TV Talk: WQED-TV announces new Rick Sebak series; regional Emmy nominations released

It’s been a year since Jason Jedlinski became president and CEO of WQED-TV and at a board of directors meeting Thursday he announced a new series of Rick Sebak shorts that will be compiled into quarterly prime-time programs for linear television, a similar format used by WQED’s “Cartoon Academy,” which releases digital shorts and then compiles those into a half-hour annual program.

Sebak’s monthly digital shorts under the title “We’re Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh” will debut online and then be collected into a quarterly program. Jedlinski gave the recent example of the eight-minute “Visit Badamo’s Pizza with Rick Sebak” as the type of digital shorts posted to YouTube that will be compiled for linear TV.

“We’re giving it some structure so it’s a little more predictable,” Jedlinski said.

Sebak’s Badamo’s short has more than 3,200 views after just two days online.

Increasing YouTube views has been a WQED priority this year, Jedlinski said, noting that “Pittsburgh’s Soul Food,” released on YouTube for Juneteenth, drew more than 6,700 views while producer Beth Dolinar’s “Hope and Healing: The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh” garnered 1,300 views since its release two months ago. Jedlinski praised producers who worked on the YouTube posts for their “packaging and positioning, helping [them] get legs in a way that we’re aiming to do more of our stories that involves making it less like television and more like a lot of digital native content that’s out there.”

To that end, a team of editors is culling the WQED archives, including “Pittsburgh from the Air,” “It’s Pittsburgh and a Lot of Other Stuff” and “WQED Cooks,” and pulling out elements to repurpose in other ways, including on YouTube.

WQED’s board meeting did not include a financial report, once a WQED board meeting staple, only data that the station has 6,722 new members so far in the fiscal year 2024 (ending Sept. 30), an increase from 6,179 for all of 2023.

During Jedlinski’s tenure, WQED has seen a wave of staff exits, including the departures of station veterans amid questions about the station’s interest in creating local programming.

At Thursday’s board meeting, Jedlinski previewed upcoming PBS programs that will air on WQED and suggested local Saturday mainstay “Filmmakers Corner” may be on the move.

“We know objectively our ratings go down on Saturday night, that our [linear] audience prefers ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and we also know the feedback we hear is, ‘I’d love to stream that,’ ’’ Jedlinski said, noting the intention is still to find a spot to air the show on linear TV but also make the show and the local films it presents available online in a way that is “mindful of peoples’ ability to [put their films] into a film competition.”

In a May memo to WQED staff, Jedlinski announced plans for a new “linear streaming channel entirely about Pittsburgh and our region” that would feature “short- and long-form content from WQED, community partners, independent creators, and various licensors.” No details on that proposed channel were revealed during Thursday’s board meeting.

The station is asking viewers to complete a survey and will incorporate the results in a new brand image that will be presented to the WQED board in September.

More ‘Odd Squad’

Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions’ “Odd Squad” returns for its fourth season on PBS Kids and WQED-TV on Oct. 1. New episodes will air Oct. 1-4, 7-14, 14-22 and 22-24.

The new 12-episode season reboots the series and relocates it to the United Kingdom. The series aims to help children ages 4-8 build math, problem-solving and collaboration skills.

To celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary, a marathon of “fan favorite” episodes will air on the PBS Kids 24/7 channel Oct. 12-13 and a new digital game, “Dicey Escape,” will release on pbskids.org and the PBS Kids Game app on Oct. 4.

Regional Emmys

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts Sciences announced its 2024 regional Emmy nominations Thursday.

Among Pittsburgh stations, KDKA-TV had the most nominations (20), followed by WPXI-TV (18), WTAE-TV (10), WQED-TV (10) and SportsNet Pittsburgh (6). Other local nominees include the Pittsburgh Penguins (9), University of Pittsburgh (2), UPMC (1) and Very Local Pittsburgh (1). (Traditionally, WQED is the Pittsburgh station with the most nominations but in January, WQED’s Jedlinski said WQED would no longer enter the regional Emmy competition as a station but employees were still welcome to submit on their own.)

KDKA, WTAE and WPXI were nominated for overall station excellence and news excellence.

KDKA’s Kristine Sorensen’s report on ailing retired KDKA personality Jon Burnett was nominated in the news feature category.

Two episodes of WTAE’s “Chronicle” were nominated for best magazine program. And Hearst’s Very Local Pittsburgh received a nomination for “Ed & Day in the Burgh” in the lifestyle/long form category.

In individual achievement, WPXI’s Liz Kilmer, Lisa Sylvester and Gordon Loesch were all nominated for best news anchor.

WPXI’s Jenna Harner and SportsNet Pittsburgh’s Josh Getzoff received nominations for sports talent.

WQED’s “Cartoon Academy” host Joe Wos was nominated for program host.

For the full list of nominations, including local colleges, visit the NATAS website. Winners will be announced in a ceremony in Pittsburgh on Sept. 21.

Netflix film skips local theaters

Netflix’s filmed-and-set-in-Pittsburgh exorcism thriller “The Deliverance,” directed by Lee Daniels, won’t screen in Pittsburgh theaters beginning Aug. 16 (it will show in a Philadelphia theater then). The film arrives on Netflix on Aug. 30.

Penn State hazing case

The Penn State University hazing death of Timothy Piazza will be featured in the Aug. 19 (9 p.m., A&E) episode of the new series “Houses of Horrors: Secrets of College Greek Life,” which premieres at 9 p.m. Aug. 12.

Piazza died following a February 2017 hazing incident at the Beta Theta Pi house on Penn State’s fraternity row.

CBS names anchors

CBS announced Thursday John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois will anchor “CBS Evening News” from New York after Norah O’Donnell departs the broadcast after November’s election to focus on interviews with newsmakers. Margaret Brennan (“Face the Nation”) will report from Washington, D.C. “60 Minutes” correspondents will report for the newscast as well.

Kept/canceled

Amazon’s Prime Video renewed “Betty la Fea, Las Historia Continua” for a second season.

Unsurprising — because how could you top the 2003-09 version? — but the “Battlestar Galactica” reboot at Peacock is no longer happening.

Channel surfing

Maya Rudolph will resume her role as Vice President Kamala Harris this fall on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” while Punkie Johnson has exited “SNL” after four seasons. … “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost will host the “Jeopardy!” spin-off, “Pop Culture Jeopardy!,” on Amazon’s Prime Video. … Carrie Underwood, who won the fourth season of “American Idol,” will replace Katy Perry as a judge on “Idol” in 2025. … Season two of Netflix hit “Squid Game” will premiere Dec. 26 with the show’s third and final season streaming in 2025. … Streaming sports hub Venu, which will give subscribers access to linear sports programming from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. networks (ESPN, ESPN2, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+) when it launches this fall (exact date TBD), will cost $43 per month.