TV Q&A: Why are there fewer meteorologists at WPXI-TV?

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 WPXI-TV under some kind of budget crunch? They have only three full-time meteorologists when the other two Pittsburgh stations have four.

— Joey via email

Rob: The general manager of every TV station everywhere is under budget pressure. Perhaps WPXI more so as the station is now owned by an investment management company – Apollo Global Management – but I’m not sure that has much to do with an opening in the weather department. Danielle Dozier only departed in May and my understanding is she will eventually be replaced with a fourth meteorologist who will join Stephen Cropper, Jessica Faith and Scott Harbaugh on the Channel 11 staff.

Q: The MTV video music awards were broadcast earlier this month simultaneously on MTV, CW, VH1, Comedy Central, TV Land, Nickelodeon and BET. Any idea why? It would seem this would just give each station a smaller piece of the audience.

— Jeff, Baldwin

Rob: My sense is it’s an effort to “eventize” the awards show — and also maybe a necessity if current, depressed ratings from airing on just one channel wouldn’t be enough to justify the telecast anymore — but I put the question to my favorite former TV scheduler on Twitter, @MaskedScheduler, who was once known as NBC and later Fox scheduler Preston Beckman.

“It’s a wider net,” @MaskedScheduler explained. “It’s corporate synergy and the rating is aggregated, i.e. the same ‘network’ commercials air in all the shows so the advertisers gets the cumulative rating (across all the networks). It also makes the VMAs feel bigger.”

Q: It seemed that this summer had Stephen Colbert airing more repeats than new shows. I also saw promos on ABC for what seemed like the entire summer to watch Jimmy Kimmel to see who the guest-host is tonight. (I’m not as familiar with Jimmy Fallon as I watch NBC the least.) So my question is: In a pre-covid world, how many original shows did these hosts typically do in a year, of which there are approximately 260 weeknights available?

— Alan, Gibsonia

Rob: I know of no sources that keep a running tally of live broadcasts of each late-night program annually but I do know that it’s not unusual for late-night hosts to take time off in the summer, especially when they are as well-established as this current crop. True, Kimmel took more time off this summer and last summer than he has in the past but remember that working through covid from home was not easy and there is a burnout factor.

Kimmel seems the most willing to have guest hosts sub for him, which had been largely avoided for decades after Johnny Carson’s frequent sub, Joan Rivers, got her own show on Fox, which he saw as disloyal.

Q: What happened to “25 Words or Less” that used to be on Channel 19 in the afternoon?

— Janet via voicemail

Rob: It airs at 6 a.m. weekdays on WPCW-TV.

Q: Now that WPXI has moved Kelly Clarkson to 3 a.m., where does that leave “Right This Minute”? I haven’t seen it turn up anywhere yet.

— Mike, North Fayette

Rob: Pretty sure that leaves the show without a place to air in Pittsburgh except in the wee hours of Sunday morning at 2:30 a.m. and Monday morning at 1:30 a.m. on Channel 11.