Ashley Liotus was a part-time freelance reporter at WTAE-TV starting in 2022, but moved to Channel 4 full-time in July, working as an anchor on weekends and a reporter/fill-in anchor on 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 concentration in sports. Unlike many on-air reporters, Liotus has also worked behind the scenes as a producer, starting with her first job after college in Savannah, Georgia. “I’ve always used that to my advantage when applying for jobs because it’s so important to know what people are doing behind the scenes, and it’s also important for the people in the control room to know all the elements that reporters and anchors are dealing with,” Liotus said, noting that that can include listening to 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 “begged them to let me do sports reporting,” and eventually the station gave her that opportunity. She moved to a station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a full-time job in sports that included covering the New Orleans Saints and LSU football, baseball and gymnastics. “The goal was always to come back home to Pittsburgh,” Liotus said. “It was nice to be down south to get away from the winter a little bit, but I wanted to go back to the Northeast.” When her contract with Baton Rogue expired in 2019, Liotus moved to New York with no job but hopes of freelancing, which she did, reporting for The Black News Channel (which closed in 2022) and The Big East Conference. In early 2022, she moved back to Pittsburgh to freelance for what was then AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh as an 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 live reporting for WTAE. Earlier this year, Liotus started full-time at SportsNet Pittsburgh, then was hired full-time by WTAE in July and left SportsNet Pittsburgh. “That was always my goal, to work full-time somewhere,” she said. Although Liotus had been thinking about her current job at Channel 4 for some time, her career path was still unclear when she graduated high school. “Like most 18-year-olds, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “I thought about going into business.” 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. “That’s when a light bulb went off in my head: ‘Can you make a living talking about sports and get paid for it?'” Liotus recalled. “That was the be-all and end-all for me. That’s what I wanted to do. I talk about sports all the time in my free time, so why not get paid for it on the job?” New ‘QED Cooks’ In a new episode of “QED Cooks,” “America’s Home Cooking: Sweets” (10 a.m. Saturday, WQED-TV), host Chris Fennimore shares some of his favorite dessert recipes, including Kentucky Derby Pie, Loaded Chocolate Biscotti and Nana’s Italian Love Cake. The show repeats Saturday at noon on Channel 13, Aug. 24 at 10 a.m. and noon, Aug. 25 at 10 a.m. and Aug. 31 at 3 p.m. More ‘Donkey Hodie’ PBS has renewed “Donkey Hodie,” the puppet series co-produced with Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers’ Productions and Spiffy Pictures, for a third season that will include a crossover episode with “Daniel Tigers’ Neighborhood” in which Daniel and Dad Tiger, portrayed as puppets, visit “Donkey Hodie.” New episodes will air in 2025. ‘Chronicle’ on Flight 427 Later this month, WTAE’s occasional primetime series “Chronicle” will premiere a new episode on “The Legacy of Flight 427” (8 p.m. Aug. 23), which covers the 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 in Beaver County. Morning news anchor Michelle Wright meets with the lead investigator of the Savannah, Ga., crash, 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 be repeated Aug. 25 at 2 p.m. on WTAE’s digital subchannel COZI. Apple TV’s “Bad Monkey” turns out to be a pretty good show. Adapted from the Carl Hiaasen novel by writer Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs,” “Ted Lasso”), the show, whose first two episodes are streaming now (additional episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays through October 9), is one of those Florida-set shows that captures the state’s idiosyncrasies just right. The vibe is similar to the short-lived 1998 ABC series “Maximum Bob,” which was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Like that lost TV gem, “Bad Monkey” is a comedic, character-driven crime drama, but lacks the distinctive Sonnenfeld-esque visual style. Vince Vaughn plays Andrew Yancy, who has been suspended from his job with the Miami Police Department and is now working as a health inspector in the Florida Keys when he stumbles into a case involving a severed arm pulled ashore by tourists. If he can solve the case, Yancy sees it as his ticket back to Miami. But a phalanx of Florida eccentrics stand in his way. (Yes, the series also features the titular badly behaved chimp, but he plays a fairly small, comic supporting role, at least in the first few episodes.) “Bad Monkey” has a casual vibe that keeps the tone light and emphasizes the comedy even when it’s juxtaposed with more dramatic moments. PBS has renewed “The Great American Recipe” for a fourth season, set to air next summer. Netflix has renewed “Supacall” for a second season. Apple TV has ordered a new season of the documentary series “Long Way…,” starring Ewan McGregor. “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. Zapping The fourth season of “Slow Horses” on Apple TV premieres Sept. 4. … On Aug. 20, Tubby Todd Bath Co. will release a limited-edition collection of sweet apple hair/body wash and a “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”-themed lotion in 25-ounce bottles, available on TubbyTodd.com for $46 a bottle. … The Hallmark streaming service will launch Sept. 10 with the premiere of the scripted series “The Chicken Sisters,” based on the novel by KJ Dell’Antonia. Cost: $8 a month or $80 a year and includes a $5 monthly coupon for use at Hallmark card stores. Reach TV writer Rob Owen at [email protected] or 412-380-8559. Follow @RobOwenTV on Threads, X, Bluesky and Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location. Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience, but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free. Get Ad-Free > Sign up for notifications Stay up to date with important news from TribLIVE