TV Talk: David Johnson retires from WPXI after 40 years

WPXI announced that veteran news anchor David Johnson, 67, will retire from Channel 11 effective Dec. 13.

Johnson, who joined the station in January 1985, currently anchors the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts on WPXI and the 6:30 and 10 p.m. news on WPGH-TV, Pittsburgh’s Fox affiliate.

“As I neared 40 years, I started to think, do I want to work past 40 years (at the station)?” Johnson said in an interview Monday morning. “It was not clear for a while — maybe I’d work part-time, maybe I’d just work one or two more years.”

But Johnson said having two young granddaughters who live in Italy with their family and another grandchild due early next year, he felt the necessities of a TV schedule would continue to get in the way of opportunities to spend time with them.

“Even if I work part-time, there’s the restrictions of the TV news schedule,” he said. “I can’t just work Monday and Tuesday and have the rest of the week off. Even if I work four or five hours a day, I have to be in every day and on time for the newscast.”

The death of Johnson’s older sister at age 74 earlier this year solidified his plans to call it a career.

“My parents didn’t live past 75 … and we don’t know how much time we’re given on this Earth,” Johnson said. “That really, really pushed me to make this call.”

Johnson said he met with WPXI managers who did not beg him to stay.

“I think they felt like, David hit 40 years and it’s his decision,” Johnson said.

Station executives did not respond to queries about who will replace Johnson. Channel 11 hasn’t done much to cultivate a successor. Among male anchors, Gordon Loesch seems like the primary internal option unless the station hires from outside, which seems less likely in the current TV news economic downturn.

“I don’t know if it’s Gordon,” Johnson said. “I haven’t been told.”

Or maybe the station will go with a two-female anchor format that could include a larger role for 4 p.m. news anchor Susan Koeppen.

Johnson said he’s already cried a few times composing an email about his retirement to Channel 11 co-workers and he’s nervous about his ability to keep his emotions in check on his final broadcast next month.

A 1980 graduate of the University of Florida, Johnson recalled working as a reporter at WSB-TV, the Cox Media Group station in Atlanta, when then-WPXI general manager John Howell called to gauge Johnson’s interest in the noon anchor job at Channel 11.

Johnson said he initially turned it down but his then-girlfriend, now-wife Nancy Polinsky, encouraged him to at least take an interview if Howell called again, which he did.

At the time, Channel 11 was deep in third place in the Nielsen ratings, unlike today when all three of Pittsburgh’s primary network affiliates jockey for first place.

After taking the job in Pittsburgh but before he moved north, Johnson recalled talking about his new job in an Atlanta bar with a friend. A Pittsburgher happened to be at the bar and joined the conversation, asking Johnson which newscast he was going to anchor. Johnson said, “Noon.”

“It was like a scene from a movie,” Johnson recalled. “This guy takes a hit from his drink and says, ‘Patti and Daddy are gonna kick your (butt).’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ and he said, ‘You’re about to find out.’ ”

It was a reference to Patti Burns and her father, Bill Burns, who famously anchored KDKA-TV newscasts together, garnering the highest ratings for Pittsburgh TV news at the time.

As of Monday morning, Johnson had not yet had a chance to tell his former longtime WPXI co-anchor Peggy Finnegan of his retirement plan, but they’d clearly talked about the possibility because Johnson said, “She kept saying, ‘Why are you still working?’ ”

Finnegan retired from Channel 11 in 2020.

“I’m incredibly appreciative of people watching all these years,” Johnson said. “People I meet on the street, in the supermarket, in Target, they’re so nice. … I would say to the viewers and to the Pittsburgh market as a whole, I’m extremely grateful for their support and their viewership. It’s meant the world to me. And, you know, I have a very close relationship with (KDKA’s) Ken Rice and (WTAE’s) Mike Clark, and I love that. They’re competitors and I want to beat them bad but I’m friendly with them and they are with me, and I think that’s just so nice.”

‘Dune: Prophecy’

Remember how in creating “The Penguin,” HBO largely avoided any viewer prerequisites? You didn’t need to have seen “The Batman” to follow the story, even though it is technically set after that film.

Alas, HBO goes in the opposite direction with “Dune Prophecy” (9 p.m. Nov. 17), a turgid prequel series that opens with a 13-minute, exposition-filled prologue that requires rapt attention to make sense even though voiceover narration rarely compels in the way understanding this show requires.

Once the story jumps 30 years into the future, it’s slightly easier to follow but not by much. The focus is on two Harkonnen sisters, Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula (Olivia Williams), leaders of a religious sect that will eventually become the Bene Gesserit.

Early episodes feature a plan to establish an alliance through an ill-advised marriage and attempts to thwart those efforts. It’s not a terrible place to start a story. But with too many characters whose introductions prove too slight to understand their place in this world that viewers get plopped into, “Dune: Prophecy” disappoints.

Channel surfing

The Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide Tour, based on the Disney Channel movie series, hits Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena next year on Aug. 14. … CBS renewed “Poppa’s House” and “NCIS: Origins” for additional episodes, bringing their first-season orders to 18 episodes each. … Paramount Network will air the first season of Paramount+ series “1923” at 9 p.m. Sundays beginning Dec. 8. … Hallmark Channel’s “When Calls the Heart” returns for its 12th season at 9 p.m. Jan. 5. … The second and final season of Disney+ “Star Wars” series “Andor” will stream next year on April 22.