TV Talk with Rob Owen category, Page 9
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,...
TV Q&A: Do anchors go home between 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts?
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’ve noticed that most/all of the 6 p.m. news anchors will also be on their respective 11 p.m. broadcasts for the local news. Do those...
TV Talk: What it’s like to attend a taping of CBS’s ‘After Midnight’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — When you sign up to attend the taping of a late-night show, you never know what guests you’ll get. Last month for a taping of CBS’s “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m. weekdays, KDKA-TV),...
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...
