TV Q&A: Why did a ‘Law & Order’ star leave?

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 happened to Camryn Manheim on “Law & Order”? She was on the show last season and now she’s gone.

— Julia, Irwin

Rob: Manheim hasn’t said if it was her choice to leave or the producers’ decision, but these days it’s pretty common for cast turnover in procedurals, especially as networks try to contain production costs. Some reporting says Manheim was unhappy with her compensation and her character’s diminishing storylines.

Q: Do you know why Mehcad Brooks was missing from a few episodes of “Law & Order” recently? Googling didn’t find anything useful.

— ‪@kostuch.bsky.social‬

Rob: NBC publicists did not respond to a request for comment to this question. In the show it was explained that Brooks’ character, Det. Jalen Shaw, was ill. Why Brooks was absent remains an open question.

Q: When will “Mayor of Kingstown” come back for season four? I read it was being shot in March.

— Kate, New Kensington

Rob: “Mayor of Kingstown” has been filming in Pittsburgh since January and will continue to film until mid-May. My guess is we’ll get a season four premiere date announcement soon. Most likely it will stream new episodes in early June just as it did last year.

Q: I came across the ages of the teenage cast of “Yellowjackets” and was surprised how old they are: The actor playing Travis is 31, Jackie is 26 and Van, Misty and Lottie are all 27. Is it too hard to find actual teenagers to play high school kids? Love the show though.

— Katie, Scott

Rob: It’s much easier on a production to cast adults because in many localities, actors under the age of 18 can only legally work a limited number of hours each day. In addition, older actors with more experience may deliver better performances.

Q: I was wondering why during March Madness and other sporting events that overlap regularly scheduled newscasts, the only way you can watch the newscast is on a station’s mobile app? Why can’t they interrupt one of their secondary over-the-air channels, like KDKA+, for those who don’t have access to computers or mobile devices, like my grandparents?

— Josh, via email

Rob: If stations thought it was to their financial advantage to put those newscasts on their alternate or digital subchannels, they would. If they don’t, then it probably isn’t. Or, in the case of a digital subchannel that carries something like MeTV on Channel 11.2, a station may not have the right to interrupt those channels since the networks they carry are sometimes distributed by other companies.

In addition, if you interrupt regularly scheduled programming on TWO channels — with Josh’s notion of shifting KDKA newscasts to KDKA+ (Channel 19) — then you’re going to have twice as many upset viewers.