TV Talk: CMU grad stars in ‘The Boys;’ audacious ‘Audacity’ debutsVideo
Steel yourselves, TV fans: The flood of shows striving for last-minute Emmy nomination consideration premiere this week to get the bulk of their episodes released before the Emmy eligibility period closes at the end of May. ‘The Boys’ In its bleak-but-funny final season, now streaming its first two episodes, Amazon’s...
TV Q&A: Where has KDKA-TV’s Barry Pintar been?
Q: Barry Pintar at KDKA has not been on the air for at least a month or more. Any news as to where he has been? — Linda, via email Rob: I heard from several viewers who had this question and at first I thought maybe some viewers didn’t realize...
TV Talk: ‘Hacks’ considers legacy in final season
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. One of TV’s best comedies of recent years begins its final season this week as comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) seemingly rises from the dead – but she doesn’t like what she sees. At the...
TV Talk: WTAE names morning traffic reporter
Just as they did when Channel 4 executives named Elena LaQuatra to succeed Michelle Wright as a morning news anchor, WTAE will again promote from within to fill LaQuatra’s traffic reporter role, naming Lily Coleman to the position. Coleman has been filling in for several weeks, but this morning was...
TV Talk: Cast members staying on, leaving ‘The Pitt’
It was bound to happen that some of the series regulars on “The Pitt” would not stay with the show for the entirety of its run. After all, the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is a teaching hospital, a career steppingstone for most, not a destination. Variety reports Supriya Ganesh,...
TV Talk: ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ sequel ‘Testaments’ goes younger, lighterVideo
Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” debuted in 2017 during the first Trump administration. Current events inspired author Margaret Atwood to pen the 2019 sequel novel, “The Testaments,” and now the Hulu adaptation of that continuation of the “Handmaid’s” story debuts during the second Trump administration. “I don’t try to time things,”...
TV Q&A: How do TV ratings get measured?
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: In regards to TV ratings, how are they compiled electronically? Is a “watching viewer” counted automatically as the program begins or further into the broadcast?...
TV Talk: CMU grad Corey Cott learns from ‘SVU’ star Mariska Hargitay
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Corey Cott, a 2012 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s acting program, joined NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” (9 p.m. Thursday, WPXI) at the start of the 2025-26 TV season in a recurring role and got...
TV Talk: CBS cancels Pittsburgh-set ‘Watson’Video
In an unsurprising late Friday news dump, CBS confirmed it has canceled sophomore drama “Watson” and freshman comedy series “DMV.” “Watson,” created by Pittsburgh native Craig Sweeny and set at a fictional Oakland hospital, got off to a strong ratings start in January 2025 but lost steam with a time...
TV Talk: How the TV sausage gets made; ‘Bait’ is British ‘Comeback’Video
This past weekend, the final three episodes of Paramount+’s “The Madison” premiered. A second season already got filmed, according to director Christina Alexandra Voros, who also pulled back the curtain on the show’s production process. Set in Montana and Manhattan, Voros said “The Madison” filmed in Montana and at series...
TV Q&A: Has WTAE picked a new traffic reporter?
Q: I see WTAE weekend anchor Lily Coleman has been filling in as weekday morning traffic reporter. Has she been promoted to the role Elena LaQuatra previously occupied before her promotion to morning news anchor? — Kevin, Cranberry Rob: My understanding is Coleman — as well as Sam Hall —...
TV Talk: Current events echo in alt-history past of ‘For All Mankind’Video
Although Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video and Hulu had a decade head start, launching their streaming operations circa 2006-07, the streaming wars began in earnest in 2019 when Disney+ and Apple TV came online (HBO Max and Peacock followed in 2020). But there aren’t many series that debuted in 2019 that...
TV Talk: Paul Van Osdol retires from WTAE after 26 years
WTAE investigative reporter Paul Van Osdol will retire from Channel 4 after 26 years with the station. His last day at WTAE will be Wednesday. Van Osdol joined Channel 4 in 1999 and his coverage included an investigation into fire response times, which earned a George Foster Peabody Award in...
TV Talk: HBO’s ‘The Comeback’ comes back 1 last time
A funny thing happened across three seasons over 21 years as HBO’s “The Comeback” comes back one last time: Sitcom star Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) grows into a more confident, better version of herself. A character who seemed desperate and prone to humiliation in seasons one and two, Valerie, by...
TV Q&A: Are these Channel 11 reporters related?
Q: I enjoy watching Channel 11 News. Just curious, is Rachel Pierce, the reporter, related to Rich Pierce, the news anchor? Or is either of them related to the Pittsburgh lawyer with the same last name whose ads are on TV? — Kay, via email Rob: When Rachel Pierce arrived...
TV Talk: PBS’s ‘Masterpiece’ reimagines ‘Forsytes’ sagaVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. “The Forsyte Saga,” based on the John Galsworthy novels and stories, has been a PBS mainstay since the first filmed-for-TV iteration debuted in 1967. PBS remade the series once already with two seasons in 2002-03...
TV Talk: Where to watch March Madness
As professional sports leagues make more deals with streaming services, it can sometimes be clear as mud where to watch a sports telecast. This year’s men’s March Madness games are spread over four networks: CBS and Turner Networks TNT, TBS and truTV. Games start with the First Four on Tuesday...
TV Talk: Winning host Conan O’Brien keeps Oscars moving
In his second consecutive year as Oscars host, Conan O’Brien proved his first time was no fluke. If O’Brien is to become the new Billy Crystal of the Academy Awards, that’s A-OK. Although a post-telecast bit naming him “Oscars Host for Life” ends with O’Brien being gassed (like the ending...
TV Talk: ‘Kingstown’ begins filming final season, adds to cast
Production is underway on the fifth and final season of Paramount+’s “Mayor of Kingstown” with actor David Morse (“The Last Thing He Told Me”) returning to Pittsburgh for the new series regular role of Russell Hardy, a seasoned FBI agent. Morse, who is from Philadelphia, previously starred in “Outsiders,” which...
TV Talk: Michelle Pfeiffer at home on the range in ‘The Madison’Video
The latest Paramount+ series written and created by Taylor Sheridan arrives this weekend with Saturday’s debut of “The Madison,” another show set in Montana — but it’s not a “Yellowstone” spinoff. “The Madison” moves at the snail’s pace of Sheridan’s “1923” — and the music score sometimes sounds nearly identical...
TV Talk: Joe Manganiello talks villainous ‘One Piece’ role, moving homeVideo
Mr. 0 (Zero) emerges from the shadows in the second season finale of Netflix’s live-action “One Piece” series and his face belongs to Mt. Lebanon native Joe Manganiello. But because of the makeup used to make Manganiello resemble the manga and comic book character that inspired his role — specifically...
TV Talk: ICE agents enter ‘The Pitt’Video
In Season 1, “The Pitt” showed its prescience when the writers included a measles outbreak storyline that aired around the same time an actual measles outbreak was ongoing in West Texas in January 2025. “I think when you do this for as long as we have, part of our job...
TV Q&A: What’s going on at KDKA-TV?
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: It seems that KDKA-TV has made the decision that Ken Rice will be the only anchor of the 6 p.m. news, and the 7:30 p.m....
TV Talk: Pittsburgh teen advances on ‘The Voice’Video
Singer Ashley Marina, who grew up in Kennedy Township and previously competed of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” at age 12, advanced from the blind auditions to the battle round on NBC’s “The Voice” Monday night. Now 18 and a freshman studying commercial voice at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Marina...
TV Talk: Steve Carell in ‘Rooster’ gives HBO comedy to crow aboutVideo
This is the second week in a row we’ve seen the premiere of a show that feels like a duplicate. Last week, MGM+ debuted “American Classic,” the story of a full-of-himself actor (Kevin Kline) who, after a meltdown, returns home to the theater he grew up in, the same premise...
