When CBS’s “Mom” returns next week (9 p.m. Nov. 5, KDKA-TV) the show will have some big changes in store as star Anna Faris’ Christy departs off-screen. It’s a changing-of-the-guard “Mom” series director and Pittsburgh native Jamie Widdoes has overseen before on TV series.

He was there when “8 Simple Rules” had to write out its patriarch after the death of John Ritter. And he directed “Two-and-a-Half Men” when Charlie Sheen was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

Widdoes said “Mom” star Anna Faris’ decision to leave the show in September came as a surprise that required an all-hands-on-deck effort but he characterized it as less fraught than the change at “Two-and-a-Half-Men” because that show had become “a two-hander” between Sheen and Jon Cryer whereas “Mom” is an ensemble with Oscar-winner Allison Janney, as Christy’s mom, Bonnie, taking over as the lead.

“If you were to develop [the show from scratch with the current cast] people would say, ‘Sure, I’ll buy that,’” Widdoes said by phone last week. “We just have to reorient people and hopefully we’re going to be able to do that as quickly and as on-message as the show has always been.”

As for Christy’s story, it continues in the show’s dialogue. Viewers will learn she’s gone “back east” to go to law school.

The show will continue to follow Bonnie and the other women dealing with their sobriety with greater roles for Tammy (Kristen Johnston) and Jill (Jamie Pressly).

While covid-19 has changed aspects of the show’s production, the series will not exist in a pandemic-inflicted world.

“As impactful as it’s been on all of us, we’re a hopeful bunch,” Widdoes said, “and we believe there’s gonna be a day that people look and say, ‘Why are they wearing masks?’”

‘Washington Week’ in Pa.

PBS’s “Washington Week” host Robert Costa drove 350 miles across Pennsylvania in the final week before the 2016 presidential election which he said taught him about listening to voters’ voices and “how they can tell us where the election is headed.”

This year he set out for a virtual re-do with a “Washington Week” crew crossing the state, setting up a laptop at their stops that allowed Costa to Zoom in to interview them for “Washington Week Election 2020 Special Report” (8:30 p.m. Friday, WQED-TV).

As with his trip four years ago, this year’s pandemic-affected road trip began in Aliquippa.

“I really feel like Pennsylvania is up for grabs,” Costa said in a phone interview last week. “It’s clear to me President Trump has strong support in Western and Central Pennsylvania but I’m not sure that support is going to be enough this time.”

Costa said former vice president Joe Biden is eating into Trump’s support in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with independents and moderate Republicans switching to Biden.

“I call these voters ‘the character voters’ and a lot of them are unhappy with the President’s conduct and his response to the pandemic,” Costa said. “It’s hard to overstate how important the pandemic is to so many Pennsylvanians we’ve encountered. The pandemic more than Trump himself is the central issue of the 2020 campaign.”

‘Virus Hunters’ on Nat Geo

National Geographic Channel’s one-hour documentary special “Virus Hunters” (9 p.m. Sunday) profiles the work of scientists searching for patterns that can lead to global health crises like the one we’re now in.

Kendra Phelps, a bat and field scientist at EcoHealth Alliance, says how humans interact with the environment is key.

“One of the biggest misconceptions that the public has is that it’s the bat’s fault or the fault of any wildlife for transmitting a virus to humans when, in fact, it’s human encroachment into wildlife habitat that is providing an opportunity for human-wildlife interactions that naturally would not occur,” Phelps said during an August Nat Geo press conference. “We don’t want to think of how we’re interacting with the environment and how that is actually driving these pandemics.”

WQED on hunger

“Starved: Our Food Insecurity Crisis” (8 p.m. Nov. 5, WQED-TV) explores Western Pennsylvania communities – including Homewood, Clairton, Greene County and Erie – facing food insecurity, whether it’s due to financial need or living in a place with no grocery stores nearby.

Written and produced by Beth Dolinar, the special shows how the covid-19 pandemic has compounded food insecurity challenges.

fuboTV adds SportsNet

ATT SportsNet Pittsburgh, which still remains off Verizon’s FiOS TV due to a retransmission dispute, has lined up new carriage on fuboTV, a live TV streaming platform found at fubo.tv and available as an app via Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV and Chromecast.

When the NHL season starts, ATT SportsNet Pittsburgh will become available in the fubo Standard package ($59.99 per month), which includes more than 100 channels such as CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates and national sports networks ESPN, FS1, CBS Sports Network and ACC Network.

Kept/canceled/revived

“Archer” will return for a 12th season in 2021 on FXX.

OWN renewed anthology “Cherish This Day” for a second season.

TBS renewed “Miracle Workers” for a third season, this time set in the Old West on the Oregon Trail.

The CW renewed “Burden of Truth” and “Coroner” for new seasons to air in 2021.

Last week streamer Quibi announced it will cease operations seven months after its launch. The app will cease functioning on or around Dec. 1.

HBO will bring back “In Treatment” in 2021 with Uzo Aduba (“Mrs. America”) slated to play the therapist at the center of the season.

Former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart will return in a one-hour, single-issue current affairs series for Apple TV+.

Channel surfing

TheWrap.com reports Mt. Lebanon native Joe Manganiello will reprise his role as Slade Wilson (AKA Deathstroke) in Zack Snyder’s cut of “Justice League,” which will air as four hour-long episodes on HBO Max in 2021. … HBO Max has unlocked “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote,” making it available for free for non-HBO Max subscribers through the end of the year at hbomax.com/votebecause. … One-hour special “Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020” Democracy’s Last Stand: Building Back America Great Again Better 2020” will air at 11 p.m. Nov. 3 on Showtime with the host reacting in real-time to election results. … John Mulaney hosts NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” this weekend with musical guest The Strokes. … Free, nonprofit streaming service Channel Pittsburgh, available online at ChannelPittsburgh.org and on Roku devices, will stream 1960’s “Little Shop of Horrors” starring Pittsburgh native Jonathan Haze at 8 p.m. Saturday with trivia bubbles popping up throughout the movie.

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