TV Q&A: What’s up with KDKA-TV meteorologists playing musical chairs?

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: What is going on with the KDKA-TV meteorologists? In the mornings, it seems like they are double teaming us, alternating between Ron Smiley and Trey Fulbright with the KDKA and KDKA+ broadcasts. It seems to happen at other times of the day, but not as frequently.

It’s very confusing.

— Bill, Avalon

Rob: Here’s my theory: Fulbright works weekends and three days a week. On weekdays if there is no one to fill in for due to illness or vacation, KDKA uses him in the mornings sometimes because 4:30 a.m.-8 a.m. is a long time for one meteorologist to cover.

Having five meteorologists is handy when someone is on vacation or sick and you need a fill-in. But there are also weeks when there may not be enough for the No. 5 forecaster to do if a station isn’t sending that forecaster out in the field to report.

Q: Why has Fave TV been nothing but “The Office” for more than a month? Are they shutting down and not bothering with a schedule? They did a similar thing with “Everybody Loves Raymond” repeats at the end of last year, but it wasn’t this bad.

— Liz, Scott Twp.

Rob: Have to admit, I’d never even heard of Fave but that’s unsurprising given large media conglomerates’ attitudes toward digital subchannels that they put limited-to-no resources into, including, perhaps, announcing their existence.

Fave, carried locally as over-the-air Channel 2.4, currently seems to rotate among just five shows (plus paid programming infomercials): “Run’s House,” “Married … with Children,” “Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” “The Challenge” and “Bar Rescue.” “The Office” no longer appears to be playing.

Why so few shows, or as Liz noted a while back, just one show? Because they can. Little TV is programmed anymore with viewers in mind – it’s all about delivering our time and attention to advertisers — but that’s especially true for a low-investment channel like Fave, which exists solely to vacuum up whatever meager advertising and paid programming dollars it can find. (To see how little owner Paramount Global cares about Fave TV, note that the programming guide at KDKA.com didn’t even list show titles on Fave earlier this month, just the generic “Fave TV Programming;” to find out what specific shows air on Fave a viewer had to visit the channel’s website for listings, but the Fave website only offers two days’ worth of programming at any time.

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Q: I am enjoying “Doc” on Fox. It’s very well acted and well written. Any idea how the show is doing from a ratings perspective?

— @MickFan07 via X, formerly called Twitter

Rob: We’ve got mixed data on “Doc.”

Ratings for its linear premiere were pretty light, but the viewing after its Jan. 7 debut proved significant as the show grew from 2.2 million viewers on its premiere day to 15.6 million viewers across multiple platforms after 11 days, a 609% increase, per Fox, and mostly from delayed linear viewing, according to Deadline.com.

In the weeks since, live+same day viewing grew in week two and then declined or remained flat. That makes it challenging to determine what the future holds for “Doc.” My guess is if the delayed viewing remains healthy, the show will get renewed. But honestly it’s much harder to predict what networks will do these days because there are so many factors beyond the simple linear TV rating that used to be determinative.