TV Q&A: Are more changes coming to KDKA-TV newscasts?

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: Do you expect changes to the anchor format at KDKA-TV following the layoffs at the station? Will they go to a single anchor for most newscasts?

Will the station cut back on the large news block, basically from 4 to 9 p.m.?

— Mike, Beaver

Rob: It appears cutbacks have already begun. I noted earlier this month that KDKA started rerunning the 6 p.m. news at 8 p.m. on KDKA+, replacing an original newscast in that time period.

And, yes, I expect there will be some new anchor assignments to fill the anchor chairs formerly occupied by Kym Gable in the evening and Lindsay Ward in the morning. I do not anticipate the station will go to a single anchor format.

Representatives of KDKA and its corporate parent, CBS, did not respond when I sent them Mike’s question, asked about morning and evening anchor replacements and inquired how 8 p.m. KDKA+ news anchor Jessica Guay will be reassigned.

Q: Wondering if Jill Szwed is still at WTAE. Now that Jeff Versyzla is on the weekends, where are they going to put her?

— Cindy, Monroeville

Rob: Szwed is assigned to typically work weekend mornings. The station announced Verszyla will move to weekend evenings.

Q: Where has Elena LaQuatra been? She’s been there for about five days out of the last month.

- Catherine, via email

Rob: TV news anchors get time off, too.

My understanding is LaQuatra was off in mid-July for bereavement leave and for two weeks of vacation last week and this week.

Q: I just read your fine interview with Noah Hawley about “Alien: Earth.” Do you have any information on whether he will continue with “Fargo”? Is another season of “Fargo” even in the works?

— Bill, via email

Rob: Hawley has long said he makes “Fargo” when the inspiration strikes. I’m not aware that another season is in the works and my guess is that if “Alien: Earth” is a success, FX will be keen for him to focus on additional seasons of this new series rather than revisiting “Fargo,” at least for the immediate future.

Q: Why did Bill on the revived “King of the Hill” morph from an overweight blob in the first episode to normal size in the second episode with no explanation?

— Justin, Squirrel Hill

Rob: I wondered about that, too, and I asked showrunner Saladin K. Patterson about that creative choice in an interview last month.

“At one point, we’re like, do we want to do a gradient, where he’s 400 pounds here, and by the end he’s back down to whatever,” Patterson said. “God bless them, our animators and artists were like, ‘You’re asking a lot of us.’ It wasn’t a no, but it’s like, ‘That makes things hard.’ Then we felt it’s better to play it as a comedic reveal in the beginning as a statement about Hank’s absence. How things in his world fall apart. … It felt better to let it just serve that purpose than make it a series-long arc.”