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TV Talk with Rob Owen | TribLIVE.com

TV Talk with Rob Owen

TV Talk: WQED-TV announces new Rick Sebak series; regional Emmy nominations released 
It’s been a year since Jason Jedlinski became president and CEO of WQED-TV and at a board of directors meeting Thursday he announced a new series of Rick Sebak shorts that will be compiled into quarterly prime-time programs for linear television, a similar format used by WQED’s “Cartoon Academy,” which...
TV Talk: ‘Kingstown’ ends its 3rd season
Paramount+’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh drama “Mayor of Kingstown” ends its third season with guns blazing. Streaming Sunday, it’s an episode overflowing with gunfire, including a massive shootout filmed on the 16th Street Bridge in Downtown Pittsburgh in mid-May. But the bloody mayhem is not confined to that scene. Multiple characters wind up...
TV Q&A: Will Gibbs ever return to ‘NCIS’?
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: “NCIS” is my favorite TV program and Mark Harmon is my favorite actor. Will he ever return to “NCIS”? — Grace, via email Rob: Recall...
TV Talk: Netflix’s ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ explores Beaver County severed head case 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Terry Dunn Meurer, who co-created and has executive produced “Unsolved Mysteries” since its first iteration on NBC in 1987, said a Beaver County-­set episode that premieres this week is one of her “all-time favorite” unsolved...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh’s public access cable channel PCTV to shutter
PCTV, public access cable channel Pittsburgh Community Television, will cease operations by the end of August due to a dearth of funding. “The continuing decline in cable subscribers and the changing media landscape has had a devastating impact on our funding and our viability,” PCTV executive director John Patterson wrote...
TV Talk: Michael Keaton directs, stars in ‘Knox Goes Away'; local news stalwarts get Emmy honors 
Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton’s second directorial effort, “Knox Goes Away,” is a welcome, character-driven tonic. It’s a small movie more concerned with character and relationship stories than it is with big-budget thrills or epic set pieces. And that’s OK. Streaming July 26 on Max (linear HBO debut at 8 p.m....
TV Q&A: What happened to a WPXI-TV news anchor?
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 happened to Gordon Loesch on WPXI-TV? I’ve noticed he is no longer on as the morning anchor. — Dave, via Facebook Rob: Loesch posted...
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘American Rust’ canceled
Amazon’s Prime Video will not renew the filmed-in-Pittsburgh drama series “American Rust,” whose second season was largely set in Pittsburgh, for a third season. The show’s first two seasons were filmed in Western Pennsylvania. Jeff Daniels starred in “American Rust” as the police chief of fictional Buell, Fayette County, who...
TV Talk: ‘Snowpiercer’ chugs on a new track to AMC for final season 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. There’s probably been no series to live a more tortured, pushed-and-pulled existence than “Snowpiercer,” which returns for its final, fourth 10-episode season at 9 p.m. July 21 on AMC and AMC+ (seasons one through three...
TV Talk: ‘Shōgun,’ ‘The Bear' sweep Emmy nominations
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Though it may seem like viewers just watched the Emmys — the strike-delayed January telecast honored shows from the 2022-23 TV season — the ceremony will return to its usual September airing as it recognizes programs that aired/streamed between June 2023 and May 2024. FX’s “Shōgun” took...
TV Q&A: Did Celina Pompeani Mathison leave ‘Pittsburgh Today Live’?
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 happened to Bob Pompeani’s daughter who used to always be on Channel 2 news? Did she retire or get another job? — Bonnie, via...
TV Talk at TCA: PBS previews ‘Moonflower Murders’; filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Deliverance’ trailer released
PASADENA, Calif. — This fall “Masterpiece Mystery!” debuts “Moonflower Murders” (9 p.m. Sept. 15-Oct. 20, WQED-TV), a follow-up to 2022’s “Magpie Murders.” Book editor Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville, “The Crown”) is living in Crete with long-time boyfriend Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis) but a murder at a British hotel eight years earlier...
TV Talk: Chariot races, gladiator battles fill 'Those About to Die' 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. The next few weeks should bring new subscribers to Peacock with its wall-to-wall coverage of the Summer Olympics from Paris beginning July 26, so the streaming service will use those increased eyeballs watching to also...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native joins CBS’s ‘Big Brother’
Pittsburgh native Leah Peters, a 26-year-old “VIP cocktail server” living in Miami, is among the competitors on this year’s 26th season of “Big Brother” (9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday beginning this week, KDKA-TV). Peters is one of 16 initial houseguests who will, for the first time, have the power...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Elevated’ procedurals reign this fall, including Pittsburgh native Zachary Quinto’s show 
PASADENA, Calif. — Procedural dramas — episodic shows that tell a story with a beginning, middle and end in one hour — were TV staples from the 1950s through the 1990s. In the ‘80s, serialized dramas with ongoing storylines began to emerge with “Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere,” and later...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Tracker,’ ‘Elsbeth’ prepare 2nd seasons; ‘Young Sheldon’ spin-off to premiere
PASADENA, Calif. — CBS enters the 2024-25 TV season this fall from a position of strength thanks to the successful launches of “Tracker” and “Elsbeth” earlier this year. Justin Hartley stars in “Tracker” as a for-hire hunk who tracks down missing people. Hartley describes his Colter Shaw character as a...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Shōgun,’ ‘Hacks’ win big at TCA Awards; ‘PITT’ adds cast
PASADENA, Calif. — Friday night at the Langham Huntington Hotel the 40th annual Television Critics Association Awards offered the most recognition to FX’s “Shōgun” (best new program, program of the year, best drama and individual achievement in drama for star Anna Sawai) and Max’s “Hacks” (best comedy, individual achievement in...
TV Talk at TCA: Go behind the scenes of latest Disney’s ‘Descendants’ premiere party
PASADENA, Calif. — No two Hollywood premieres are alike but often they are lavish affairs, the swankiest wedding reception you’ve never been invited to, only more extensively themed and entertaining. After all, Hollywood knows how to put on a show, whether it’s on screens — big or small — or...
TV Talk at TCA: FX keeps the quality shows coming; WTAE-TV anchor exits 
PASADENA, Calif. – The summer 2024 edition of the Television Critics Association press tour kicked off Wednesday at the Langham Huntington Hotel with Disney-owned properties ABC, FX and Hulu/Onyx presenting panels with the stars, writers and producers of upcoming programs. FX, home to “Shogun” and “Fargo” and producer of “The...
TV Q&A: What’s going on in WTAE’s sports department?
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 happened to all the female sports reporters on Channel 4? The anchors have been doing the sports reporting lately. — Patty via email Rob:...
TV Talk: Shark attack survivor becomes ‘Shark Week’ mainstay 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder has been a mainstay of Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” programs since 2013. For one of the five shows he appears in this year that will air on Discovery and...
TV Talk: Eddie Murphy’s back in 4th ‘Beverly Hills Cop;’ KDKA-TV hires meteorologist 
Now streaming on Netflix, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is the type of tentpole film that would have been a holiday weekend theatrical release in the pre-streaming era. Despite the rough reception to “Beverly Hills Cop III” in 1994 — 11% fresh among critics, 35% fresh among audiences on RottenTomatoes.com...
TV Q&A: Where can one watch a new classic cartoon network?
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: Has any local station become an affiliate for the new MeTV Toon channel in the Pittsburgh area? It’s a channel that plays classic cartoon shows....
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native wants you to guess: Is he ‘The Mole’? 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Reality series “The Mole,” which began on ABC in 2001 and then got revived by Netflix two years ago, introduces a Pittsburgh contestant in the show’s second season on Netflix. Now streaming its first five...
TV Talk: CNN’s debate rules keep candidates on track
The first debate of the 2024 general election presidential cycle broke from tradition, albeit in different ways than the 2020 debates that saw then-President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden talk over and sneer at one another. Unlike for the past several decades since 1988, Wednesday’s debate was not...
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