Rob Owen stories, Page 17
TV Q&A: Why do Channel 4 anchors stand to read the news?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Why do they make Kelly Sasso and others on Channel 4 Action News stand while giving us the news when other news stations don’t? I...
TV Talk: ‘Bridgerton’s’ return kicks off summer scripted series on streaming, cableVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Netflix’s hit Shonda Rhimes-produced, Regency-period drama “Bridgerton” returns for the first half of its eight-episode third season May 16, capturing the events of Julia Quinn’s fourth book in the “Bridgerton” series, “Romancing Mister Bridgerton.” (Part...
TV Talk: Mister Rogers Lego set won’t happen; AMC’s ‘Vampire’ draws bloodVideo
PASADENA, Calif. — AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” returning for its second season at 9 p.m. Sunday on AMC and AMC+, managed to eclipse the 1994 film in quality in its first season as it retold the first story of Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles.” The show’s first season was...
TV Talk: Abrupt departures abound at WQED-TV in recent months
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a column on the current state of WQED Multimedia. Read part one here. Pittsburgh’s PBS station, WQED-TV, has had its turbulent moments in the past and it seems to be amid another storm. Nine months into the tenure of new CEO Jason...
TV Q&A: Does the star of ‘Tracker’ do his own stunts?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I am really enjoying the show “Tracker” with Justin Hartley and when I was watching the show this past week, he skydived into a remote...
TV Talk: Does WQED still care about local programming?
WQED Multimedia eliminated five positions on April 29 amid a wave of staff dissatisfaction and concern about the future of the station’s local TV programming. Four of the employees exited immediately while one, IT director Mike Kobulnicky, was “invited” to stay on through June as the station outsources IT and...
TV Talk: Astronaut with Pittsburgh ties appears in ‘The Longest Goodbye’ on PBSVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. PASADENA, Calif. — Retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman says in PBS’s new “Independent Lens” documentary “Space: The Longest Goodbye” (10-11:30 p.m. May 6, WQED-TV) that even after she’d spent 159 days in space on the...
TV Talk: Billy Gardell ends ‘Bob (Hearts) Abishola,’ explores what’s nextVideo
BURBANK, Calif. — Swissvale native Billy Gardell has experience with ending a sitcom. He saw CBS’s “Mike & Molly” through 127 episodes to its conclusion in 2016 and now he’s saying farewell to CBS’s “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” (8:30 p.m. Monday, KDKA-TV), which ends its five-season run next week. “I told...
TV Talk: ‘A Man in Full’ debuts; ‘Hacks’ returns better than everVideo
It’s a busy TV week as networks and platforms debut shows in time for 2024 Emmy Awards consideration, including Peacock’s Holocaust drama “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” the return of Max’s “Hacks” and the debut of Netflix’s “A Man in Full,” which includes a reunion of “American Rust” actors. ‘A Man...
TV Q&A: Are local channels faking when they toss to a network anchor?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Why do local TV news affiliates make it seem as though when they are running news feeds from their respective networks they are live and...
TV Talk: SportsNet Pittsburgh available as subscription streaming app; WPXI back on DISHVideo
Pirates and Penguins fans frustrated with Comcast and Verizon moving the teams’ cable TV home, SportsNet Pittsburgh, to often more expensive tiers, take note: The cable channel is available as a direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service app similar to Netflix or Disney+. The SportsNet Pittsburgh app, called SNP 360, has a...
TV Talk: ‘Dance Moms: The Reunion’ offers closure for stars who share ‘trauma bond’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Forget the revelations in “Dance Moms: The Reunion” (8-10 p.m. Wednesday, Lifetime) — who shows up, who skips it, which dancer is dating a woman (and it’s not openly queer Jojo Siwa). The biggest shock...
TV Talk: WTAE’s new news director looks ahead; Very Local’s Pittsburgh ‘Sports Town Stories’Video
It’s still late April, but the May sweeps ratings period began this week for local TV stations. While sweeps is not as significant as it once was, stations still aim to air some special reports during sweeps periods. May sweeps, which this year runs through May 22, marks the first...
TV Q&A: Will ‘Yellowstone’ ever return with new episodes?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Any updates on “Yellowstone”? — Tom, North Versailles Rob: Paramount Network claimed the final season of the original series would air beginning in November 2024...
TV Talk: How past series inspired Quinta Brunson’s ‘Abbott Elementary’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip. BURBANK, Calif. – There are many qualities to admire about “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson, but the one that jumps out for me most often is her genuine love of and appreciation for television. Viewers might think...
TV Talk: W.Pa.’s Sprankle family competes on ‘Family Feud’
Western Pennsylvania’s Sprankle family made the trip to Atlanta in May to tape an episode of “Family Feud” that’s expected to air at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, on WPKD-TV, Channel 19. They’re inviting the community to join the celebration under a tent at the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company Carnival...
TV Talk: Emily Giangreco exits WTAE
Emily Giangreco, who joined WTAE as a sports reporter/anchor in the summer of 2022 from a station in Austin, Texas, left her job working for the station Wednesday in what she characterized as a mutual decision. “I’m not really at liberty to discuss leaving WTAE right now,” she said by...
TV Talk: Emily Giangreco exits WTAE
Emily Giangreco, who joined WTAE as a sports reporter/anchor in the summer of 2022 from a station in Austin, Texas, left her job working for the station Wednesday in what she characterized as a mutual decision. “I’m not really at liberty to discuss leaving WTAE right now,” she said by...
TV Talk: Locally made thriller ‘Godless Children’ to stream; ‘The Jinx’ re-animates Durst’s trialVideo
For their first indie feature film, “Godless Children,” co-writers Kathleen Regan and Simon Barracchini opted for a story that starts like a Lifetime movie and ends, well, in a different genre altogether (no spoilers here). “We call it a dramatic thriller,” Regan said. “In Hollywood, you have to have two...
TV Q&A: Did SportsNet Pittsburgh move to a more expensive tier on Verizon’s FiOS TV?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Verizon’s FiOS TV has apparently removed SportsNet Pittsburgh, the MLB Network and perhaps a couple of other channels from its lower-priced packages. (Full disclosure: I...
TV Talk: CBS starts a fire of controversy cutting off Billy Joel, reschedules show
After promoting “Billy Joel: The 100th at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time” for weeks, CBS blundered nationally by cutting off the program mid-“Piano Man” to go to late local newscasts. CBS released a statement saying, “A network programming timing error ended last night’s Billy...
TV Talk: Katherine Amenta out at WPXI-TV
After anchoring this morning’s newscasts, Katherine Amenta is no longer with WPXI-TV. Her contract is up in July and was not renewed, possibly due to budget cuts. Amenta could not be reached for comment; WPXI news director Scott Trabandt did not respond to queries but confirmed her departure in an...
TV Talk: Creator imagines ‘Dinner with the Parents’ set in Squirrel HillVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Although it’s never said exactly where the new Amazon Freevee streaming comedy series “Dinner With the Parents” takes place, feel free to assume it’s Squirrel Hill, where series creator Jon Beckerman grew up. While the...
TV Talk: Voice actor appearing at Steel City Con credits his career to meeting a celebrity at PittVideo
There will be famous actors galore at Steel City Con, April 12-14 at the Monroeville Convention Center, including Geena Davis, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson and the cast of “Beverly Hills 90210,” but one guest in particular returns to Pittsburgh with memories of the city as the place he met a...
TV Q&A: Did KDKA-TV’s Kristin Emery get married?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I see the KDKA-TV weather girl Kristin Emery is wearing a ring on her left hand. Did she just get married? Curious minds like to...
