,000 TV homes. Pittsburgh’s rank decline also came as other cities (Nashville up from 27 to 26 and Salt Lake City up from 29 to 27) grew. At least Pittsburgh remains ahead of Baltimore, which dropped one spot to No. 29.

What does this mean for Pittsburgh TV stations? Probably not a lot at this point. Since Pittsburgh already dropped out of the Top 25 in 2020, it’s likely local stations won’t feel much impact due to advertisers buying using more granular metrics than simply market rank. But it will reinforce the notion of Pittsburgh as a stepping stone market for folks who work in TV rather than the destination Pittsburgh was once seen as.

Benz and Owen also discuss Pittsburgh native Zachary Quinto’s latest role. NBC ordered Quinto’s medical drama pilot “Dr. Wolf” to series. Inspired by Oliver Sacks’ extraordinary life and work and the Sacks’ books “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “An Anthropologist on Mars,” “Dr. Wolf” follows neurologist Oliver Wolf (Quinto) and his team of interns “as they explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.” With the series order, writing can begin even as production will have to wait until the end of the ongoing actors’ strike.

Owen previews two new specials marking the five-year anniversary of the assault on Squirrel Hill’s Tree of Life synagogue, including “Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life” (9 p.m. Thursday, WQED-TV) and WPXI-TV’s “Overcoming Hate: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Five Years Later” (12 p.m. Wednesday on Channel 11, 8 p.m. Wednesday on WPXI’s apps and 9 p.m. Wednesday on WPXI.com). In addition, Channel 11 news anchor David Johnson will report for “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” on how the Jewish community in Pittsburgh is handling the anniversary of the shooting particularly in light of the Hamas terror attack on Jews in Israel.

Owen also explains changes coming to “Good Morning America” and when season two of “Yellowstone” will debut on CBS.

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