TV Talk: ‘QED Cooks’ returns with first episode since the pandemic, ‘When in Rome’

WQED’s Saturday morning cooking franchise series “QED Cooks” returns with its first new episode since the March 2020 onset of the covid-19 pandemic with “When in Rome” (10 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturday and airing in the same time slot Dec. 17 and 20).

Taped in late October and once again featuring hosts Chris Fennimore and Nancy Polinsky, this time they’ll prepare recipes imported from Rome, Italy.

At 75, you couldn’t blame Fennimore if he wanted to hang up his apron once the pandemic hit, but he says that was never his plan.

“I can’t stop cooking!” Fennimore said Monday.

He began gathering recipes during the pandemic during his annul two-month visits to see his daughter and her family in Rome, patronizing a nearby market where the butcher he visits will ask “how many people?” Fennimore plans to serve rather than “how many pounds” of meat for meatballs.

“It’s all so personal,” Fennimore says, adding that he quickly accumulated 100 recipes for “When in Rome.”

A remodel of the kitchen set in WQED’s Studio C, completed earlier this year, made this the right time to restart production of “QED Cooks,” but the show no longer will air live. Fennimore said he prefers the new live-to-tape approach that allows more time to clean and reset from one recipe to the next.

Fennimore’s son, Joe, now 28 and a software engineer, makes an appearance as he has in occasionally shows dating back to when Joe was 18-months-old.

“Even when he’s not on the show, he’s almost always there helping me out [behind the scenes],” Fennimore says. “He cooks more than I do now.”

In addition to Fennimore and Polinsky, pledge segments will feature first-time pitchman Sam Hall, WTAE-TV’s Chopper 4 traffic reporter. A new cookbook with 100 of Fennimore’s Italian recipes will be offered as the pledge premium.

And “QED Cooks” will begin airing on PBS stations nationally under the title “America’s Home Cooking.”

The last original “QED Cooks” episode, “Instant Pot,” debuted in January 2020, but “QED Cooks” has continued to air in reruns.

Fennimore said the plan is to tape two additional “QED Cooks” episodes in the next six months (the next one may be on air fryer recipes). There are also plans afoot to re-tape wrap-arounds for older “QED Cooks” episodes – retaining the recipe and cooking segments but updating the pledge offerings – and there are plans to do similar updates to 26 older cooking marathon episodes. Those should begin rolling out in summer 2023.

WQED’s holiday ‘Sessions’

WQED-TV’s “Holiday Sessions 2022” (8 p.m. Dec. 22), among this year’s few new locally-produced holiday specials, will feature a new lineup of Pittsburgh-area musicians performing holiday favorites at venues in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio.

Featured performers include Blind Colours, Byron Neal Jacquea Mae of NASH.V.ILL, Chantal Braziel, Chip and Charge Up, Soulful Femme and The Vindys.

Kept/canceled

Paramount+ renewed the Sylvester Stallone-starring “Tulsa King” for a second season.

Apple TV+ renewed psychological thriller “Surface” for a second season.

Netflix canceled “The Midnight Club” after a single season.

HBO canceled “Los Espookys” after two seasons.

After AMC renewed “Moonhaven” in July, AMC reversed course and canceled the series that stars Mt. Lebanon native Joe Manganiello, days after announcing plans to lay off 20% of the network’s staff.

Channel surfing

Last week, Pittsburgh native Billy Porter got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. … KDKA-TV’s annual turkey fund brought in more than $800,000 this year and has exceeded $20 million over its 40-year history to feed the hungry Thanksgiving meals. …CNN is no longer producing live programming for HLN with “CNN This Morning” simulcast in place of anchor Robin Meade’s long-running HLN show. Programming oversight for HLN, which airs a lot of the same kind of true-crime programming as Investigation Discovery, will be merged with ID. … “Harry & Meghan,” a Netflix docu-series about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will debut in two batches of three episodes each Dec. 8 and 15.