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TV Talk with Rob Owen | TribLIVE.com
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TV Talk with Rob Owen

TV Talk: ‘Elevated procedurals’ redeem an unscripted-heavy fall season 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers viewing tips for the 2024-25 TV season. The fall broadcast TV season isn’t what it used to be as budgets shrink, forcing networks to add more unscripted (re: cheaper) fare in place of the scripted shows they were once known for. With...
TV Talk: Ken Burns’ latest, ‘Leonardo da Vinci,’ highlights PBS’s fall; WQED-TV stitches together shorts 
Ken Burns tackles his first non-American subject in the four-hour PBS documentary “Leonardo da Vinci” (8-10 p.m. Nov. 18-19, WQED-TV), exploring how the artist’s work inspired future generations. PBS will air several election-themed programs, including its staple “Frontline” episode “The Choice 2024” profiling Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as they...
TV Talk: ‘American Sports Story’ recounts Hernandez case; Cam Heyward on ‘Hot Ones’ 
PASADENA, Calif. – Producer Ryan Murphy understands one of the few truisms in current pop culture: Crime pays. Or at least true crime stories do because American viewers lap them up. Next week Murphy embarks on a true crime story spree with his latest Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and...
TV Q&A: Do political ads bump regular advertisers?
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: We are starting to see more and more political advertising on television as we approach the 2024 election. Are there rules in place to allow...
TV Talk: ABC moderators push back during presidential debate
June’s presidential debate was the most consequential in modern political history — it led President Joe Biden to drop out of the race. So the debate on Tuesday between newly minted Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump seemed unlikely to have such dramatic consequences. But ABC hyped...
TV Talk: When viewers’ broadcast favorites return
Want to know when your favorite broadcast network shows will be back? Find out below: “Abbott Elementary” (9:30 p.m. Oct. 9, ABC). “Accused” (8 p.m. Oct. 8, Fox). “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” (midseason, Fox). “All American” (midseason, The CW). “The Amazing Race” (midseason, CBS). “American Idol” (midseason, ABC). “America’s Funniest...
TV Talk: Max’s ‘The Pitt’ to film locally this week; WPXI reporter exits
Max’s upcoming 15-episode, Pittsburgh-set medical drama “The Pitt,” executive produced by Carnegie Mellon University grads John Wells and Michael Hissrich and starring Noah Wyle (“ER”), is filming the bulk of its scenes on soundstages at Warner Bros. in Burbank, Calif. However, Wyle, producers and likely a few additional cast members...
TV Talk: ‘The Old Man’ returns, ‘Universal Basic Guys’ premieres 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers viewing tips for the coming week. PASADENA, Calif. — It’s been more than two years since the end of season one of “The Old Man” but the FX series returns at 10 p.m. Sept. 12 (next day on Hulu) with back-to-back episodes...
TV Talk: Judge Judy returns to WPXI, more daytime changes 
There will be a minimum number of changes in syndicated daytime TV this fall on local stations — KDKA and WTAE will stand pat with no significant changes to their schedules — but perhaps the most consequential change, if past is precedent, will be the arrival of “Judy Justice” on...
TV Q&A: Where did Katherine Amenta land?
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: Have you heard anything as to where Katherine Amenta, formally of WPXI, has landed? I was very surprised when I heard of her exit in...
TV Talk: WTAE off DirecTV Stream only
Over the weekend, a retransmission dispute between the Walt Disney Co., owner of ABC, and DirecTV erupted, taking ABC-owned channels (ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC-owned affiliates) off DirecTV properties, including satellite-based DirecTV as well as internet-distributed DirecTV Stream. In a new wrinkle, this retransmission dispute took other ABC-affiliated stations, regardless of...
TV Talk: Enroll in FX’s ‘English Teacher’ for smart laughs 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. FX deservedly cleaned up in this year’s Emmy nominations — its “Shogun” and “The Bear” received the most and second-most awards of any series — but the network, which produces programming for both its own...
TV Talk: Jeff Goldblum causes ‘Kaos;’ Caitlin O’Connor honored; WPXI reporter exits
It’s a busy week for performers with Western Pennsylvania ties: Friendship’s Learnmore Jonasi competed and advanced to the semifinals on “America’s Got Talent.” (He’ll next perform on the Sept. 11 episode of “AGT.”) This weekend, 2007 Uniontown High School grad Caitlin O’Connor, who had a role in HBO’s “Winning Time”...
TV Talk: KDKA-TV’s Ray Petelin and daughter go viral with sweet video 
KDKA-TV meteorologist Ray Petelin and his daughter, Elizabeth, have experience appearing on-camera together in his “Hey Ray!” segments that air on Channel 2, but the pair’s exposure reached a whole new level following Ray’s social media posts last week. Ray Petelin edited together interviews he did with Elizabeth at the...
TV Q&A: Is KDKA-TV likely to drop a meteorologist?
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 noticed that KDKA now has five meteorologists on its staff with the addition of Trey Fullbright. I am curious to know if there are...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh resident Learnmore Jonasi competes on ‘AGT’ 
Comedian Learnmore Jonasi, a 31-year-old Pittsburgh resident born in Zimbabwe, is having a moment this summer on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” making it into the Top 44 with his next appearance tonight (8 p.m., WPXI-TV) as he competes for a spot in the show’s semifinals. Jonasi, who said on “AGT”...
TV Talk: Director Lee Daniels exorcises demons in Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘The Deliverance’ 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Director Lee Daniels approached his filmed-and-set-in-Pittsburgh exorcism thriller “The Deliverance,” streaming Friday on Netflix, not simply as a horror film but also an exploration of a dysfunctional family damaged by intergenerational trauma. And his...
TV Talk: Lesley Ann Warren on Blake Edwards, making ‘Clue’; August Wilson’s ‘Piano Lesson’ slated 
PBS’s latest “American Masters” film, “Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames” (9 p.m. Aug. 27, WQED-TV), proves entertaining and easily watchable regardless of a viewer’s familiarity with Edwards’ films. Directed, produced and co-written by Danny Gold (“Killing Me Softly with His Songs”), Edwards’ widow, Julie Andrews, leads viewers...
TV Q&A: Which reporters/anchors are pregnant at WPXI?
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 everyone at WPXI-TV pregnant? — Rodney, via email Rob: Not sure about everyone — assume that would come as a surprise to the station’s...
TV Talk: HBO’s ‘Chimp Crazy’: A better, more entertaining ‘Tiger King’ 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. If you liked Netfllix’s “Tiger King,” odds are you’ll love HBO’s “Chimp Crazy” (10 p.m. Sundays, Aug. 18-Sept. 8) from the same director, Eric Goode. If, like me, you thought “Tiger King” was ultimately a...
TV Talk: WTAE's Ashley Liotus achieves goal of full-time sports reporting 
Ashley Liotus was a freelance reporter off and on at WTAE beginning in 2022, but in July she joined Channel 4 full-time, anchoring weekends and reporting/fill-in anchoring weekdays. Liotus, 33, grew up in the South Hills and graduated from Baldwin High School in 2009. She graduated from Penn State in...
TV Q&A: What went wrong with ‘The Bear’ this season?
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: Just wondering what your reaction is to the current “The Bear” season? After last year’s great series, I find this season to be boring and...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum hosts ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’; Mass. woman helms a 'Neighborhood' reboot
Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum will guest host ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (11:35 p.m., WTAE-TV) Monday-Thursday this week. Goldblum’s guests tonight will be Mark Wahlberg, Rob Delaney and musical guest Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge. On Tuesday Goldblum will welcome John Cena and Omar Sy. Goldblum will also perform with...
TV Talk: ‘SEAL Team’ embarks on final missions 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. The former CBS drama “SEAL Team,” starring David Boreanaz as Navy SEAL team leader Jason Hayes, streams the first episode of its seventh and final season Aug. 11 on Paramount+. In a Zoom interview late...
TV Talk: New weather, sports personnel arrive at KDKA-TV 
New, young faces on local newscasts are common on Pittsburgh TV these days, but it’s unusual to have back-to-back arrivals in weather and sports — as viewers have seen in recent weeks at KDKA-TV with the debuts of meteorologist Trey Fulbright and sports anchor/reporter Cassidy Wood. Trey Fulbright Fulbright, 24,...
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