TV Q&A: Where has WTAE-TV’s Tom Garris been?

Q: Where has WTAE-TV anchor/reporter Tom Garris been? He used to be the weekend morning anchor, but I haven’t seen him in the past three or four weeks.

— Bill, Sarver

Rob: Garris posted to his Facebook page in mid-June that he suffered a sports-related injury to his leg, tearing his ACL and other ligaments on the outside of his knee, injuries that require two surgeries.

“WTAE has been incredibly supportive throughout the process,” Garris wrote. “Since the injury, I have not been field reporting during the week or standing in the studio during our weekend morning newscasts. Luckily, the anchor desk has hidden my brace.”

By June 19, Garris had his first surgery and has seen progress, but a date for a second surgery and his return to work have not been set.

WTAE reporter Kalea Gunderson anchored July 9 and Ashley Zilka sat in for Garris on July 10.

Q: For the past few weeks or so, John Shumway has appeared on KDKA-TV’s morning newscasts five days a week … and various KDKA reporters, including Amy Wadas and Erika Stanish, have anchored KDKA’s newscasts on Saturday and Sunday nights. Is Shumway going to be on KDKA’s morning newscasts five days a week on a regular basis or is this a temporary thing?

— Joseph, South Fayette

Rob: Sing-say it to the 1962 Connie Francis song: V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.

It’s summer. News anchors go on vacation. There is bound to be some shuffling of who anchors which newscast. That’s all Joseph is witnessing in this instance. It’s not a permanent change, per KDKA-TV news director Shawn Hoder, just temporary, and Shumway will return to anchoring weekend evenings.

Q: I tried to tune into PBS’s “A Capitol Fourth” on WQED-TV. Here’s what I found instead: Color bars for the first 40 minutes of the telecast (a replay aired as scheduled and intact). Is anybody home in the control room?

Then on Tuesday, I tuned in to “PBS NewsHour” at 6 p.m. only to find kids’ programming “Molly of Denali” and “Ready Jet Go” instead. They were followed by “BBC World News” in its regular 7 p.m. time slot.

— Mark, Squirrel Hill

Rob: My understanding is WQED uses an automated master control — a common practice these days — and the station never went off the air but was airing color bars from the wrong satellite receiver. The station’s chief engineer logged in remotely and switched to the correct satellite receiver, which allowed regularly scheduled programming to resume in progress. WQED is investigating what caused the error.

As for the “NewsHour” going missing July 5, that was human error that stemmed from the corrective for the July 4 issue. When the switch was made to another satellite receiver to get “A Capitol Fourth” on the air, the receiver was not returned to its normal feed and still tuned to the frequency the station uses for kids’ programming.

Q: Do you know if “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” will be back on TLC?

— Deb, via Facebook

Rob: Yes, the show returns for season 10 at 10 p.m. Aug. 9 on TLC.