Rob Owen stories, Page 28

When Munhall’s Kamahlai Stewart was contacted by a producer for Fox’s “Next Level Chef” in early 2022 via her Instagram page, Stewart thought it was a prank. “We’re going on Gordon Ramsay’s show? Like, get out of here,” she said. Once she realized the contact was legit, Stewart filled out...

Fox sold out its “Super Bowl LVII” commercial inventory with some spots going for $7 million for 30-seconds of ad time, but with many companies releasing their spots in advance of the big game, have the ads become less of an event if you can watch them days before Sunday’s...

In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including how Pittsburgh ranks as a football town in a Wallet Hub survey, Super Bowl preparations, Twitter reactions and a possible Tony Romo intervention. Benz...

While the story of “Murf the Surf” runs through Pittsburgh, the four-part docu-series devotes little attention to Murf’s time in Western Pennsylvania. That might make sense if there was a lot of other story to tell, but it turns out to be a generally overlong, unsatisfying program. “Murf the Surf:...

Pittsburgh’s PBS station WQED-TV will overhaul its daytime schedule Feb. 6, removing children’s programming from 2-6 p.m. weekdays and replacing it with reruns of programs normally seen in PBS’s prime time. The station is calling it “Prime Time on Your Time” with each day of the week dedicated to a...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Teen-targeted TV has largely moved to online streaming — see: Amazon Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” — because that’s where teens are consuming entertainment. Surely the fact that Freeform’s “The Watchful Eye” will...

PASADENA, Calif. — Miss “Columbo?” Then you might appreciate Peacock’s “Poker Face,” a modern take on the episodic detective show that’s less whodunnit (that’s shown in the opening scene of each episode) and more “howcatchem,” as premiere episode writer/director Rian Johnson (“Knives Out”) calls the show’s formula of starting with...

Pittsburgh native Cara Ammon made her debut and her exit on Monday’s season premiere of ABC’s “The Bachelor.” Ammon got little screen time and then she didn’t secure a rose that would have kept her on the reality competition. She wasn’t the woman who made bachelor Zach Shallcross guzzle maple...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Sometimes it’s easy to get a recurring guest star back. For “How I Met Your Father” (Hulu’s sequel series to the 2005-14 “How I Met Your Mother”), recurring guest star Josh Peck...

Ever since Fox announced the anthology series “Accused,” a one-hour drama that each week introduces a new story and new characters caught up in a criminal legal case, I’ve pondered why Fox wanted this series. While season-long anthology series have thrived in recent years – think: “American Horror Story,” “American...

PASADENA, Calif. – Before co-starring in filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust,” actor Rob Yang was a series regular on the first two seasons of HBO’s “Succession” and since “Rust,” he’s filmed a pivotal role in Paramount+’s upcoming Kiefer Sutherland thriller “Rabbit Hole” (March 26). Yang was at the Television Critics Association winter...

PASADENA, Calif. – FX’s “Justified” (2010-15) filmed its pilot episode in Western Pennsylvania back in 2009 before production on the subsequent episodes shifted to Southern California. For the sequel series, “Justified: City Primeval,” premiering on FX this summer, the show is set in Detroit and primarily filmed in Chicago with...

PASADENA, Calif. – The entertainment business is in turmoil, particularly in TV and streaming. On the TV side, ratings for linear – broadcast and cable – continue an inexorable decline. For streaming, viewing is on the rise but profits remain scarce due to exorbitant programming costs. Those challenges impact companies...

PASADENA, Calif. – Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown” filmed its second season in Pittsburgh, and viewers can see the results when season two begins streaming episodes weekly Sunday. My first impression: Kingstown, Mich., has a lot more bridges in season two than it had in season one, which filmed in...