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 Michelle Wright at WTAE cutting back? I noticed she does behind-the-scenes stories like “4 Your Health” and “4 Your Money” earlier in the morning but isn’t at the news desk until 6-7 a.m. At 6 she is at the news desk and Ryan is doing sports stories
— Catherina, via email
Rob: If she’s working, then she’s being paid, so there’s no evidence to suggest that Wright is cutting back. They’re just positioning her differently in the studio for a portion of the newscast.
“Michelle is most certainly not cutting back,” said WTAE news director Baylor Long. “Having the biggest and most experienced anchor team in the market affords us the ability to rotate anchors in and out all morning. It also allows us to take time to share all the important consumer stories in our ‘4 Your Health’ and ‘4 Your Money’ segments. Think of it like ‘Good Morning America’ — you don’t see all of the anchors sitting at the desk together the entire show.”
Q: A fascinating ending to the March 20 “Law & Order” episode: In a plot “ripped from the headlines,” the show ended just as the jury foreman was reading the verdict. The audience was left hanging.
It was a really interesting show; I am sure the producers/writers wanted to present both sides of the issue. I’m not so much interested in the verdict, as I am what the public reaction to the ending of the show. I read a story about a new cast member, but nothing about the gimmicky ending. Any thoughts?
— Thomas via email
Rob: I didn’t see it and my first thought was to wonder if there was a commercial scheduling error and the verdict got cut off. But, no, NBC confirmed there was no verdict spoken or shown on screen.
I heard no buzz about the ending but an internet search turned up a Reddit thread and several critical reviews with one speculating on why there was no verdict (to avoid taking a position on the outstanding Luigi Mangione case that the episode was clearly inspired by). In another article, guest star Jesse Metcalfe defended the inconclusive ending.
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Q: My wife and I enjoy watching medical television. We started watching “The Pitt” but the vocabulary is needlessly vulgar. The staff, especially, likes to use the F-word continually. Please change this. Thank you.
— Richard, via email
Rob: I only write about “The Pitt” and have no power to influence it. Even if I did, I would not presume to tell the show’s writers what they can and cannot have their characters say, particularly considering that many doctors find “The Pitt” to be realistic in its depiction of modern medicine. As for the use of profanity, “The Pitt” streams on Max, which viewers invite into their homes, unlike broadcast television, which can be beamed into homes over the air. Personally, I find the show’s use of profanity realistic and not gratuitous, given the gravity of the medical situations depicted.
Q: The character Bobby (Eric Graise) has been absent from the CBS series “Tracker.” There is another actor taking his place that the show stated is Bobby’s cousin. Will Bobby return to “Tracker”? Is the actor ill? The March 9 episode was very gruesome for an 8 p.m. series.
— Elaine, Mt. Lebanon
Rob: My understanding is Bobby returns to “Tracker” in the episode airing April 13.
As for why Bobby’s been gone, a CBS publicist did not respond to that part of Elaine’s question. My best guess is that this may be another instance of a network reducing the number of episodes a series regular appears in to try to contain costs, similar to how there are some episodes of CBS’s “Ghosts” again this season that do not feature every ghost.