TV Q&A: What happened to WTAE-TV reporter Katelyn Sykes?

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.

WARNING: The last question in this column includes spoilers for the finale of “Dexter: New Blood,” which aired on Jan. 9.

Q: Could you please tell me what happened to Katelyn Sykes from Channel 4, WTAE-TV? She was an excellent reporter I really enjoyed listening to.

– Barb, Latrobe

Rob: I reported in November that Sykes opted not to renew her contract with the ABC affiliate. She begins a new job this month working in communications for the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Nursing.

Q: Going forward, without Kelly Frey, who will be the permanent anchors on the WTAE morning news?

– Mike, Beaver

Rob: My understanding is fill-in Ryan Recker wants the job alongside Michelle Wright at the morning anchor desk. I took Mike’s question to WTAE general manager Chuck Wolfertz who replied, “No comment.”

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Q: Why is WTAE no longer playing their “theme music” when going to commercial breaks during newscasts? This trend started right after the new year and I was curious why they’re doing this.

– Ryan, Braddock Hills

Rob: I had not noticed, but WTAE news director Jim Parsons offers this explanation: “Ryan from Braddock Hills is quite observant! He is correct that we ceased playing music underneath what we call ‘bumps’ at the end of a news segment prior to commercial break. I recognize that our industry has been doing it that way for decades, but I’ve never been a fan of it, just as I don’t like to hear music tracks inside stories – particularly investigative stories. I know many television stations still do it that way, but I see it as an artificial additive to a story or newscast. What is the purpose behind it, other than ‘… we’ve always done it that way?’ I’ll stop short of taking away music at the start and end of newscasts – at least for now!”

Q: Is Dexter really dead? No second season? I thought the ratings for “Dexter: New Blood” were good so might he somehow come back or doesn’t Michael C. Hall want to do it anymore? Even if he is dead, maybe he could be a ghost like his sister’s character was this season.

– Joyce, Scott Township

Rob: Yes, “Dexter” is really dead. The primary creative reason to even do another season of “Dexter,” which originally aired on Showtime 2006-13, was to redeem the unsatisfying original conclusion that saw Dexter fake his death and hide out as a lumberjack in Oregon. That ending was not written by show creator Clyde Phillips, who exited the series after the fourth season.

After the first “Dexter” finale, Phillips told reporters he had planned to kill Dexter at the end of the original series, but then he wasn’t around to do it.

Phillips returned to oversee “Dexter: New Blood” so it stands to reason that he’d write a version of the conclusion he always intended.

Joyce is right that ratings were great for “New Blood” – the best-ever for a Showtime series when measured across all viewing platforms – so she’s not wrong to think the premium cable network might want more “Dexter” or, perhaps, “Harrison,” following Dexter’s son, who also has some malicious tendencies. Personally, I’m not sure there’s enough story there, but you could see a scenario where, as Joyce suggests, Hall returns as Harrison’s conscience much the same way Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) was the voice in Dexter’s head in “New Blood.” Never say never, but my sense is Hall might be ready to move on.