Rob Owen stories, Page 52
TV Talk: MeTV turns 10, adds original programs
Break out the birthday candles: Digital subchannel MeTV, the over-the-air equivalent of cable’s TV Land in its heyday, turns 10 on Dec. 15. Digital subchannels came online after the 2009 conversion from analog to digital TV signals, offering local stations the opportunity to broadcast not just one channel but multiple...
TV Talk: Westmoreland County native Joe Kenda’s new series will help launch discovery+ streaming service
Investigation Discovery star Joe Kenda, who hosted “Homicide Hunter” on ID for nine seasons, will be the face and voice of a new series that will be available exclusively on discovery+, a new streaming service Discovery Networks will launch on Jan. 4. Kenda, who grew up in Herminie near Irwin...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh’s Nielsen market rank drops; local news ratings remain competitive
For the past 20 years, Pittsburgh’s Nielsen market rank has averaged around No. 22 or 23 (out of 210 TV markets nationally) even as growing cities surpassed Pittsburgh, including Portland, Ore., and Charlotte, N.C. In 2018 Pittsburgh fell to No. 24 and for 2021, Pittsburgh drops to No. 26 as...
TV Q&A: Where has WTAE’s Janelle Hall been?
Q: We have noticed Janelle Hall missing from the evening news for a few weeks. Is she OK? — Diane via email Rob: She is now. Hall posted to her Facebook page on Monday that she and her husband were diagnosed with covid-19 four weeks ago. She described the first...
TV Talk: AT&T SportsNet returns to Verizon’s FiOS TV
AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh and Verizon have reached a deal to return the regional sports network to the FiOS TV lineup, effective immediately. AT&T SportsNet, home to Penguins and Pirates games, went dark on Verizon systems on Sept. 30 following a retransmission spat over a new contract. A joint release issued...
TV Talk: McCandless native takes off in ‘The Flight Attendant’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. McCandless native Griffin Matthews didn’t know a career in the arts was a possibility until one day during 11th grade at North Allegheny Senior High School. “I was sitting next to a guy in jazz...
Where to watch your holiday favorites
Original local holiday TV specials have been in short supply in recent years but with so many traditions canceled this year due to covid, there’s a welcome new gift under the Christmas TV programming tree: Pittsburgh CLO’s “A Musical Christmas Carol” starring Richard Thomas will air on WQED-TV at 7:30...
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Happiest Season’ debuts; Kaley Cuoco impresses in ‘The Flight Attendant’Video
Many movie theaters are still closed but several filmed-in-Pittsburgh, intended-for-theaters films make their way to smaller screens over the next month, beginning with this week’s debut of Christmas romantic comedy “Happiest Season,” now streaming on Hulu. “Happiest Season” pushes its Pittsburgh setting from its first frames — a pastel painting...
TV Q&A: How can Verizon customers watch Penguins games this winter?
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: How are Verizon customers supposed to watch Penguins games when their season starts? — Sandy via email Rob: AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh has been unavailable to...
TV Talk: Peggy Finnegan announces retirement from WPXI-TV
Veteran WPXI-TV news anchor Peggy Finnegan announced she’ll retire from the station next month. Her last day on the air will be Dec. 18 with news anchor Lisa Sylvester taking Finnegan’s place on the 5 p.m. newscast. Finnegan’s retirement comes after 30 years with Channel 11, where she and anchor...
TV Talk: Thanksgiving parade telecasts altered by pandemicVideo
With covid-19 upending holiday plans worldwide, even traditions like the “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” have to change, but the show will go on, at least on TV. “You have to have it on in the background while you’re making your gravy,” teased Hoda Kotb, who will again host the telecast...
TV Talk: ‘Saved by the Bell’ enrolls a new classVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Peacock’s “Saved by the Bell” revival has elements of a nostalgia play with multiple original series cast members popping in here and there. But in three episodes sent for review, the new series proves itself...
TV Q&A: Which Hallmark Christmas movies filmed in America?
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: What Hallmark Christmas movies that will premiere in 2020 were filmed in the United States? — Chris Fiegler, Latham, N.Y. Rob: While the bulk of...
TV Talk: Western Pa. native shepherds HBO’s ‘Murder on Middle Beach’Video
True crime docu-series continue to proliferate and the latest comes with a more personal touch. HBO’s four-part “Murder on Middle Beach” (10 p.m. Sunday) is directed by and stars young filmmaker Madison Hamburg as he investigates the 2010 murder of his mother, interviewing potential suspects within his family. Western Pennsylvania...
TV Talk: Holiday TV movies rev up as ‘Christmas on Wheels’ rolls onto Lifetime
Again this year Hallmark Channel and Lifetime started televising Christmas movies the weekend before Halloween and Netflix dropped its first holiday-themed rom-com a few days later. Ambridge native Marita Grabiak directed Lifetime’s “Christmas on Wheels” (8 p.m. Saturday), the story of a woman (Tiya Sircar, “The Good Place”) who...
TV Q&A: Where is PBS’s ‘The Trouble with Maggie Cole’ filmed?
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 began watching the “The Trouble with Maggie Cole” on PBS (8 p.m. Sunday, WQED-TV) and it seems to me that where they are filming...
TV Talk: Eleanor Schano pioneered roles for women in Pittsburgh TV news
Pioneering Pittsburgh broadcaster Eleanor Schano accumulated many firsts – Pittsburgh’s first female commercial announcer and weathercaster at what is now KDKA-TV in 1952; the city’s first female general assignment news reporter at WTAE-TV in 1959 and first solo woman anchor at what is now WPXI-TV in 1970 – and she...
TV Talk: ‘A Teacher’ explores damage of a teacher-student relationship
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. The taboo of a female teacher getting sexually involved with her male high school student has been covered in pop culture before, most notably in “Dawson’s Creek” and more recently on “Riverdale.” So there was...
TV Talk: Election ‘map guys’ win TV’s coverage
he election may go to Joe Biden, but the winner of TV’s election coverage became clear well before any tipping point vote totals: The “map guys” or as at least one Twitter post described them, “the chartthrobs.” Please, if you decide to profess your love for map kings John King,...
TV Talk: As ‘Supernatural’ ends, star Jensen Ackles recalls filming in Pittsburgh
The CW’s “Supernatural” was one of the first American scripted drama series to resume production after the pandemic began with just two episodes left to be filmed, including the show’s series finale, slated for 9 p.m. Nov. 19 on WPCW-TV, Channel 19, following a series retrospective at 8 p.m. After...
TV Q & A: How is the daughter of KDKA-TV’s Pam Surano doing?
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: How is the daughter of KDKA-TV reporter Pam Surano doing after that scary trampoline accident? And how did Surano feel being on the other...
TV Talk: CBS sitcom ‘B Positive’ rates a C+
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ The 2020-21 TV season’s first new scripted comedy, CBS’s “B Positive,” debuts this week and it’s very much a CBS comedy. Created by Marco Pennette (“Caroline in the City,” “Mom”) and executive produced by...
TV Talk: CBS’s ‘Mom’ returns next week with Pittsburgh native directing
When CBS’s “Mom” returns next week (9 p.m. Nov. 5, KDKA-TV) the show will have some big changes in store as star Anna Faris’ Christy departs off-screen. It’s a changing-of-the-guard “Mom” series director and Pittsburgh native Jamie Widdoes has overseen before on TV series. He was there when “8 Simple...
TV Q & A: What happened to ‘Pennsylvania’s icebox’ in TV weather forecasts?
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: Pittsburgh TV weather forecasters’ temperature maps always used to include what the late Joe DeNardo called Pennsylvania’s icebox, Bradford, Pa. Now none do. What caused...
TV Talk: ‘This is Us’ spotlights Pittsburgh’s Jonny Gammage
Please note: This article includes spoilers from the fifth-season premiere of “This is Us” that originally aired 9-11 p.m. ET on Oct. 27, 2020. NBC’s partially Pittsburgh-set “This is Us” often imports real-life Pittsburgh, whether it’s references to sports figures, locations, characters dressed in Steelers gear or a 1970s-era visit...
