Rob Owen stories, Page 48

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I just saw the first promo for “The Great British Bake Off” “coming soon” to ITV in the U.K. Will Netflix be picking up the next...

The remotely-produced 72nd annual Emmy Awards promised to be an unusual, revised-for-the-pandemic affair and it miraculously came together with almost no technical glitches and enough novelty to freshen and loosen up the staid format. Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” had an unprecedented early winning streak, taking home more top awards in...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. A spin-off of the “Bad Boys” movie franchise, police drama “L.A.’s Finest” (8 p.m. Monday, Fox) originally premiered on Spectrum Originals in May 2019. But since Spectrum Originals is only available to subscribers to Spectrum...

It’s a round-about way that “Manhunt: Deadly Games” came to film in Pittsburgh. The show’s first season, Discovery Channel’s “Manhunt: Unabomber,” was set to shoot in Western Pennsylvania in 2016 but initially couldn’t find a male lead. Once producers lined up a cast, there were no more Pennsylvania film tax...

Actress Sarah Paulson starred in writer/producer Ryan Murphy’s “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and multiple seasons of “American Horror Story,” proving to be his MVP, a streak she extends in Murphy’s “Ratched,” streaming Friday on Netflix. A prequel to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” – both...

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 would like to know if “Hometown High Q” will be returning this fall on KDKA-TV. -Jean, Oakland Rob: KDKA is continuing the show, according...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Legendary Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw is not “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and he doesn’t know if “Chrisley Knows Best,” but beginning this week he’s the star of “The Bradshaw Bunch” (9 p.m. Thursday, E!),...

While broadcast networks slowly roll out new and returning series, cable and especially streaming aren’t missing a beat, with highlights this fall that include: “Wilmore” (Friday, Peacock): Comedian and writer Larry Wilmore, whose “Nightly Show” was rudely dropped by Comedy Central in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign, returns...

It’s a fall TV season unlike any other. With TV shows slowly gearing up for production, many returning series won’t air until late this fall or early 2021. In most years TV shows resume production in July. This year, just a few started back in August, with others gearing up...

Like zombies from “The Walking Dead,” the fall TV season will stagger to a start, particularly on broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fox and The CW set pandemic-proof schedules in May, largely by holding back spring and summer programs. But in June, the Big Three...

So far the pandemic doesn’t seem to have slowed the PBS production pipeline with a wealth of “Masterpiece” dramas and the usual array of news, documentary and nature programming on tap. PBS’s venerable “Frontline” offers its every-four-years look at the presidential contenders in “The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden” (9...

The 10-episode first season of Showtime’s “American Rust,” which was scheduled to begin filming in Western Pennsylvania in March but got delayed by the pandemic-forced global entertainment production shutdown, has been pushed to 2021. On a teleconference with reporters to promote his role as former FBI director James Comey in...

Director Kenny Ortega brings the pop-rock infectious energy of his “High School Musical” to the music-powered Netflix original series “Julie and the Phantoms.” Now streaming, “Julie and the Phantoms” is a smaller show – smaller cast, fewer sets – but it’s bursting with good vibes and music that’s sure to...

Drew Barrymore and Kelly Clarkson lead the lineup of new daytime series on Western Pennsylvania TV screens this fall. Technically, Clarkson’s show aired locally last season but never in daytime. “The Drew Barrymore Show” is completely new. Produced in New York City, Barrymore seems to be trying to out-“Ellen” Ellen...

Former KDKA-TV chief meteorologist Jeff Verszyla has been hired on staff at WTAE-TV as weekend evening meteorologist beginning Oct. 1. Verszyla, who was let go by KDKA in December 2018 after 23 years at the station, has been a fill-in, freelance forecaster for Channel 4 over the summer. The Sewickley...

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: Do you think “Doc Martin” will ever be on Channel 13 again? Love that show. -Mary via Facebook Rob: The ninth season of “Doc Martin”...

WQED-TV documents a World War II story of survival in its one-hour film “Harbor from the Holocaust,” debuting nationally on PBS stations at 10 p.m. Tuesday. “Harbor,” the first national documentary to come out of WQED since 2015, recounts the stories of a few of the 20,000 Jewish refugees who...

Of all the genres to get a boost from #PeakTV and the rise of streaming services, “astronaut drama” may be the most surprising. Hulu had one-and-done “The First” (2018), National Geographic Channel had two seasons of hybrid docu-series/drama “Mars” (2016-18), Apple is home to “For All Mankind” and Netflix already...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Since anchors Rick Dayton and Susan Koeppen were laid off and did not voluntarily leave KDKA-TV, can they be held to a no-compete clause? -Bob, Mt....

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Usually a TV show spin-off takes a character or concept from the original series and builds a new show around that one element. “Power Book II: Ghost” (9 p.m. Sunday, Starz) does the opposite, removing...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Broadcast network series are slowly getting back into production this month following pandemic shutdowns. Other programs won’t start filming new episodes until September. In a normal year, many broadcast dramas and comedies are back in...

Auditor Connor Trott, a former Pine-Richland High School student and Duquesne University grad, acquitted himself well this week in early episodes of CBS’s dating competition series “Love Island,” which airs at 9 p.m. nightly (with some exceptions) on KDKA-TV. The 23-year-old from Gibsonia came off as shy, old-fashioned and not...

The series “Manhunt: Deadly Games,” which filmed in Pittsburgh from June to October 2019, will finally be available for local viewers to watch when it advances to its second window of distribution, premiering at 10 p.m. Sept. 21 on CBS’s KDKA-TV. “Manhunt: Deadly Games” was produced for Spectrum Originals, which...