TV Talk: WTAE's Ashley Liotus achieves goal of full-time sports reporting

Ashley Liotus was a freelance reporter off and on at WTAE beginning in 2022, but in July she joined Channel 4 full-time, anchoring weekends and reporting/fill-in anchoring weekdays.

Liotus, 33, grew up in the South Hills and graduated from Baldwin High School in 2009. She graduated from Penn State in 2013 with a degree in broadcast journalism with a sports focus.

Unlike many on-air reporters, Liotus has also worked as a producer behind the scenes, beginning with her first job out of college in Savannah, Ga.

“I’ve always used that to my advantage when applying for jobs because it’s so important to know what the people behind the scenes do and it’s also important that people in the control room know all the elements reporters and anchors are dealing with,” Liotus said, noting that may include hearing feedback through the IFB device that reporters and anchors wear in their ears so producers can communicate with them during a newscast. “Every reporter should be a producer for a month and every producer should be a reporter for a month.”

While producing in Savannah, Liotus was “begging them to let me do sports stories” and eventually the station did give her that opportunity. She moved on to a station in Baton Rouge, La., for a full-time sports job that included covering the New Orleans Saints and LSU football, baseball and gymnastics.

“The goal was always to get back home to Pittsburgh,” Liotus said. “Being in the South was nice to avoid winter a little bit, but I wanted to get back to the Northeast.”

When her Baton Rogue contract was up in 2019, Liotus moved to New York without a job but a hope to freelance, which she did, reporting for The Black News Channel (it shuttered in 2022) and The Big East Conference.

She moved back to Pittsburgh in early 2022 to freelance for then-AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh as associate producer of “Inside Pirates Baseball.”

Liotus had interned at WTAE and considers former Channel 4 sports anchor Guy Junker a mentor, which led to her splitting her freelance work between AT&T SportsNet and reporting on-air for WTAE.

Earlier this year, Liotus joined SportsNet Pittsburgh in a full-time capacity and then she got hired full-time by WTAE in July and departed SportsNet Pittsburgh.

“That was always the goal for me, to be full-time somewhere,” she said.

Although Liotus had the notion of her current job at Channel 4 in mind for a while, her professional path was unclear when she graduated from high school.

“Like most 18-year-olds, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “I considered going the business route.”

But while visiting her brother at Penn State, she met a woman and they talked about possible majors and the woman said she wanted to be a sports reporter.

“It was like a lightbulb went off: ‘You can talk about sports for a living and get paid for it?’ ” Liotus recalled. “That was the end-all, be-all for me. That’s what I wanted to do. I talk about sports all the time in my free time, why not get paid for it on the job?”

New ‘QED Cooks’

A new installment of “QED Cooks,” “America’s Home Cooking: Sweets” (10 a.m. Saturday, WQED-TV), features host Chris Fennimore sharing some of his favorite dessert recipes, including Kentucky Derby Pie, Loaded Chocolate Biscotti and Nana’s Italian Love Cake.

The program will repeat at noon Saturday on Channel 13, 10 a.m. and noon Aug. 24, 10 a.m. Aug. 25 and 3 p.m. Aug. 31.

More ‘Donkey Hodie’

PBS renewed “Donkey Hodie,” the puppet series co-production between Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions and Spiffy Pictures, for a third season that will feature a crossover episode with “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” as Daniel and Dad Tiger, rendered in puppet form, visit “Donkey Hodie.” New episodes will debut in 2025.

‘Chronicle’ on Flight 427

Later this month WTAE’s occasional primetime series “Chronicle” debuts a new episode on “The Legacy of Flight 427” (8 p.m. Aug. 23) about the 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 in Beaver County. Morning news anchor Michelle Wright meets with the crash’s lead investigator in Savannah, Ga., and family members of those killed in the crash share memories of their loved ones.

Morning news anchor Janelle Hall co-hosts the special, which will repeat on WTAE’s COZI digital subchannel at 2 p.m. Aug. 25.

‘Bad Monkey’

Apple TV+’s “Bad Monkey” turns out to be a pretty great show.

Adapted from the Carl Hiaasen novel by writer Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs,” “Ted Lasso”), and now streaming its first two episodes (additional episodes debut weekly on Wednesday through Oct. 9), “Bad Monkey” is one of those Florida-set shows that really gets the peculiarities of that state just right. The vibe is similar to the short-lived 1998 Barry Sonnenfeld-directed ABC series “Maximum Bob.” Like that lost TV gem, “Bad Monkey” is a comedic, character-driven crime drama, albeit lacking the distinct, Sonnenfeld-esque visual style.

Vince Vaughn stars as Andrew Yancy, suspended from his Miami Police Department job and now working as a health inspector in the Florida Keys when he stumbles into a case involving a severed arm fished up by tourists.

If he can solve the case, Yancy sees it as his ticket back to Miami. But there’s a phalanx of Florida oddballs that get in his way. (Yes, the series also includes the titular ill-behaved chimp, but he plays a pretty minor, comic relief role, at least in early episodes.)

There’s a loosey-goosey quality to “Bad Monkey” that keeps the tone light, emphasizing the comedy even when it sits alongside more dramatic moments.

Renewed

PBS renewed “The Great American Recipe” for a fourth season to air next summer.

Netflix renewed “Supacell” for a second season.

Apple TV+ ordered a new season of the Ewan McGregor-starring non-fiction series “Long Way …”

“Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale” will return to AMC+ and Sundance Now for a second season in 2025.

Netflix’s Guy Ritchie series “The Gentlemen” will return for a second season.

Channel surfing

The fourth season of Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses” debuts Sept. 4. … On Aug. 20 Tubby Todd Bath Co. will release a limited-edition collection of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”-themed sweet apple hair/body wash and a lotion in 25-ounce bottles available at TubbyTodd.com for $46 per bottle. … Streaming service Hallmark+ will launch Sept. 10 with the debut of “The Chicken Sisters” scripted series based on the KJ Dell’Antonia novel. Cost: $8 per month or $80 annually and includes $5 monthly coupon to use at Hallmark card stores.