TV Talk: More smiles than laughs from ‘St. Denis;’ Pittsburgh’s Nielsen rank ticks up

NBC's "St. Denis Medical" (8 p.m. Nov. 12) has a great cast – Wendi McLendon Covey, Allison Tolman, David Alan Grier – but this mockumentary set at a bland Oregon hospital is more "American Auto" than "The Office" or "Parks and Recreation."

"St. Denis" will conjure a smile but it doesn't elicit belly laughs through three episodes made available for review.

McLendon Covey stars as Joyce, the hospital administrator who shares some personality traits with "Office" boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell). She touts her hospital as offering "some of the best doctors in the country. I mean, in Oregon – after carving out Portland because that's a big city."

Grier plays a world-weary veteran doctor. Those two characters are balanced by Alex (Tolman, in her first comedy series since 2017's filmed-in-Pittsburgh "Downward Dog"), a mom and nurse with control issues who's the show's conscience and heart.

In the premiere, Joyce installs an expensive new mammography machine at the expense of the hospital's basic IT functions. She's determined to have "the best breast test in the west," winking at the audience and saying she also handles most of the hospitals publicity.

The closest "St. Denis" comes to creating guffaws is in a future episode when new floor nurse Matt (Mekki Leeper, who played the bespectacled juror in "Jury Duty") suspects the hospital chaplain may not be an ordained minister.

"Don't worry," Joyce says of the chaplain, "I don't let him around the kids. I'm just kidding; that's priests, not chaplains. Not all priests, but some."

More jokes with bite would make "St. Denis" a stronger comedy.

'American Coup'

A powerful installment of PBS's "American Experience," "American Coup: Wilmington 1898" (9 p.m. Nov. 12, WQED-TV) tells the story of a race massacre and coup détat in Wilmington, N.C., where white supremacists overthrew the democratically elected, multi-racial government of North Carolina's then-largest city. White supremacists coordinated a campaign of violence and intimidation that destroyed Black political and economic power and imposed white control.

Dr. Crystal R. Sanders, an associate professor of African American studies at Emory University featured in "American Coup," said unlike the Tulsa race massacre, what happened in Wilmington was a coup that showed "the crystallization of Jim Crow with the disenfranchisement of Black men."

"History is very much the present, and we know that history doesn't just repeat itself. History teaches us what and who we really are as a nation, as a people," said the film's co-director, Brad Lichtenstein. "To be able to have the descendants from the white families who have to reckon with this as much as descendants from Black families was important to us from the beginning. Of course, it's a different proposition when you're asking for permission to talk to them because there's so much shame associated with it — in many cases there's denial."

Industry downturn

When media companies followed Netflix lemming-like into streaming, they forfeit the successful business model that served them well for decades. Spending billions of dollars on content annually to feed unprofitable streaming services was unsustainable and the necessary retrenchment began before the summer 2023 writers' and actors' strikes. The work that further dried up in the strikes hasn't returned – and it may never, at least not at the Peak TV level it once reached when more than 600 scripted TV shows debuted annually. (The industry downturn is also reflected in this week's cancellation of the January 2025 Television Critics Association press tour due to networks/platforms tightening their publicity departments' purse strings.)

Puck.com's Matthew Belloni wrote last month about the downturn, noting, "Many production veterans think this is just the beginning. It's not only California and New York; places like New Mexico, Georgia, and other hubs will likely see major declines over the next few years — unless the overall volume returns to Peak TV levels, which few believe it will. That's not great news for all those soundstages that were built during the boom. Also not great for everyone looking for jobs."

Pittsburgh film workers have first-hand experience of the impact of this downturn. Since the strikes ended a year ago, there's only been one major production to film in Pittsburgh, season three of Paramount+'s "Mayor of Kingstown," which has yet to be renewed for a fourth season that would put local crews back to work. ("Kingstown" is likely to be renewed and film a new season early next year.)

"Kingstown" wrapped in May and other than a few days of location work for Pittsburgh-set but mostly-filmed-elsewhere "Watson" (filming in Vancouver, Canada) and "The PITT" (filming Burbank, Calif.), cameras have not rolled on a major Hollywood production since.

Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer said coming out of the strikes there was an expectation of increased work but it never came.

"That's not because film or television shoots exited from here but was instead due to the lack of available (film) tax credits in Pennsylvania. The tax credit is the number one driver of the work," Keezer said. "The Pennsylvania program has been oversubscribed and underfunded for years. As investment in the program has been flatlined, Pennsylvania has fallen behind other countries, states and jurisdictions. Coupled with recent changes to the administration of the program and a shift away from the economic incentive program that it was created to be, we're seeing real impact. Our union members aren't working and are either leaving the industry, leaving the state or turning to programs to help them meet their basic needs like food stamps, food pantries, and other public assistance."

Pittsburgh ticks up

For 2024, Pittsburgh ranked No. 28 among 210 TV household markets nationwide , but for 2025, Pittsburgh's fortunes rise a tick to become the 27th largest TV market in the United States.

For 2024 Pittsburgh has 1.164 million TV homes. In 2025 that number rises slightly to 1.167 million TV homes.

The new ranking puts Pittsburgh one spot behind Nashville, Tenn., and one spot ahead of Salt Lake City.

Peacock renewed daytime soap "Days of Our Lives" for a 61st season.

Netflix renewed "Outer Banks" for a fifth and final season.

BET+ renewed "The Ms. Pat Show" for a fifth season.

Channel surfing

Bill Burr hosts NBC's "Saturday Night Live" this weekend with musical guest Mk.gee; Charli xcx is host and musical guest Nov. 16.