TV Q&A: Are local TV news staffs shrinking?

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: It seems each local TV station is adding a new young reporter monthly. Are the news staffs larger or smaller than they were a few years ago?

— Mike, via email

Rob: The reason for the influx of new reporters is to replace all those who depart, a mix of younger talent moving up to larger markets (or bigger roles in other markets) and occasionally the retirement of veteran reporters. (At this point, the veterans are few and far between, especially at KDKA-TV, which used to boast the biggest staff of long-tenured reporters.)

Pittsburgh was once a destination market, but now Pittsburgh is the 26th largest TV market in the U.S., making it more of a stepping-stone as cities that once were smaller have leapfrogged past Pittsburgh — including Denver (No. 16, where former KDKA reporter and Western Pennsylvania native Amy Wadas is now an anchor/reporter) and Raleigh, N.C. (No. 23, where former WTAE reporter Chris Lovingood now works).

I don’t have data from five or 10 years ago to definitively show hard number changes – and local news directors would not be inclined to comment on such matters — but using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to examine web pages devoted to each station’s news teams from 2015 (for WTAE) and 2016 (for WPXI), their total news department on-air staff numbers appear to be relatively unchanged, but that doesn’t account for staff who work behind the scenes and not on air. (I’ve reported previously on producers being tasked with more than one newscast, leading to more stories getting rerun.) I couldn’t do that comparison for KDKA-TV due to a website overhaul in the interim, but a former KDKA producer tells me that station’s news staff has gotten smaller even as the station added newscasts.

When you look at the current news team web pages for KDKA, WPXI, and WTAE, what jumps out is the rise in the number of personnel who are considered anchors and reporters. That makes sense considering the increasing number of newscasts; young reporters are being asked to do double duty and since many are gunning for an eventual anchor job, they’re game to do both.

The former KDKA producer notes another way to tell resources are being stretched further is to watch for nightside reporters who appear in 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts before putting together additional reports for the late newscasts.

Q: There’s no “Judge Steve Harvey” on ABC’s midseason schedule. Are they saving it for summer? The last episodes aired in April 2022.

— Jackson, via Twitter

Rob: I suspect ABC is saving “Judge Steve Harvey” for summer. ABC also announced its “Wonder Years” reboot will air in the summer and one could imagine the network using Harvey’s show as a “Wonder Years” lead-in.

Q: Do you have any idea if the TBS show “Rat in the Kitchen” is coming back for another season?

— Sherry, Murrysville

Rob: It’s not. TBS canceled the reality competition after a single season.