TV Talk: Daily sports show on WPGH, ‘Family Feud’ on WTAE highlight fall daytime TV
It’s a pretty sleepy fall TV season when it comes to nationally syndicated and/or local daytime programming, with few big series launches and relatively stable schedules on local commercial broadcast stations. The splashiest launch and biggest investment in local programming is “Pittsburgh Sports Tonight,” now airing weeknights at 7 on...
TV Talk: ‘Dancing’ reveals new season’s cast; Pittsburgher on ‘The Floor’Video
Ratings for ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” rebounded in recent seasons due to the show’s embrace of reality TV and social media “stars” over traditional celebrities. No wonder the names of the all-new “celebrity” cast may seem even more C-list than usual. The show’s new season premieres with a two-part...
TV Q&A: Will new episodes of ‘The View’ ever air?Video
Q: What’s going on with “The View”? They’re having nothing but repeats for several weeks. Has our current Trump administration gotten to them like it’s gotten to many others? I really hate to see them silenced. — Carolyn, via email Rob: “The View” traditionally takes a summer break in August...
TV Talk: SportsNet Pittsburgh’s new hire, ‘Mean’ Joe Greene movie streams
On Monday, SportsNet Pittsburgh announced Hailey Hunter’s replacement will be Johnstown native Katie Florio, who will take over as TV rinkside reporter during 2026-27 season Penguins games on SNP. She may also occasionally serve as a sideline reporter and studio host for Pirates coverage. Florio, a Clemson University grad, comes...
TV Talk: It’s been 25 years since the last original episode of ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ 1st airedVideo
It’s a milestone day in the neighborhood: Monday marks the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the final original episode of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” filmed at WQED’s Oakland studios and aired on Aug. 31, 2001. Now the series is more available than it’s ever been in the decades since that...
TV Talk: Ligonier Valley High, RMU grad lands reporting job at CNNVideo
From shadowing KDKA-TV anchor/reporter Brenda Waters to chasing tornadoes for a Houston station to his new role reporting for CNN in Seoul, South Korea, Ligonier native Gage Goulding swiftly advanced in his career after graduating from Robert Morris University in 2019. In July, he was named a CNN international correspondent...
TV Q&A: Are TV stations responsible for keeping viewers safe?
Q: When did local television stations assume the responsibility of “keeping us safe” during storms instead of just reporting important and substantive news? — Gary, via Facebook Rob: That’s been built into broadcasting — TV and radio — from near its start: look no further than the advent of the...
TV Talk: Gordon Ramsay rehabs Emsworth’s Café Notte on ‘Kitchen Nightmares’
Emsworth’s Café Notte co-owner Debbie Santucci knew her restaurant, open since 2009, was in trouble when she wrote to Gordon Ramsay, star of Fox’s “Kitchen Nightmares,” a show where Ramsay parachutes in to diagnose a restaurant’s problems and attempts to help get the place back on track. Santucci’s son and...
TV Talk: After winning in 2024, Point Breeze’s Victoria Groce returns to ‘Jeopardy! Masters’Video
Point Breeze’s Victoria Groce marks her fifth visit to the “Jeopardy!” stage this week with the season premiere of ABC’s “Jeopardy! Masters” (8 p.m. Aug. 26, WTAE; streams next day on Hulu), which she won in 2024. “I will probably never not feel a little something right in the pit...
TV Talk: 1st trailer for Season 3 of ‘The Pitt’ shows ER chaos resumesVideo
It looks like it will be another busy, traumatic day at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center in the first trailer for the show’s third season, released today by HBO Max. The trailer begins with night shift doc Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” after a...
TV Talk: Docs debut on Disney worldbuilding, ‘90s homes, BoeingVideo
The next week is a busy one for unscripted programs, from a Disney documentary featuring a Pittsburgh native to a ’90s flashback competition show to a serious exploration of what ails Boeing. ‘Disney Worldbuilders’ Disney has a habit of making these documentaries and docuseries for Disney+ that can cynically be...
TV Q&A: What happened to KDKA-TV’s Chilekasi Adele?
Q: I haven’t seen Chilekasi Adele on KDKA-TV in a while. Is he still working there? — Jeff, via email Rob: No, Adele left KDKA in May for a reporter job at sister station KYW in Philadelphia. Q: Why doesn’t KDKA put dulling spray on the windows behind “Pittsburgh Today...
TV Talk: ‘Lanterns’ shines as best superhero show since ‘Watchmen’Video
Viewers who enjoyed HBO’s 2019 limited series “Watchmen” will get sucked into “Lanterns,” too. While not quite as thoughtful in its explorations of themes — “Watchmen” centered on race, “Lanterns” is more about fathers and sons, mentors and mentees — “Lanterns” easily outsmarts the average superhero show. The reason why...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh-set ‘Average Joe’ heads to South Africa in season 2Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. When the first season of “Average Joe” premiered on BET+ in 2023, series creator Robb Cullen (FX’s 2003 comedy “Lucky”) couldn’t discuss it due to the Writer’s Guild strike. Three years later, season one of...
TV Q&A: Why do we see so little of KDKA’s Cassidy Wood?
Q: Is Cassidy Wood still with KDKA-TV? Rob: She is – but barely. Another viewer noticed Wood was no longer in station promos, which is never a good sign for talent hoping to stick around. It’s particularly unfortunate to see the first woman sports reporter at KDKA in several decades...
TV Talk: WPGH plans nightly sports show hosted by Bill Hillgrove’s grandson
At a time when local newscasts seem to be de-emphasizing sports segments, WPGH will invest in a new, local weeknight program, “Pittsburgh Sports Tonight,” airing 7-7:30 p.m. weekdays beginning Aug. 31. Jack Hillgrove, former sports anchor at WTOV in Wheeling/Steubenville and grandson of legendary Pittsburgh broadcaster Bill Hillgrove, will host...
TV Talk: KDKA-TV debuts AR/VR set; ‘The Pitt’ stars do ‘Star Trek’Video
During Monday’s 4 p.m. newscast, KDKA-TV unveiled its new augmented reality/virtual reality set with meteorologists Ray Petelin and Mary Ours taking the new tech for a spin. Petelin introduced the virtual set as “the First Alert Weather Sphere,” and Ours said the new technology offers “weather like you’ve never seen...
Pittsburgh sees a lull in filming major TV, film productions
While viewers await the final season of Pittsburgh-filmed “Mayor of Kingstown,” likely to stream on Paramount+ sometime this fall, and the debut of locally filmed “Nocturne” (Oct. 30, Apple TV), local crews and film and TV production observers are left to wonder: What’s next? In the event of success, it’s...
TV Talk: Local Emmy noms, Guidotti to retire, ‘Ted Lasso’ returnsVideo
The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (also known as the regional Emmys) announced its 2026 nominations Wednesday with KDKA-TV scoring 20 nods, the most nominations among TV stations in the Pittsburgh market. WPXI came in second with 16 noms. SportsNet Pittsburgh had eight nominations....
TV Q&A: Why such long interruptions of regular programming for weather?
Q: Why is WTAE so over-the-top with their weather coverage? The other night, they didn’t even show “Inside Edition” or “Entertainment Tonight.” It was crazy how they put the fear of God in you over the weather, and nothing even happens half the time. So I would like to know...
TV Talk: ‘Eons: Life and Death on Pangea,’ ‘Whiskey Rebellion’ doc debut on WQED-TVVideo
Pittsburgh native and 1987 Mt. Lebanon High School grad Blake de Pastino is one of the hosts on PBS’s docuseries “Eons: Life and Death on Pangea,” now streaming on WQED+ and airing its first episode at 7:30 a.m. Saturday on linear WQED-TV. (Subsequent episodes will air on WQED at 7:30...
TV Q&A: Do reporters get paid more when they fill in at the anchor desk?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Saturday Tribune-Review. Q: As the summer local news anchor vacancies continue, I note an increasing trend of street reporters taking a turn at the anchor desk at all...
TV Talk: Foreign streamers offer new ‘Zorro,’ more ‘Das Boot’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Earlier this summer while dining with some new friends, the subject of TV came up and one person at the table, who speaks French, said she has a hard time finding series in French that...
TV Talk: ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ launches penultimate seasonVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Aside from the third and final season of “Star Trek: Picard,” there’s no question that “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” a prequel to the original ’60s “Star Trek,” remains the best “Trek” series of the...
TV Talk: ‘Big Bang Theory’ spins off ‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’Video
Gotta give credit where it’s due: HBO Max’s “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” is a completely unpredictable spin-off from “The Big Bang Theory.” Streaming its premiere tonight (new episodes debut at 9 p.m. Thursdays for the next 10 weeks), “Stuart Fails” is shot single-camera style (think: “Young Sheldon;” “Big...
