TV Q&A: Did KDKA-TV 's Kristine Sorensen add a newscast role?

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 have noticed that Kristine Sorensen is now the weekday noon anchor at KDKA-TV. Does she now have those duties along with the 4 and 5 p.m. newscasts?

— Elaine, Mt. Lebanon

Rob: Yes, a few months ago Sorensen added the noon weekday newscast to her work assignment while continuing to anchor at 4 and 5 p.m. weekdays.

Q: Do you have any information regarding the Dish/Channel 11 contract dispute? We have been unable to view channel 11 for months now, but nothing seems to be happening to resolve the issue. Any advice as to what we can do short of canceling our contract with Dish?

— Janet, via email

Rob: No news to report. If you cannot receive WPXI over the air by antenna – always dicey due to Western Pennsylvania’s hilly terrain – and if you’re not under contract with DISH, canceling DISH and finding another service is probably your best option at this point.

Of course, you may lose a different station down the road if another contract dispute involving your new service arises. Sadly, it’s like playing whack-a-mole these days.

Your best bet is to try a service that doesn’t have a contract, maybe something like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. Just do your research first and be sure any prospective new service has all the channels you want.

Q: Some of the TV stations, including WTAE-TV and KDKA-TV, made such a big deal about Pitt being in the NCAA tournament, but none of the Pittsburgh stations carried the game. Why?

— Tom, Uniontown

Rob: No Pittsburgh stations had the rights to carry the game.

Sports rights cost millions of dollars and are generally sold in package deals to much larger companies (e.g. networks), not to individual stations. Rights to air the NCAA tournament are currently split between CBS Sports and Turner Sports (TBS, TNT, truTV) which is why the March 14 Pitt game aired on cable’s truTV.

With the exception of the Steelers’ pre-season games, which air on KDKA as part of an overall deal between the station and the team, whenever you see a local sports team on TV, it’s usually being carried by a national network and simply passed through on a local channel.

Q: What’s going on with “Penn Teller: Fool Us?” There were a few new episodes and then it’s just been reruns. Has it been canceled?

— Chas, Delmont

Rob: It’s not canceled. Per The CW, the next new episode will air at 8 p.m. on March 31.

Q: Why did WPCW-TV digital subchannel The Circle go away? I loved that station.

— Richard via Facebook

Rob: Per a CBS-owned stations representative, “Opry Entertainment Group opted not to extend their agreement with us to carry The Circle. We’re currently running a simulcast of Dabl on 19.4.”

After a month of reaching out to multiple representatives for Opry Entertainment Group on multiple occasions, I finally heard back that there is no current plan to relocate The Circle to the digital subchannel of another Pittsburgh linear TV station.

The Circle is carried on DISH Network Channel 370 and Roku Channel 638. The Circle is also available on Sling TV, Samsung TV Plus, Peacock, Tubi, STIRR and other FAST/AVOD platforms but those versions of The Circle do not include all the linear platform programs.