TV Q&A: How are local TV news reporters judged on their work?

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: How are local news reporters evaluated on their performance by their respective channels?

Do ratings matter? Viewer feedback?

– Beth, McCandless

Rob: As with any job, there are multiple factors including the obvious – Does the boss (generally the news director) like the reporter? Does the boss think the reporter is a hard worker? Does the boss think the reporter does good work? However, TV news has another factor that can be taken into consideration: research!

TV stations do research on what focus groups, drawn from members of the public, think of the on-air talent – probably more anchors than reporters – and those responses can also play a role in evaluating performance and deciding whether or not to renew a person’s contract.

And these days, it’s my understanding that bosses also consider a reporter’s social media presence, including whether the reporter has a following, do they promote their stories and do they push followers to watch the station’s newscasts.

Q: Why do the Pirates games not start on the hour or half-hour like all the other teams? What is the reasoning behind it?

– Karyn, North Huntingdon

Rob: A perusal of other MLB team schedules shows none of them start at the top or bottom of the hour. The reason for this is for the benefit of TV coverage. Most telecasts of pro sporting events start with broadcasters setting up the game. Even some NFL games start off the hour.

Q: I’m a fan of MotorTrend TV. Can you tell me if any of the following shows will be back: “Wheeler Dealers,” “Restoration Garage,” “Junkyard Empire,” “Last stop Garage,” “OverHaulin.”

– John, Pittsburgh

Rob: “Wheeler Dealers” returned with new episodes on July 26 and “Restoration Garage” will be back with new episodes sometime in 2023. The other series have been canceled.

Q: I’ve been reading your endorsements of “Only Murders in the Building” for quite some time and would love to see it, but don’t pay for any streaming services. I cannot find a DVD release date anywhere for season one of this show. Will it ever come out on DVD and, if so, when?

And … any chance of another season of “Veronica Mars” (which you also hooked me on years back), which did have a DVD release after its fourth season premiered on Hulu?

– Bev via email

Rob: Another “Veronica Mars” revival is certainly possible at some point, but the ending of the fourth season and the character they chose to kill off left such a bad taste in the mouths of fans, it may have torpedoed the franchise.

“Only Murders” is produced by 20th Television, a division of Disney, which owns the majority stake in Hulu, so they can choose exclusivity with ease – which may be part of the reason there has never been a DVD release (an email to a 20th Television publicist did not result in an answer to Bev’s query).

“Veronica Mars” is owned by Warner Bros., which surely negotiated the rights to release season four on DVD when they made the deal for season four to stream first on Hulu.