TV Q&A: Which Penguins games will air on WTAE-TV?
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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: In a TV spot, WTAE general manager Mr. Wolfertz said Channel 4 will carry four Penguins games this year, but he didn’t say which ones they are. What are the four Penguins games and when will Channel 4 carry them?
— Georgine, Greensburg
Rob: At first, I thought maybe what Georgine was describing were one-offs, similar to how WTAE long simulcast “Monday Night Football” games originated by ESPN.
But it turns out, per WTAE, there are actually six games that will air on ABC as part of the overall deal ABC parent company Disney made with the NHL that puts games on Disney-owned platforms EPSN, ESPN+, Hulu and ABC.
Penguins games on ABC — and therefore on WTAE — include 1 p.m. Feb. 25 (against St. Louis Blues), 3:30 p.m. March 11 (against Philadelphia Flyers), 8 p.m. March 18 (against New York Rangers), 8 p.m. March 25 (against Washington Capitals), 3:30 p.m. April 1 (against Boston Bruins) and 8 p.m. April 8 (against Detroit Red Wings).
Q: Any time a TV show or movie films in the city, the media is usually all over it. However, I haven’t seen one local station promote the Tree of Life synagogue documentary currently showing on HBO. Given the fact that local talents Michael Keaton and Billy Porter had a hand in it, and WTAE-TV’s Janelle Hall is shown in one scene asking a question at a news conference after the shooting, you would think local news outlets would be touting the show.
They certainly don’t ignore shows filming here for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc. And they don’t ignore movies filmed here either. Look at all the hype for the Mister Rogers movie. The shooting here was a major international news event, and the documentary about it is just as newsworthy. Any thoughts?
— Joe, Pittsburgh
Rob: Often that coverage comes when the movie/TV show is in town during production, shutting down streets, etc. A documentary crew is small and doesn’t have the same impact as a movie or scripted series. A documentary also lacks big-name stars, which is partly why the scripted content gets covered. And my guess is few people in town knew the documentary was in production when it was filming here.
When a TV series debuts, TV stations rarely cover programs that don’t air on their own network (locally made theatrical movies and streaming shows are not seen as direct competition).
It also didn’t help that HBO only announced the air date two weeks ahead of time, and I doubt HBO even pitched a story to local stations. I’m not trying to suggest local stations shouldn’t have covered it — if any station still had a feature reporter, there would be a more obvious place for such coverage, which the film merited — I’m just saying it’s apples and oranges to compare locally produced scripted content to a documentary filmed locally.
Q: I read your report that the CW’s “Stargirl” will end after the current season, which is understandable because it’s very weak. However, have you heard anything regarding The CW’s reboot of “Kung Fu”?
— Jon, via email
Rob: I think most (if not all) scripted shows on The CW are a long-shot for renewal because they are all too expensive for what the new owners are willing to pay for programming.
Here’s what Perry Sook, CEO of Nexstar, which closed a deal to buy The CW earlier this fall, had to say about the current programs on The CW, most of which are produced by Warner Bros. and Paramount Global: “Warner and Paramount are not precluded from selling us programming. It’s just going to have to be a financial deal that we like. And there may be a couple of shows that distinguish themselves this year that we want to hold over to next year.”
Unless the producing studio and Nexstar can come to a financial deal on individual shows, it seems likely that few — if any — of the current CW programs will be renewed for the 2023-24 TV season.