Submit your question to Rob Owen

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about an "NCIS" star, CBS's "Flashpoint" and ABC's "Shark Tank."

As always, thanks for reading, and keep the questions coming.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: What happened to "The Philanthropist" on NBC?

-- Female caller from 724 area code

Rob: "The Philanthropist" aired last summer on NBC and was not renewed so it won't be back.

Q: Is Pauley Perrette's name her real name or just a stage name?

-- Donna, Pittsburgh

Rob: "Pauley" is a nickname inspired by her middle name.

Q: Is CBS or any other network going to bring back "Flashpoint"?

-- John, 61, Lower Burrell

Rob: CBS has the rights to air more than a dozen episodes of "Flashpoint" but has not yet set a date for the series to return. At this point, my guess is it will air over the summer.

Q: I'm a fan of "Shark Tank" on ABC. As you indicated, ABC did burn off some unaired episodes a few weeks ago. Now that they've been broadcast, what are the chances of the show being picked up for another season?

-- Josh, Pittsburgh

Rob: It's hard to say. ABC has renewed some other marginally-rated reality shows lately ("Dating in the Dark" and "Shaq Vs." most recently) so a "Shark Tank" renewal may be possible, although I suspect it's more expensive to produce, which could complicate matters.

Q: There was a made-for-TV movie which aired on NBC on April 23, 1973, titled "Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John" starring Raymond Burr. My sister really liked it and has been searching to see if it is available on DVD, but has had no luck. Could you please tell us if it is available on DVD? Thank you

-- Mary Lou, 53, New Kensington

Rob: The best way to answer any "is it on DVD?" question is to look it up at IMDB.com. If it's for sale, there should be a link to Amazon.com, where you can buy it.

The IMDB page for this title does not have a link to Amazon so it is not available.

Q: I'm a big NASCAR far, and was looking forward to the season premier of "This Week in NASCAR" on SPEED this past Monday. It wasn't shown, and isn't anywhere in Comcast's digital guide. Has SPEED canceled this show?

-- James, 21, Economy

Rob: Yes.

As we note on the submission page, we don't generally answer sports on TV questions (my mind can only handle so much trivia), but a quick Google search turned up a fair bit of disappointment on the Speed.com forums about the show's cancellation.

Q: Why is there no Olympics coverage on USA and other NBC-owned cable channels on Consolidated Cable in Northern Allegheny and Southern Butler counties?

-- Allen, Richland Township

Rob: There are several good questions there beginning with, What's Consolidated Cable?

Turns out it's a very small cable system that used to be North Pittsburgh Telephone Company. Consolidated, based in Mattoon, Ill., bought the system in December 2007 and began offering cable service in 2008.

Across its three system here and in central Illinois and suburban Houston, the company has just 22,000 digital TV customers. Company spokeswoman Laura ZuHone declined to say how many of those 22,000 subscribers are in Western Pennsylvania but she acknowledged this is the company's smallest system.

As for why there's no Olympics coverage on NBC-owned cable channels, ZuHone said it's a cost-saving measure.

"There's a cost associated with carrying overflow programming [on NBC's cable properties] that couldn't be justified based on the level of viewership," she said. "The local NBC channels do carry an extensive lineup that historically met the needs of the majority of our customer base."

ZuHone said the decision to not pay NBC for Olympics coverage on cable channels is an effort "to keep rates low for the whole customer base.

"We do acknowledge this has been an inconvenience for some of our customers and we do apologize to them for that," she said. "We realize for customers looking for that specific programming it has been a disappointment for them."

Q: I often watch PCNC (Perpetual Commercials 'N Commercials) because I really enjoy hearing people with Australian accents telling me how to cut my toenails and clean hair from my bathtub drain ("Long hair, short hair, your hair, my hair" always makes me wonder "Hey, how did that Australian dude get his hair into my bathtub drain"?). Anyway, they occasionally interrupt these commercials with a few seconds of news and you recently made a comment about local newscasters using "lowest common denominator" language. Well, is it just me, or do other people also get annoyed at Trisha Pittman's constant over-use of the term "heads up"? I've counted her using that term as many as four times in a 38-second segment (sometimes she'll vary it a bit and give a "BIG head's up"). It's amazing her producer doesn't ask her to dial that down a bit.

-- Kevin Lenz, Evans City

Rob: I can't say I've ever noticed an overuse of "head's up" in traffic reports but like many viewers I tend to use morning news as audio wallpaper. It's not a newscast I pay as close attention to as the evening reports.

"I love reading your columns. The only thing I've always known, and this is about the 'Brady Bunch'-type boxes you mentioned that they show on the weather reports, the thing I always find funny about that is they always have the people outside in the snow and rain but they always start by talking to the people inside. Wouldn't it be much more humane to talk to the people that are outside in the snow before you get to the guys that are in the warm studio?"

-- A caller named Rick, who makes an interesting observation

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