TV Talk: WPXI-TV hires weekend morning anchor, faces retransmission spat with DirecTV

WPXI-TV hired New Kensington native Jatara McGee to be the station’s new weekend morning anchor beginning in mid-February. Current weekend morning anchor Alyssa Raymond will move to anchor the weekday noon newscast on Channel 11 after Katherine Amenta and Gordon Loesch took on an additional 7 a.m. weekday newscast on WPGH-TV earlier this month.

McGee, a 2011 Shady Side Academy grad, will also work as an investigative reporter for Channel 11 on weekdays. She most recently spent five years at WLWT-TV in Cincinnati and was in an investigative reporter role there beginning in 2021. Prior to that, McGee was a multimedia journalist at WSAZ-TV in Charleston, W.Va.

“I’ve been explaining to my mentors, wherever the best opportunity comes up, I’ll go, but I’ve always kept an eye on Pittsburgh and if a good opportunity opened up, you can’t help but jump at it,” McGee said Friday afternoon. “All the stars aligned for a great opportunity in my hometown at a station with people I really respect.”

McGee graduated from the University of Maryland in 2015 with a degree in broadcast journalism. She interned at WPXI in the programming department in the summer of 2013 and also had internships at WQED-TV, KDKA-TV and KDKA-AM/Y108/Star 100.7.

Her new role at Channel 11 marks her first regular anchor job – she’s filled in as an anchor in the past – and continuing to work as an investigative reporter (Angie Moreschi left her role as an investigative reporter at WPXI more than a year ago) fits with McGee’s reporting interests.

“I’ve always known I liked and valued in-depth journalism and while I was at WLWT it just became this natural transition,” McGee said, noting the pandemic created stories that required digging deeper, whether it was about missing unemployment checks or an investigation McGee did about which area police departments used body cameras.

McGee is married to Wilkinsburg native Reggie Mitchell, who played football for the University of Pittsburgh and now works in marketing.

“It’s special to have this opportunity in my hometown,” McGee said of joining Channel 11. “It’s a dream come true.”

WPXI vs. DirecTV

There’s a retransmission spat brewing between Cox Media and DirecTV that could see WPXI go dark on DirecTV as soon as Feb. 2.

This week Cox accused DirecTV of “trying to force a deal that would harm local journalism and broadcast stations.”

Cox stations, including WPXI, have been off DISH Network in a retransmission dispute since November 2022.

Judge Judy back on WPXI

Last week Amazon MGM Studios announced a deal with distributor Sox Entertainment to syndicate episodes of Amazon Freevee’s “Judy Justice,” the streaming series starring Judge Judy Sheindlin of “Judge Judy.”

Sox confirmed it has a deal for “Judy Justice” to air on Cox Media stations, including Pittsburgh’s WPXI-TV, beginning this fall.

For years “Judge Judy” gave Channel 11’s 5 p.m. newscast a strong ratings lead-in. If Channel 11’s contract with NBC allows it, moving “NBC News Daily” out of the 3 p.m. time slot and inserting a double run of “Judy Justice” as a lead-in to the 4 p.m. news would make a lot of sense.

Channel surfing

Emmy-winner Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”) will host “Saturday Night Live” Feb. 3 with musical guest Jennifer Lopez. … Paramount+ canceled “Wolf Pack” after a single season.