TV Talk: ‘Star Trek’ does ‘Suicide Squad;’ ‘Watson’ worth watching?Video
“Star Trek: Section 31,” a new movie streaming Friday on Paramount+, is pretty much the “Star Trek” version of “Suicide Squad” as a group of rogues team up to save the galaxy. Initially intended as a series, “Section 31” is set during the early seasons of “Star Trek: Discovery,” a...
Terminated employee sues WQED for age discrimination
Paula Zetter, a veteran Emmy-winning design director at WQED-TV who was among at least nine employees terminated by WQED CEO Jason Jedlinski in late 2023 and early 2024, filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the public broadcaster last week. According to court documents, Zetter seeks reinstatement to her job or...
TV Q&A: Will WQED-TV improve its signal?Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Any word on the possibility of WQED-TV improving its signal strength? Between their reduced signal, my antenna not doing the job, and no PBS app...
TV Talk: Pittsburgher absent from 4th season of ‘Joe Schmo’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Through its first three seasons — in 2003, 2004 and 2013 — there was always a Pittsburgher as the mark on “The Joe Schmo Show,” a faux reality competition where all the contestants are actors...
TV Talk: ‘Severance’ back after delay; Manganiello’s Steelers cakesVideo
In the battle for viewers’ eyeballs, Apple TV+ remains a bit of a small fish in the large streaming pond, but Hollywood folks like to work for the service because Apple has more money to spend on shows than traditional Hollywood studios, although reports suggest even Apple is trying to...
TV Q&A: Did a KDKA-TV reporter switch stations?Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I was watching coverage of the Los Angeles fires on the CBS News website and saw KDKA-TV’s Barry Pintar in Los Angeles. He seemed to...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native HGTV star loses home in L.A. fire
Pittsburgh native Leanne Ford, who starred with her brother Steve Ford for a few seasons on HGTV home makeover shows, posted to Instagram last week that less than a month after getting the keys to a new home in Los Angeles’ Rustic Canyon, the house was consumed by the Palisades...
TV Talk: Dick Wolf gets serialized with ‘On Call’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. For executive producer Dick Wolf’s first scripted streaming series, “On Call” co-creators Tim Walsh (“Chicago P.D.,” “Hightown”) and Elliot Wolf (Dick Wolf’s son who was an executive producer on the unscripted series “Law & Order:...
TV Talk: Is ‘The Pitt’ — with all its local references — worth watching?
The first two episodes of streaming-only series “The Pitt” are available on Max (new episodes drop in subsequent weeks on Thursdays through April 10), and ultimately this Pittsburgh-set hospital drama proves to be fast-paced with well-developed doctors, med students and sometimes patient characters. It’s a grab-you-by-the-throat drama with each episode...
TV Talk: WPXI names new weekday evening anchor
As expected, WPXI announced morning anchor Gordon Loesch will succeed longtime Channel 11 anchor David Johnson, who retired last month. Loesch will anchor alongside Lisa Sylvester during the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. WPXI newscasts beginning Jan. 20. He’ll also co-anchor at 6:30 p.m. with Liz Kilmer and at 10...
TV Q&A: WPXI’s Cara Sapida shares her hair journey after cancer battle
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I’m watching Channel 11, and Cara Sapida is doing her excellent reporting as usual. I know she wore a wig while she was going through...
TV Talk: Joe Manganiello previews ‘unbelievable’ season of ‘Deal or No Deal Island’Video
For his second season
as host of NBC’s “Deal
or No Deal Island”
(8 tonight, WPXI), Mt. Lebanon native Joe Manganiello said the reality competition delivers in a way that’s can’t-miss TV. “You’re going to see something you’ve never seen before,” he said in a phone interview Christmas Eve afternoon....
TV Talk: ‘Shōgun,’ ‘Emilia Perez’ top winners at Golden Globes
Comedian Nikki Glaser, a stand-up comic best known as a mainstay on Comedy Central celebrity roasts, kicked off the 82nd annual Golden Globes telecast Sunday night in fine form, poking gentle but pointed fun at Hollywood celebrities and entertainment culture as movies “Emilia Perez” and “The Brutalist” and series “Shōgun,”...
TV Talk: Go on set to see how Pittsburgh-set ER drama ‘The Pitt’ gets made
BURBANK, Calif. — John Wells, a 1979 Carnegie Mellon University grad, watches on a monitor as he directs the last day of filming on the first episode of Pittsburgh-set Max medical drama “The Pitt.” It’s mid-July 2024 and production is just nine days into the 15-episode first season of a...
UPMC doctor shares her experiences with ‘The Pitt’ writers
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was one of several doctors recruited by “The Pitt” writers/producers to offer perspective on what it’s like to be an ER physician in Pittsburgh and to share her experiences. During a two-hour...
TV Talk: Local queen competes on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
Nicholas Fry, 23, grew up in Greensburg, graduated from Hempfield Area High School in 2019, then studied film at Point Park University, graduating in 2023. Now he’s competing in Season 17 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” as his drag alter ego, Lydia B. Kollins, for a cash prize of $200,000. “Drag...
TV Q&A: Days may be fewer but hours the same for KDKA-TV’s Bob Pompeani
Q: I’ve noticed lately that KDKA-TV sports anchor Bob Pompeani is appearing on television less than in recent years. He used to be on Sunday-Thursday when football season was in full swing. Now he’s only on Sunday-Tuesday. I was just curious about the reason for the change. — Zach, via...
2050 look-ahead: Streaming changed how we view entertainment. The future may look a lot like the old model
Editor’s note: One-fourth of the way through this century, TribLive is looking ahead to the next 25 years, using the events of the past 25 as a road map of what possibly is to come. This installment of the occasional series looks at entertainment. Twenty-five years into the 21st century,...
TV Talk: Tim Allen back on ABC; ‘Suits’ spin-off coming to NBC at midseasonVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers viewing tips for midseason. After one of the more successful fall TV seasons in recent years — ABC’s “High Potential” and CBS’s “Matlock” were both critical and commercial hits — broadcast networks prepare a spate of new shows for the new year....
TV Talk: Streamers, cable schedule plenty of midseason new, returning seriesVideo
With the hangover of the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes in the rearview mirror, streaming and cable outlets have plans to debut dozens of new and returning series through April, including: “Missing You” (Jan. 1, Netflix): Author Harlan Coben’s latest book to get adapted is a five-part limited series about...
TV Q&A: What did Celina Pompeani-Mathison announce on ‘PTL’?
Q: What did Celina Pompeani-Mathison announce on “Pittsburgh Today Live” on Dec. 20? Is she retiring to be a mom? I wasn’t able to watch. — Karen, via email Rob: Yes, Pompeani-Mathison, who already pulled back on her duties after the birth of her first child, Sonny, in 2023, decided...
TV Talk: Netflix gifts subscribers with ‘Squid Game 2’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. What better way to celebrate the holidays than a return to the bloody, violent arena for Netflix’s “Squid Game 2,” streaming Thursday? The second season of the streaming service’s surprise 2021 global hit finds season...
TV Talk: Best TV series of 2024Video
There’s no way one person can watch every new scripted series each year, even in a post-PeakTV environment, so consider this list the best of the scripted shows I saw in 2024. Perhaps this list can steer you toward a program you’ve yet to watch. With broadcast TV in reruns...
TV Q&A: Will the Netflix Steelers game air locally?Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions weekly at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Will the Steelers Christmas game be available to fans without Netflix? — Ed, via email Rob: Yes! Netflix’s deal for carrying NFL games on Christmas Day...
TV Talk: WTAE reporter Bob Mayo announces retirement
Applying the law of “things come in threes,” Tuesday’s announcement by longtime WTAE general assignment reporter Bob Mayo that he will retire Dec. 31 is appropriate as it’s the third significant on-air retirement from Pittsburgh TV stations this quarter, following the departures of KDKA-TV’s Jon Delano and WPXI’s David Johnson....
