Bad news, “Family Feud” fans: Steve Harvey will be making less frequent appearances on local airwaves starting next year.
To be fair, KDKA-TV warned viewers back in August that the newly rebranded KDKA+ would launch with an hour of “Family Feud” from 8-9 p.m. before eventually transitioning over to an hour-long newscast in that time slot.
On Thursday, Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate made that promise official by announcing that “Primetime News on KDKA+” will debut Jan. 8 with current KDKA weekend morning anchor Jessica Guay at the helm and KDKA meteorologist Ray Petelin providing weather coverage.
“Primetime News on KDKA+” is being billed as “the Pittsburgh market's first 8 p.m. news program.” It would be the only local newscast airing at that time.
“We have a commitment to our community to keep them informed,” KDKA news director Shawn Hoder said via a press release.
“For the people of Southwestern Pennsylvania who are busy working long hours and taking care of their families, ‘Primetime News on KDKA+’ at 8 p.m. is the ideal time to sit down and catch up on the news of the day and look ahead to what’s coming up the rest of the week.”
This means Guay will step down as KDKA’s weekend morning anchor desk. That position will be filled by Megan Shinn, who will start at KDKA on Dec. 18 after spending most of the last three years as a morning show host and dayside reporter at WRTV in Indianapolis.
KDKA+ is the station formerly known as WPCW-TV or its more common moniker, Pittsburgh’s CW. It and seven other CBS-owned stations nationwide dropped their CW affiliations and begin operating independently earlier this year, which is why KDKA opted to rebrand Pittsburgh’s CW as KDKA+ and change its call letters to WPKD-TV.
The domino effect surrounding that station no longer being associated with The CW also resulted in WPNT-TV becoming Pittsburgh’s new CW affiliate. WPNT officially began carrying CW programming on Sept. 1, including Atlantic Coast Conference football games.
Sports were a big part of KDKA+’s strategy as well, which has so far included airing high school football games on Friday nights, local college football matchups on Saturdays and preseason Penguins hockey.
So was expanding KDKA+’s news coverage, and it will be doing just that when “Primetime News on KDKA+” replaces that hour of “Family Feud” next year and joins a weeknight lineup also featuring true-crime investigation series “48 Hours” at 9 p.m., the 10 p.m. news and “Nightly Sports Call.”
“KDKA+ provides our region with a powerful platform to air quality programming, sports and entertainment,” KDKA president and general manager Chris Cotugno said in that same press release.
“Now, we are proud to add ‘Primetime News on KDKA+’ at 8 p.m. to an expanding lineup of in-demand local content that previously could not be found anywhere else.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: November 30, 2023, 3:46 p.m.
Updated: November 30, 2023, 9:58 p.m.