TV Talk: Julie Grant anchors new Court TV show; ‘The Gold’ takes silver

Former KDKA-TV legal reporter Julie Grant, who joined Court TV as an anchor in 2018, has a new show on the network.

“Opening Statements with Julie Grant” (8-9 a.m. weekdays) debuted Monday.

Grant previously anchored “Court TV Live” noon-3 p.m. weekdays. Now she’s on the air 8-11 a.m. with the first hour devoted to “Opening Statements,” which grew out of a morning special “Court TV” created temporarily during the Alex Murdaugh trial earlier this year.

“Our viewers were wanting more,” Grant said in a Zoom interview Tuesday. “It got such a great response and we were getting great ratings so [Court TV executives] decided, lets make it permanent.”

Grant compares “Opening Statements” to another type of familiar TV programming.

“I always say we’re like ‘ESPN for trials’ and this is the pregame show,” Grant said, noting the goal of “Opening Statements” is to set the table for the day’s coverage for fans of courtroom news and true crime.

The hour begins with Grant’s opening statement, something she’s fired up about. She also invites viewer feedback via social media that gets shared at the end of the hour.

“Opening Statements” includes live reports on court cases and crime, interviews with attorneys, members of law enforcement and true crime podcasters and it has a daily in-depth discussion. Earlier this week the focus was on a trial out of Akron, Ohio, where an insanity defense is being used by a defendant “exhibiting some off body language,” Grant said, so the show brought in a body language expert and a voice analysis expert. Other days the spotlight might feature a crime survivor or witness.

Grant maintains her ties to Pittsburgh – her parents still live in Steubenville – with weekly Monday 7:30 a.m. call-ins to Bubba and Melanie Taylor on radio’s Star 100.7 FM.

“Pittsburghers will often say to me that they love hearing me on Bubba show’s and its nice to still be remembered in Pittsburgh,” Grant said.

A graduate of Steubenville’s Central Catholic High School, Grant studied mass media and law at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio. She began her broadcasting career at Steubenville’s WTOV-TV as a morning anchor/reporter. She then made a career switch, attending law school at the University of Akron before serving as a prosecutor in the Allegheny County district attorney’s office from 2009 to 2013.

From there Grant moved back into TV, melding her broadcast and legal backgrounds at KDKA and now on Court TV, which is available locally over the air on Channel 40.2 and via streaming on Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Tubi and as an app on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV or live at courttv.com.

Seeking ‘The Gold’

After the fun of this summer’s Apple TV+ British thriller “Hijack,” there was reason to hope that Paramount+’s “The Gold” might be another exciting ride as it recounts an actual 1983 gold heist at the Brinks-Mat security depot near London’s Heathrow Airport.

Now streaming, “The Gold” proves less compelling than “Hijack,” but perhaps more cerebral with a greater emphasis on character development and the stratified nature of England’s social classes.

Hugh Bonneville (“Downton Abbey”) stars as Brian Boyce, lead investigator into the heist. But “The Gold” focuses equally on efforts to find the thieves and their bounty and the thieves themselves, including their home lives.

When the break-in happens, the thieves aren’t expecting to find millions of pounds in gold bullion but once they do they have to figure out how to dispose of it, creating an international money-laundering scheme with the aid of a proper British lawyer (Dominic Cooper).

“The Gold” was a hit for the BBC, which is reportedly interested in making a second season. All the way through the first season the show feels like it will be a limited series that tells the whole story. But then at the end of the six-episode first season, “The Gold” pulls the rug out from under viewers by revealing there’s still more to the story that’s yet to be told.

Created and written by Neil Forsyth (“Guilt”), “The Gold” makes some odd choices, killing a police officer at the end of episode three in a vague and unclear fashion. Then that murder becomes a focal point in episode four even though viewers can be excused for missing it happen at the end of episode three.

‘Chronicle’ turns 10

Channel 4’s latest entry in its occasional prime-time local series is “Chronicle: 10 Years of Pittsburgh Stories” (8 p.m. Sept. 20, WTAE-TV), a look back at the show’s first decade. It includes new interviews with WTAE journalists who reported past “Chronicle” stories, including Janelle Hall, Shannon Perrine, Paul Van Osdol, Ryan Recker, Andrew Stockey, Sally Wiggin and Michelle Wright.

Pitt Panthers rate on The CW

Pittsburgh was the No. 1 TV market in the country for The CW’s first live ACC college football game (Cincinnati at the University of Pittsburgh on Sept. 9) drawing 169,000 total viewers locally on WPNT-TV, Channel 22, new home of The CW.

Nationally, the game delivered 617,000 total viewers, improving The CW’s Saturday prime-time ratings by 142% in total viewers and beating NBC’s Saturday night college football game by 3% in adults 18-49. It was The CW’s highest-rated Saturday night since the network started programming Saturday prime time in October 2021.

Channel surfing

CBS will air the syndicated show “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” at 12:37 a.m. weeknights beginning Monday for a “limited run” while the writers’ and actors’ strikes wear on, resulting in regular late-night show reruns. … A theatrical movie based on the CBS series “Murder, She Wrote” is in development. … HGTV ordered a series based on the popular social media account Zillow Gone Wild. … HGTV sold the house used as the exterior on “The Brady Bunch,” with its interior renovated to match the series’ interior set on HGTV’s “A Very Brady Renovation,” for a loss. … Israeli series “Fauda,” which streams internationally on Netflix, will return for a fifth season.