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 was watching coverage of the Los Angeles fires on the CBS News website and saw KDKA-TV’s Barry Pintar in Los Angeles. He seemed to be with a different CBS station. Did he change stations or did CBS send him down to help with L.A. fire coverage?
— Betty, Monroeville
Rob: KDKA-TV reported on Jan. 9 that Pintar, who used to live in Los Angeles, was flying to California to assist local journalists in coverage of the fires. Los Angeles stations have been covering the fires 24/7 and at some point, even those local journalists need a chance to eat and sleep, hence the need to bring in reinforcements. In addition to providing coverage for KDKA, Pintar filed reports for other CBS stations and the CBS News streaming operation.
Q: What happened to CBS’s new “Hollywood Squares”? I tuned in to watch Jan. 9 and was greeted with a rerun of “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.” They have been advertising it for weeks — what gives?
— Carol, via Facebook
Rob: CBS pulled “Hollywood Squares” from its Jan. 9 prime-time schedule due to the Los Angeles wildfires. My guess is they didn’t want to seem frivolous with something celebrity-driven given that Los Angeles was burning.
In addition, the show would not have aired in Los Angeles, the No. 2 biggest market nationally, due to ongoing local news coverage, so there was a business incentive to delay the premiere as well.
CBS rescheduled “Hollywood Squares” to debut at 8 p.m. Jan. 16.
Q: Streaming service Max dropped “The West Wing” with no advance notice! Do you know if it’s in the works for it to stream elsewhere? My daughter is in the middle of watching the show.
— Mitch, via Facebook
Rob: Alas, with a few exceptions (Marvel and “Star Wars” properties on Disney ; “Friends” on Max; “The Office” on Peacock), most series are rented by streaming services for a finite period and then the rental expires, and the shows go away. That’s what happened with “The West Wing.” Max rented it from sister studio Warner Bros. for a time (likely timed to last fall’s election) and presumably then that licensing period was up.
Deadline.com reported that the show was dropped when ratings fell but after an online uproar “The West Wing” returned to Max last week.
Q: Where and when will “The Pitt” be on TV?
— J.R., via email
Rob: As noted in our set visit to and review of “The Pitt,” the new Pittsburgh-set ER drama is a streaming series available only on the Max streaming service. It is not a show that will air on linear TV (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS); rather it’s a streaming-only show like everything on Netflix and some other series on Max, including the comedy “Hacks.”