TV Talk: Ryan Houston will leave WPXI-TV; more ‘Cartoon Academy’ on WQED-TV

Ryan Houston, who joined WPXI-TV as weekend evening and night anchor in December 2019, will depart the station Nov. 28.

He’s returning home to his native Pine Bluff, Ark., to help care for an ailing family member.

“My stepfather has colon cancer and my mother told me she needs some help,” Houston said. “When you mother tells you she needs your help and you’re the oldest boy, you have to do what mom asks you to do.”

Houston’s contract was going to be up before the end of the year and he said if not for his family’s needs, he would have re-upped with WPXI.

“Channel 11 has been good to me,” Houston said. “It’s probably the best station I’ve worked for in terms of storytelling, the resources available, management seems to have an open door. The sad part is, I saw Pittsburgh as being a home to me for quite some time.”

Prior to working at Channel 11, Houston worked in Cincinnati and Jackson, Miss.

“I’m from the South, lived all over doing television news, but Pittsburgh feels like it has a Southern hospitality,” Houston said. “I wonder if it’s the Mister Rogers connection? People here are extremely nice and also more welcoming in the beginning versus some of the other places I’ve been.”

Channel 11 news director Scott Trabandt called Houston “a valuable contributor to the WPXI team” who helped cover covid protocols, protests following the murder of George Floyd, criminal justice concerns in Allegheny County and countless winter storms and breaking news.

“He has also been heavily involved in the community, serving as a host, emcee and speaker at numerous events to benefit worthy organizations,” Trabandt said in a statement. “While we are sorry to see him leave Pittsburgh, so much in life is about timing and being in the right place to support family at the right time, and we’re happy he will have that opportunity.”

Houston said he will look for work opportunities in the Little Rock, Ark., TV market down the road, but “for the next few weeks I’m just trying to process everything and get there as fast as I can and help out in any way I can.”

Trabandt has begun the search for Houston’s replacement and in the interim fill-in anchors will be at the anchor desk in Houston’s place.

More ‘Cartoon Academy’

The third season of “Cartoon Academy with Joe Wos,” which recently won two regional Emmy Awards, returns beginning this month with episodes devoted to new themes. The short videos feature Wos drawing while he offers viewers step-by-step instructions on how to create their own drawings.

Episodes will release online at www.wqed.org/cartoonacademy Nov. 21-23 (outer space), Dec. 19-21 (ocean dwellers) and Jan. 23-25 (dinosaurs).

A marathon of these digital episodes will air on linear WQED-TV, 12-1:30 p.m. Feb. 5.

Kept/canceled

Hulu renewed “This Fool” for a second season.

Per Deadline.com, season three of Syfy’s “Resident Alien” has been cut from 12 episodes to eight.

Freeform canceled “Everything’s Trash” after a single season.

Channel surfing

Per Bloomberg.com, if Amazon Prime Video renews filmed-in-Pittsburgh “A League of Their Own,” it may be for just six episodes — season one was eight episodes — as Amazon tries to contain production costs in a down Hollywood economy. … Judy Woodruff will step down as anchor of “PBS NewsHour” Dec. 30, embarking on a two-year reporting project, “Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads” about the country’s political divisions, prior to retirement. An anchor desk replacement will be named before the end of 2022. … Hulu with Live TV will add Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies Mysteries and Weather Channel over the next few weeks.