TV Talk: Avoid ‘Alert;’ KDKA-TV’s Bob Pompeani honored

It’s a given at this point in TV history that broadcast networks have given up on sophisticated storytelling in favor of procedural dramas of varying quality.

But 2023 begins with one of the most unbelievable procedurals we’ve seen in a while.

Fox’s missing persons drama “Alert” (Sunday after “NFL on Fox,” then Mondays at 9 beginning next week, WPGH-TV) is straight-up bad TV, perverting what most often happens in missing persons cases to up the show’s dramatic stakes.

“Alert” follows the Philadelphia Police Missing Persons Unit where officers Jason Grant (Scott Caan, “Hawaii Five-0”) and Nikki Batista (Dania Ramirez, “Devious Maids”) seek to rescue the missing while trying to find their long-lost son, Keith.

In the years since Keith’s disappearance, Jason and Nikki separated with Nikki now dating one of her co-workers, who proposes in the office where the team also appears to pray for the kidnapped (as one does?).

In the premiere episode, a girl is kidnapped by terrorists. Nikki rescues the girl but only after risking her life by shooting the driver of a car the girl is in. It’s this sort of ridiculous storytelling, coupled with the uncredible recurring Keith storyline, that make “Alert” a series to avoid.

‘Mayfair Witches’

The TV and streaming business are in a precarious position as they enter 2023. Ratings for linear TV continue to decline by substantial margins as more viewers opt to stream entertainment instead. But the amount of money entertainment conglomerates take in from streaming has so far not been enough to cover the cost of doing business (only Netflix turns a profit).

Things started to go sideways last spring when Netflix posted its first subscriber loss in a decade and Wall Street’s irrational exuberance for the future of streaming evaporated and entertainment company stocks started falling precipitously.

Late last year after AMC Networks announced it would trim 20% of its staff, James Dolan, CEO of AMC parent MSG Entertainment, made this somewhat starling observation: “It was our belief that cord-cutting losses would be offset by gains in streaming. This has not been the case. We are primarily a content company and the mechanisms for the monetization of content are in disarray.”

He’s basically saying they don’t know how to turn a profit. That’s a pretty chilling statement from a company CEO and it’s why I’m wary of investing my time in new AMC programming. I got hooked on “Interview with the Vampire” last year and now I’m wondering if that second season ever materialize?

AMC planned a whole suite of series based on the Anne Rice universe of stories — but will that happen?

AMC’s second Rice series, “Mayfair Witches” (9 p.m. Sunday, AMC, AMC+), debuts this weekend, but I’m loathe to invest in a new ongoing AMC series given the precarious state of the company (I may make an exception for the upcoming Bob Odenkirk AMC dramedy “Straight Man”).

Based on Rice’s “Lives of the Mayfair Witches,” the eight-episode first season focuses on New Orleans neurosurgeon Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) who discovers she is the heir to a family of witches.

Showrunner Esta Spalding (“On Becoming a God in Central Florida”) said the first season of the series was deeply inspired by the first book, “The Witching Hour.”

“It starts where the book starts in that mood of New Orleans and the ghost story of this house,” Spalding said in August during the AMC portion of the Television Critics Association summer 2023 press tour. “We felt we should end the first season with the end of the book. The book is kind of an embarrassment of riches. … The middle section is about 300 or 400 pages of 13 generations of witches going all the way back to Scotland. So we used a piece of that and then we feel like were gonna save some of that great story and saga of all the different generations for later seasons, should we be so lucky.”

Kudos for Pompeani

Broadcast industry trade publication Broadcasting & Cable named KDKA-TV sports director/anchor Bob Pompeani “sports anchor of the year” for 2022, capping his 40th year in broadcasting.

“Think of Pittsburgh sports icons and Willie Stargell, Terry Bradshaw and Mario Lemieux come to mind,” “B&C” wrote. “Yet if you ask local sports fans, KDKA sports director and anchor Bob Pompeani should be in the same conversation.”

In a prepared statement, Pompeani said, “I am truly grateful, but honestly, a career spent reporting on sports, in the city where I was born – the city that I love - doesn’t feel much like work.”

WTAE adds public affairs show

Beginning this weekend WTAE-TV will air the weekly public affairs show “WTAE Listens” (11:30 a.m. Sunday). Each week the program will address a different community issue. For the first episode the extended conversation will focus on causes for recent increases in crime among young people in Pittsburgh and potential solutions.

WTAE representatives did not respond to a query about who among the station’s talent will host “WTAE Listens.”

Comcast’s ‘Free This Week’

Comcast’s Xfinity unveiled “Free This Week,” a rotating selection of free programming throughout 2023 from premium cable networks and streaming services beginning with wellness apps The Great Courses, Gaia, One Day University, Gaiam TV, Sweat Factor and FitFusion.

Future participating networks will include HBO Max, Showtime, History and Lifetime Movie Club.

TCA coverage begins

For the first time since January 2020, a Television Critics Association press tour will be in-person rather than virtual as necessitated by the covid-19 pandemic. I’ll begin filing reports from the TCA winter 2023 press tour in Pasadena, Calif., early next week.

Now is a great time to submit questions for TV Q&A (send email to rowen@triblive.com) since I’ll have in-person access to some network executives.

Channel surfing

The remaining episodes of “Yellowstone” season five won’t air on Paramount Network until summer. … Netflix canceled “1899” after one season. … Reruns of the 2009-14 Lifetime series “Drop Dead Diva” are now streaming on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, 5-7 p.m. weekdays. … Netflix will air its first-ever live, global streaming comedy event with “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” (10 p.m. March 4). … PBS will rebroadcast the three-part documentary “The U.S. and the Holocaust” at 9 p.m. Jan. 6, 13 and 20 and will stream for free at PBS.org and on the PBS app Jan. 6-Feb. 3.