Rob Owen stories, Page 31

This column contains spoilers for the series finale of NBC’s “This is Us,” which aired May 24, 2022. After last week’s episode about the death of Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore), viewers could have come into the series finale expecting a “Six Feet Under”-style, time-hopper that showed what became of each...

In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including the Pirates on streaming. Owen reviews Netflix’s “Stranger Things 4” and talks about what else to expect from summer (and fall) TV, including “She-Hulk:...

Managing the decline of a broadcast empire requires compromises as the Big Four networks made clear during this week’s “upfronts” in New York, an annual tradition where broadcasters try to entice advertisers to commit ad dollars to their new season lineup in advance. As media companies prioritize their streaming services,...

W hile some viewers will be sad to see NBC’s family drama “This Is Us” conclude its six-year run at 9 p.m. May 24, it’s at least comforting to know the partially Pittsburgh-set series ends on its own terms with its initial quality largely intact. The show also ends on...

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: Breaking news! Water main break! With six hours of local news per day, it is amazing that reporters from KDKA-TV, WTAE-TV and WPXI-TV spend so...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. The summer broadcast TV season kicked off earlier this month with the return of “Holey Moley” and “The Chase” on Tuesday nights on ABC and continues this week with Fox’s “So You Think You Can...

The summer TV season began on cable and streaming in late April as platforms debuted prestige programs in time for Emmy consideration. That was only the start. This week’s premieres include the return of “Hacks,” now streaming on HBO Max. Through the first six episodes of season two, “Hacks” remains...

If you’re a “Shark Tank” viewer, you might expect Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary to have something snarky to say when presented with the opportunity to invest in makeup for men. But 2009 Baldwin High School grad Jon Shanahan said the sharks were surprisingly receptive to the pitch he and Stryx...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Often we hear stories of twentysomethings who catch a break and land starring roles in TV and film just a few years out of college. But many times, it takes longer to make Hollywood dreams...

The near-catastrophic 1979 accident at the nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pa., gets the Netflix docu-series treatment in the four-part “Meltdown: Three Mile Island,” now streaming. Unlike plenty of past Netflix shows in this genre (think “Tiger King”), “Meltdown” is relatively right-sized with only the fourth, 45-minute episode feeling somewhat...

Q: Given the shuttering of CNN+, I’m wondering if you have any info on the state of discovery+? When it started, I couldn’t imagine paying for those reality and DIY shows — even for Chip and Joanna Gaines — as there are so many other similar shows across basic cable....

Julian Glander might not have won Friday night’s “Jeopardy!” episode — he placed second to Mattea Roach, who won her 19th game in a row — but Glander did impress host Ken Jennings. The 31-year-old Lawrenceville-based animator can sing the alphabet backward phonetically. “This is the first episode of ‘Jeopardy!’...