TV Q&A with Rob Owen

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This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Life," "The Shield" and cable channel MOJO. As always, thanks for reading, and keep those questions coming.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: The NBC show "Life" -- how is it doing ratings-wise? I really enjoy the show, great story lines. It seems NBC keeps moving its air dates around. It was Fridays, now it is 9 p.m. Wednesday. Is that a sign of soon-to-be-canceled or just trying to find a good fit?

-- John, 56, West View

Rob: The latter. Moving the show off Friday -- a death night for shows on every network but CBS these days -- was a vote of confidence. However the ratings have not been good on Wednesday, so despite a full-season renewal, the show may not have a lot of, uh, life left in it. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Q: With Season 4.0 of "Battlestar Galactica" finally coming out, when will season 4.1 be showing the last episodes? Also whatever happened to the new show "Caprica" that was supposed to be on this fall?

Then with the end of "Battlestar" are there any new sci-fi shows in the works? It will be tough for us sci-fi fans with no "Star Trek" or "Battlestar." I guess we will have to wait for the new "Star Trek" movie.

-- Patrick, 54, Oakdale

Rob: We reported that "Caprica" was ordered to series earlier this week. I don't completely understand your first "Battlestar" question but the final 10 episodes of the series are due to begin airing Jan. 16. After that there's one "BG" TV movie and that's all that's planned for the moment.

As far as future sci-fi series, I'm sure there will be more. It's a popular genre. Fox has Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" coming soon.

Q: Is "Sell this House" going to come back on A&E?

-- Rita, Brookline

Rob: It will be back, but A&E doesn't have it scheduled yet. Possibly second or third quarter of 2009.

Q: My sister got us hooked on "Gilmore Girls" after it moved to ABC Family. When will they run season seven?

-- Marci, 41, Morgantown

Rob: ABC Family has no plans to air the seventh season. It is available on DVD.

Q: Regarding a "Cold Case" episode "Bad Reputation" which was shown on April 13 and again on Sept. 7: We missed it both times, one due to football and the other due to tennis. Episode names are no longer shown on TV Guide Web for reruns on TNT. Is there a way to find if it will be shown again?

-- Carol, 55, Shaler

Rob: Without some digging on your part, you may be out of luck, and "Cold Case" doesn't seem to be on DVD. But you might want to do an advanced search on the Post-Gazette's online listings, which do include episode titles when you search by the show name.

"Bad Reputation" didn't show up when I did a search, but if you look every week, maybe you'll find it.

Q: In the TV Week preview of "The Shield's" final episode, you commented that the plot line around Julien's sexuality disappeared without explanation several years ago. Granted, it was dropped from the show somewhat abruptly, but I thought it was well-known that the plot was dropped due to "creative differences" with the actor. Am I just wrong about that?

Based on a number of interviews I've seen with Michael Jace, it seems apparent that he shares Julien's religious beliefs. He even wrote in an FX Weblog years back that he thought it was great that the show proved that you can "cure" homosexuality. From some of his interviews, I got the impression he probably wouldn't be comfortable playing a gay man who was comfortable in his sexuality (as opposed to playing a gay cop who would eventually be "cured" back to being straight).

Anyway, just curious. It could all be a rumor and the storyline was dropped for some other reason.

-- Mark, Morgantown, WV.

Rob: I never heard anything about the actor having issues with his character's sexuality. I spoke to "Shield" creator Shawn Ryan this week and he didn't know if Jace actually wrote that blog post, but he did say the actor never asked the writers to alter his character's story.

"Michael was always good about doing whatever we gave him," Ryan said. "My feeling on that character was that after two seasons, I felt like we had said everything we could say about that characters' sexuality and found the character in a place where he was married to this woman and taking on responsibility for her son."

Ryan said his research found that people in such situations live that way for years before they either stay with it forever or, in most cases, abandon it, but only after a period of years.

"The entire seven seasons of 'The Shield' took place in a period of three years and it just felt like he'd still be in that situation," Ryan said. "I was aware fans wondered if we were dropping it for a variety of reasons and I wanted to have an acknowledgement of it in the finale. There's a moment where Julien sees a [gay] couple on the street. That was my way of giving a nod that the story isn't over for him but we don't see it in the time frame we have on our show."

Q: I read in the PG that "Monk" is ending after the 2009 summer episodes. Considering its popularity, I was shocked and saddened to see this! Who is killing the show? The actors or the network?

-- Melanie, 47, E. Pittsburgh

Rob: The final season begins next summer, but I suspect USA will drag it out until early 2010. The network chose to end the show because of its escalating cost. The longer a show is on the air, the more expensive it is to produce (actors and crew still get raises -- aren't they lucky!). There's a tipping point where there is no longer a financial upside for a network and studio to produce more episodes of a series. "Monk" reached that point.

Q: Why does CBS continually schedule a Sunday late afternoon football game AND its usual Sunday night shows at their regular time? I don't think I have ever seen the game end on time, allowing the shows to air as scheduled. Why don't they allow more time for the game? Or not schedule all their shows?

This situation has existed for YEARS but I guess CBS doesn't care if it frustrates its viewers.

-- Diane, 42, Mt. Lebanon

Rob: I know there have been Sundays when there has not been a run-over. The problem, according to CBS spokesman Phil Gonzales, is that they can never precisely predict the time a game will end.

"It would be hard to push our schedule later and then have the game end early," he said. "It's easier to keep it at the normal time and alert people as much as possible. ... We've come to learn that most people would rather see their programs in a delayed manner than miss it completely."

I reported last year on the advent of the CBS Eye-Alert, which allows viewers to subscribe at CBS.com for e-mail alerts about exactly what time the Sunday night shows will start. I've been receiving Eye-Alerts for more than a year and find it a helpful tool.

Q: Any updates on when the City of Pittsburgh will see FiOS TV service available?

-- Jeff, 39, Pittsburgh

Rob: We reported late last month that it's looking like a franchise agreement will be in place early next year. But it's not done until it's done.

Q: I was wondering if you could get a response from Channel 4 about why they would run a news promo about "Santa's helper mugged at a local mall" during the airing of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"? Do they have any common sense? How many kids do you think they scared?

-- Jeff, 41, Pittsburgh

Rob: I didn't see when this aired, but a WTAE spokeswoman said it was "right before 'Samantha Who?' which is an adult show. We don't run any 11 p.m. topical [promos] early evening for that very reason."

I guess the question becomes when exactly before "Samantha Who?" and did it allow parents enough time to turn off the TV? Had the "Grinch" credits aired?

Regardless, wouldn't it have made more sense to hold the promo until after "Samantha Who?" began? Should a local TV station really expect parents to race to change the channel after a kids' show? Doesn't make a lot of sense, particularly if a station tries to position itself as a good community steward.

Q: On Dec. 1, Comcast assigned FSN-P HD to Channel 226. What happened to the MOJO channel, which had been on Channel 226?

-- Brian, 29, Beechview

Rob: Comcast didn't drop MOJO; the network went dark and no longer airs on cable systems (shop.mojohd.com).

Q: Several times this year, WTAE has pre-empted "Dancing With the Stars" on Monday nights to air Steelers football instead. Even though I am a Steelers fan, my family and I also watch "DWTS" every week and haven't been too happy when we had to miss a certain week because of football (especially since ESPN carries the Monday night football games).

If the Steelers had been scheduled to play on Nov. 24, which was also the final competition for DWTS, what would WTAE have done? Would they have moved the biggest night of DWTS to the next morning when no one who has a job or goes to school could watch, or would they have incurred the wrath of Steeler fans who don't get ESPN and aired the ABC lineup like they're supposed to? It's an interesting scenario.

-- Don, 49, East McKeesport

Rob: It is, but the folks at WTAE have said in the past that they won't entertain hypothetical scenarios. My guess is Channel 4 would run the Steelers and "DWTS" would air Tuesday morning.

Q: A while back you mentioned something about the TV Guide Onscreen signal switching from PBS to CBS "this fall." Well, there has been no TVGOS signal on Comcast analog cable for a week (or the analog tier of digital cable, if the box is bypassed). No channel grid, nothing. A friend in Bloomfield is also experiencing the same issue with Comcast. Whom do I contact to resolve this issue? Please help! I've enjoyed TV Guide Onscreen with my Panasonic DVR for years from Comcast, and would like it to continue. Thanks.

-- William, 34, Greenfield

Rob: Here's a response from Comcast: "PBS has been sending this TV Guide data along in the analog platform for some time. About a week or so ahead of the DTV test on Nov. 17, this data became unavailable as we prepared for the test. It was restored after the test and is available today. Of course, it will no longer be available in analog after Feb. 17. CBS is running this data on its HD platform (digital) now and will continue to do so after Feb. 17. We simply pass along the data the broadcasters send us."

Q: On my Verizon TV guide, it shows a red circle with the word "NEW" in it, obviously depicting a "new program." However, it will show this all the time for shows which are not new at all. I thought maybe this was a TV Guide error, but my Comcast guide didn't do this, and they also used TVG as their data provider. I asked Verizon why this is occurring and they had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe you can probe them for an answer?

Also -- there are several "local" channels in the 30s that show up as unavailable. After some online research, I see they are community channels for certain South Hills communities. Any reason why they have to be blocked out to the rest of the area?

-- Tyler, 17, Penn Hills

Rob: "Regarding the first question, the guide currently labels a program 'new' if it airs on a channel for the first time," explained Verison spokesman Lee Gierczynski. "This happens frequently with programs that are in syndication on multiple channels (e.g., 'Law and Order,' 'Seinfeld') where specific episodes airing may be 'new' to those channels. This helps viewers capture older episodes of a series that may not yet have aired on a channel and reduces the chances that the DVR would bypass recording them. Verizon is working with its program data provider to refine the labeling process to reduce confusion for customers."

As for the second question, "FiOS TV delivers local public, education and government channels to specific local communities based on where customers live or where Verizon is required to provide the channels. All local channels are not available in all communities because the same channel numbers may be used for different community channels. For example, in Moon Township, channel 35 is Moon Community Access Television (MCA-TV). However, in Mt. Lebanon, channel 35 is the Mt. Lebanon Public Access Channel.

"The guide also includes channel positions for future public, education and government channels that a municipality, school district or other organization may launch."