TV Talk: Amazon will renew ‘A League of Their Own;’ PCNC now available over the air

There’s no crying in baseball and no reason to cry, except perhaps tears of joy, for fans of Amazon Prime Video’s “A League of Their Own.” The streaming service will move forward with a second season of the generally well-reviewed, pricey, filmed-in-Pittsburgh period drama, inspired by the 1992 Geena Davis-Tom Hanks movie.

Rumors of the potential renewal have swirled for weeks with Puck News reporting this morning that Amazon agreed to make no more than five new episodes in what I’ve heard is likely the final season for the show. The Hollywood Reporter pegs the episode order at four. Representatives for Amazon declined to comment.

Although the “League” pilot filmed in southern California pre-pandemic, the rest of the episodes shot in Western Pennsylvania in the summer and fall of 2021. It premiered on Prime Video in August 2022.

“League” ranked No. 4 (behind Netflix’s “The Sandman,” Hulu’s “Predator” prequel and AMC+’s “Better Call Saul” finale) on ReelGood.com’s Top 10 titles in streaming for the week it premiered, Aug. 10-17. (ReelGood’s Top 10 ranking uses first-party data from how its 5 million users in the U.S. interact with movies and TV shows on the platform in real-time.)

During Amazon’s portion of the Television Critics Association virtual summer 2022 press tour on the day “League” premiered, series co-creator Will Graham said the writers had already started breaking stories for a potential second season.

“This is a show that is more than a show to all of us and to every single person in the cast and every single person in the crew,” said Graham of the new “League,” which puts the stories of Black and LGBTQ women ballplayers forward. “It’s been a life-changing experience and we already know what we want to do with season two.”

At the time Graham, said his goal was to start filming a second season of “League” in mid-spring 2023 – clearly that’s not going to happen — though Graham hedged a little about whether “League” would film its entire second season in Western Pennsylvania, saying, “Our hope is to always be shooting some of the show in Pittsburgh, maybe all of it. I don’t think there’s a world where we don’t come back to Pittsburgh in one way or another. The home base of everyone and their families and their kids is here, [in Los Angeles, but] the show will always have at least one foot — maybe two feet — in Pittsburgh. But at this point, we’re just putting season one in the world.”

Its unclear where season two of “League” will film.

PCNC now over-the-air

Last week WPXI-TV added PCNC to its lineup of digital subchannels as Channel 11.4 over the air.

WPXI’s PCNC, which stands for Pittsburgh Cable News Channel, began airing on local cable systems in 1994. Comcast dropped PCNC in early 2020, greatly reducing its potential viewing audience.

Be My Neighbor Day

This year’s Be My Neighbor Day, put on by WQED-TV and Fred Rogers Productions, will be held 1-4 p.m. March 25 at four locations in Homestead, including Barrett Elementary School, with each activity hub featuring information about services within the community. For details, visit wqed.org/bemyneighborday.

Additionally, FRP and WQED will host “Alma’s Way” storytimes in local libraries through mid-April. For a list of locations and times, visit https://www.wqed.org/inquire-within-events.

Channel surfing

Apple TV+ renewed Harrison Ford comedy “Shrinking” for a second season. … “Live with Kelly and Ryan” will become “Live with Kelly and Mark” on April 17 when Mark Consuelos joins real-life wife Kelly Ripa as the morning show’s co-host (current co-host Ryan Seacrest’s last day will be April 14). … Even opposite the highest-rated episode yet of HBO’s “The Last of Us” (8.2 million viewers) Sunday’s Oscars telecast hit a three-year high, drawing 18.7 million viewers, up 12% from 2022.