TV Talk: ‘The Chair’ adds to cast; WPXI may go off DirecTV, AT&T TV

Netflix’s latest series to film in Pittsburgh, “The Chair,” is rounding out its cast with the addition of several actors, including Philadelphia’s David Morse, who previously spent two seasons in Pittsburgh filming WGN America’s “Outsiders” and before that appeared in the filmed-in Pittsburgh Will Smith film “Concussion.” Most recently Morse had a role in Showtime’s critically-acclaimed “The Good Lord Bird” and prior to that appeared in the partially-filmed-in-Pittsburgh Showtime limited series “Escape at Dannemora.”

Morse will play Paul Larson, dean of the fictional Pembroke University where Ji-Yoon (series lead Sandra Oh) is chair of the English department.

Additional series regulars include Nana Mensah (“New Amsterdam,” “13 Reasons Why”) as Yasmin “Yaz” McKay, a popular, progressive English professor and close colleague of Ji-Yoon; Bob Balaban (“Gosford Park”) as Elliot Rentz, a set-in-his-ways English professor and Everly Carganilla (“Jane the Virgin”) as Ju-Hee “Ju Ju” Kim, Ji-Yoon’s daughter.

Netflix previously announced the six-episode, half-hour dramedy, filming in and around Pittsburgh, will also star Jay Duplass and Holland Taylor. Netflix has not confirmed that David Duchovny will play a fictional version of himself, a visiting professor at Pembroke.

Guest stars will include Ji Yong Lee as Habi, Ji-Yoon’s father; Mallory Low (“Lincoln Heights”) as Lila, the teaching fellow for Professor Dobson (Duplass); Marcia DeBonis (“Orange is the New Black”) as Laurie, assistant to the English department chair; Ron Crawford as Prof. John McHale, who is on the brink of retirement; Ella Rubin as undergrad student Dafna and Bob Stephenson (“Jericho”) as Horatio, a tech repairman who assists Professor Hambling (Taylor).

Latest retrans skirmish

WPXI is running on-air crawls about the latest retransmission consent battle, citing the possibility that Channel 11 may no longer be available to DirecTV or AT&T TV live streaming subscribers if a deal is not reached by 2:59 a.m. Tuesday.

Dueling grousing statements from WPXI parent company Cox Media Group and AT&T’s DirecTV blamed one another.

“We have been working hard to get a fair, market-based deal with AT&T/DirecTV and they have not shown that they are moving that way,” CMG’s statement reads in part. “We cannot prevent AT&T/DirecTV from retransmitting our stations – they go dark only if AT&T/DirecTV so chooses. We are hopeful that AT&T/DirecTV will engage in meaningful negotiations that lead to a mutually beneficial deal for all parties.”

DirecTV disputed who will pull the trigger that removes WPXI from DirecTV’s lineup.

“Cox alone has exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive WPXI-NBC and any NBC programs in Pittsburgh,” DirecTV countered. “We continue to work with Cox to try to avoid any unnecessary disruption to WPXI-NBC and appreciate our customers’ patience while we do.”

Negotiations are ongoing.

Scripted originals decline

An addendum to last week’s column about media companies prioritizing their new streaming services over cable:

— Ampere Analysis reports American spending on subscription video on demand services like Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max was up 17% between the beginning and end of 2020, from an average $34 per month to $40 per month. That’s likely driven both by the covid-19 pandemic with consumers being stuck at home and by the growing number of streaming services.

— FX’s annual estimate of the total number of scripted series in 2020 across broadcast, basic cable and streaming service totaled 493, a 7% decline from 2019’s record high of 532 and the first decline in at least a decade. While some of the decline is no doubt covid-related as the industry shuttered for almost six months, it may also reflect the decline of scripted series for basic cable. With streamers adding more originals, we’ll have a better sense if this is a downturn blip or the beginning of a trend once we get through 2021.

Kept/canceled

SundanceTV renewed short-form series “State of the Union” for a second season.

Freeform renewed drama “The Bold Type” for a fifth and final season to air later this year.

CBS will bring back “Love Island” this summer, this time set in Hawaii.

Fox renewed “I Can See Your Voice” for season two.

Netflix renewed “On My Block” for a fourth and finale season.

Hulu’s “Shrill” will end after its upcoming third season.

The CW’s “Trickster” was canceled after one season.

Channel surfing

The 2021 GLAAD Media Awards, honoring media for fair, accurate and inclusive representation of LGBTQ people and issues, nominated filmed-in-Pittsburgh movies “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Netflix) and “Happiest Season” (Hulu) for outstanding wide release film and Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents for outstanding blog. … Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions has received a $3 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that can be used to pay for series production, digital content, station engagement and promotional activities for its upcoming PBS Kids puppet series for preschoolers “Donkey Hodie.” … Classic sci-fi series “Babylon 5” is now streaming on HBO Max.