Movies/TV category, Page 46
TV Talk: Jon Burnett comforted by viewer support after former KDKA-TV host’s diagnosis revealed
For former KDKA-TV weathercaster and “Evening Magazine” and “Pittsburgh Today Live” host Jon Burnett, it wasn’t a difficult decision to share the story of his suspected CTE diagnosis. However, answering a question about it can prove challenging due to the disease’s effects. Then Burnett’s charming, folksy personality comes through clear...
TV Talk at TCA: Penn State grad consults on Hallmark’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’Video
PASADENA, Calif. – As part of its “Loveuary with Jane Austen” programming stunt, Hallmark Channel debuts a new production of “Sense and Sensibility” (8 p.m. Feb. 24) under its African American-focused Mahogany banner. A Penn State grad helped bring the story of the Dashwood sisters to life. Before she was...
Jon Stewart’s return to ‘The Daily Show’ felt familiar to those who missed him while he was awayVideo
NEW YORK — No, Jon Stewart really wasn’t sitting at his desk at Comedy Central for the last nine years, waiting for someone to turn the lights back on. Yet it almost felt that way during Stewart’s return to “The Daily Show” Monday night. His signature moves — blunt satire,...
Paramount to lay off hundreds of staffers in cost-cutting effort
Layoffs are hitting Paramount Global. The media giant that owns the famed Paramount Pictures movie studio, plus CBS, Nickelodeon and other networks, will eliminate roughly 800 jobs as part of a broad streamlining effort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment. There is...
Pain, sweat and sandworms: In ‘Dune 2’ Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and the cast rise to the challengeVideo
LOS ANGELES — Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler were really looking forward to their fight. The actors had been training, separately, with a Kali instructor in Los Angeles to prepare for the climactic showdown between Paul Atreides and Feyd Rautha in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two. ” When they finally...
Movie Review: Dakota Johnson is fun enough, but ‘Madame Web’ is repetitive and messyVideo
There is a lot of pretty niche comic book mythology swirling around “Madame Web,” the inspiration for the newest of Sony’s “Spider-Man” spinoffs. This is a character who goes back to 1980 and whose powers of clairvoyance helped Peter Parker at some point. She’s elderly and blind and sits atop...
TV Talk: PBS explores ‘Breaking the News,’ plans for America’s 250th
PASADENA, Calif. – PBS’s “Independent Lens” chronicles the 2020 start-up website 19thnews.org, co-founded by Emily Ramshaw, in the film “Breaking the News” (10-11:30 p.m. Feb. 19, WQED-TV). Ramshaw, who is featured heavily in the film, has ties to Pittsburgh and perhaps a genetic nose for news. Her mother, Mary Leonard,...
Super Bowl thriller was the most-watched program ever, averaging 123.4 million viewers
The longest Super Bowl game will also become the most-watched program in U.S. television history. According to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco on Sunday night averaged 123.4 million viewers across television and streaming platforms. That shattered last year’s mark of 115.1 million for...
‘Mayor of Kingstown’ films in Millvale
Millvale residents saw an increase in police activity on Monday, but not because of crime. According to a Facebook post from the Millvale Police Department, the television show “Mayor of Kingstown” is filming in the area. Police cars with “Kingstown Police” written on the side could be seen parked in...
Super Bowl ad for RFK Jr. stirs Democratic and family tension over his independent White House bid
Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential ambitions resulted in public family drama after a political action committee aired a Super Bowl ad invoking the Democratic family’s legacy to implicitly compare the independent candidate to his assassinated uncle, President John F. Kennedy. The 30-second spot, financed by the American Values 2024 Super PAC...
TV Talk: Best/worst Super Bowl ads; Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum appears in 3
Advertisers largely avoided weird, non-sequitur ads in favor of celebrity-starring commercials during Super Bowl LVIII. And often the spots didn’t feature just one star — additional bold-name folks made cameos. Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum not only starred in an Apartments.com ad but he also had a cameo in a Homes.com...
TV Talk: WPXI-TV back on DirecTV; Jon Burnett and CTE
A little more than a week after Cox Media Group stations, including Pittsburgh’s WPXI-TV, went dark on DirecTV, the two companies reached a deal. Channel 11 is now back on DirecTV. The retransmission dispute began on Feb. 3 and was resolved just in time for Cox-owned CBS stations in other...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Percy Jackson’ and its Pa. teen star plot 2nd season; ‘Ghosts’ returnsVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – Last week, Disney+ renewed “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” for a second season that will be based on the novel “Sea of Monsters” and on Saturday, the show’s three young lead actors described how their lives have changed since the show’s premiere. “Mostly it’s been with my...
Dan Marino, Scarlett Johansson have fun with almost being champions in Super Bowl ad
LAS VEGAS — Actor Scarlett Johansson and NFL and University of Pittsburgh legend Dan Marino come from different professions, but they have two things in common: Both have a sweet tooth and an infatuation with M&Ms. Johansson and Marino will star in the Super Bowl commercial that will focus on...
Here’s what you can expect from Super Bowl commercials this Sunday
NEW YORK — Big name advertisers will be pulling out all the stops on Super Bowl Sunday — enlisting high-profile actors, investing in dazzling special effects and, they hope, going for laughs as they seek to win over viewers during game breaks. Marketers will use Sunday’s game, which will air...
TV Talk: W.Pa. pups compete in ‘Puppy Bowl XX;’ area native hosts ‘Rescue Bowl’Video
Super Bowl Sunday has gone to the dogs — this time to some dogs with local ties. The annual pet-centric tradition of “Great American Rescue Bowl” (noon-2 p.m. today, Great American Family), hosted by Fox Chapel native Beth Ostrosky Stern, and “Puppy Bowl” (2 p.m. today, Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS,...
TV Talk at TCA: More ‘Dead’ on ABC, AMCVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – The dead live with the return of comedy “Not Dead Yet” on ABC and “The Walking Dead” franchise expanding yet again on AMC. ‘The Walking Dead’ It’s easy to be cynical and suggest AMC has gone to its undead well one, two or three too many times...
Review: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ doesn’t stirVideo
Bob Marley was born in 1945, the son of an 18-year-old mother and a much older white man who had nothing to do with his son. As a boy raised in poverty, he often slept on the cold ground. Five years after moving to Kingston’s Trench Town, he made his...
TV Talk at TCA: Andie MacDowell sees ‘Groundhog Day’ parallels in Hallmark series; PBS profiles ‘Gospel’Video
PASADENA, Calif. – Actress Andie MacDowell stars in Hallmark Channel’s “The Way Home” (9 p.m. Sunday), a multi-generational family drama in its second season about Kat (Chyler Leigh) and her daughter (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) who can travel between the past and present via a pond on the family’s land. They’re in...
Actor Gina Carano sues Lucasfilm and Disney over her firing from ‘The Mandalorian’
LOS ANGELES — Actor Gina Carano on Tuesday sued Lucasfilm and its parent The Walt Disney Co. over her 2021 firing from ” The Mandalorian,” saying she was let go for expressing right-wing views on social media. The lawsuit Carano filed with help from X, formerly Twitter, in federal court...
‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ coming to Disney+ in March
LOS ANGELES — The blockbuster “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert movie will join the Disney+ streaming service March 15. Walt Disney Co. announced Wednesday that it secured streaming rights to last year’s smash hit film in a deal that demonstrated, once again, the enormous appeal — and economic prowess...
TV Talk at TCA: CBS premieres ‘Tracker;’ BET+ debuts ‘Diarra’Video
PASADENA, Calif. – For his first post-“This is Us” series, actor Justin Hartley goes the procedural route with CBS’s “Tracker,” debuting Sunday after “Super Bowl LVIII” (approximately 10 p.m.; subsequent episodes will air at 9 p.m. Sundays, KDKA-TV). Hartley stars as Colter Shaw, a self-described “rewardist” who tracks down missing...
From Uber Eats’ ‘Friends’ reunion to Bud’s Clydesdales, here are the buzziest Super Bowl ads so far
NEW YORK — If you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, you no longer have to wait until the big game to see what advertisers have in store for viewers. Many companies now release ads ahead of the game in the hope of capitalizing on the buzz that builds...
Catering to the food movie, ‘The Taste of Things’ serves up a mouthwatering feast
NEW YORK — Think of food and movies and your mind could quickly whip up a five-course meal. Maybe a few hard-boiled eggs, to start, from “Cool Hand Luke.” A side order of toast from “Five Easy Pieces,” followed by the soup from “Ratatouille.” A main course of octopus from...
TV Q&A: Does WPXI have a new sports anchor?Video
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: Is Shelby Cassesse a new sports anchor at WPXI or is she just filling in until Alby Oxenreiter returns? — Ryan, via email Rob: Cassesse...
