TV Q&A: How tall is KDKA-TV’s Bob Pompeani?
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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: Help settle a debate between my mother and I: Various websites list Bob Pompeani as 5’6” tall, but I say those sites are poppycock and that Pomp is 6’ or taller. Can you help settle this for us?
– Dan, Baldwin
Rob: Pompeani says he is 6’1”, adding, “TV tends to even everyone out.”
Q: Why was “The Nightly Sports Call” on the Pittsburgh CW pre-empted on New Year’s Eve? To my knowledge, they had never done that before on a New Year’s Eve.
– Drew, via email
Rob: Per KDKA news director Kathy Hostetter, “We do pre-empt ‘The Nightly Sports Call’ on New Year’s Eve due to our extensive, live First Night production at 11 p.m.”
Q: Why does “The Nightly Sports Call” on the Pittsburgh CW start at 10:35 p.m. instead of the more common 10:30 p.m.?
– Chad, via email
Rob: I think probably because most late-night shows (“The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show”) begin at 35 or 37 past the hour nowadays. That started in the ‘90s with the first Gulf War, but is now just a way for local stations to have more ad inventory in their late newscasts.
Per KDKA’s Hostetter, “This aligns with what stations across the country do with all late newscasts, whether at 10 or 11 p.m. Late news runs 35-minutes, thus, the 10:35 p.m. start time for ‘Nightly Sports Call.’”
Q: I noticed in the Channel 2 news credits they have something that says “Hairstyles courtesy of” and “wardrobe courtesy of.” Does someone provide the wardrobe for Channel 2 anchors?
– Frank, Greensburg
Rob: Yes, those words do mean what they say: In exchange for promotion in the credits at the end of the newscast, some KDKA anchors get their hair done at and their clothing from those advertised businesses.
Q: Just wondering when the NBCSN channel (848 on Comcast) will actually move to the USA network? Since Saturday, all that is on 848 is music and the “We’re moving to USA” blurb. When you go to USA (823 on Comcast), it has regular programming on it.
– Becca, Greensburg
Rob: As we reported last year, NBCUniversal opted to shutter NBCSN and move its programming – not the network itself – to other NBCUniversal-owned outlets, including USA Network and streaming service Peacock, which will live stream all of NBCUniversal’s coverage of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games from Beijing, China, next month.
The first weekend of January NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage aired on USA Network – the new U.S. cable home of the Premier League – and posted a 27% audience increase over 2021’s comparable weekend cable coverage on NBCSN and it gave USA Network the highest average cable viewership for a “Festive Fixtures” weekend since Boxing Day in 2015, according to NBCUniversal.
Q: Will there be a seventh season for “Vikings?”
– Al, Gibsonia
Rob: No, the original “Vikings” wrapped its six-season run. But a spin-off series, “Vikings: Valhalla,” debuts Feb. 25 on Netflix.