Submit your question to Rob Owen

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Ellen," "In Treatment" and TV show start times.

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

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: Please say that ABC doesn't think that "Better Off Ted" is better off dead? I really enjoy this show and have missed its absence the past few weeks. I believe I'm in the minority because I'm not excited about back-to-back episodes of "Lost." Will "Better Off Ted" be returning to the air soon?

If ABC could put "Better Off Ted" and "Modern Family" back-to-back on the same night, it would make my life much easier!

Thanks for any info./scoop you might have.

-- Kelli, 38, Charlotte, N.C.

Rob: ABC still has a few unaired "Ted" episodes but they have not been scheduled. I suspect they will be burned off this summer. Unfortunately, ratings for "Ted," a show I also love, were low. Really low. So I expect it will officially be canceled in May but you can go ahead and consider it canceled now. Like "Arrested Development" before it, "Ted" was probably too cold and distant for a mainstream broadcast network audience.

Wondering about the fate of other shows? Read Sunday's TV Week, which kicks off the Post-Gazette's annual Keep or Cancel poll.

Q: Every once in awhile on her show, Ellen DeGeneres places a call to a person named Gladys and has a nice conversation with her. Is this a real person or is it just someone from her staff?

-- Patricia, 62, Cranberry

Rob: According an "Ellen" spokeswoman, Gladys is a real person who lives in Austin, Texas. Gladys first called into the show in season four and left a funny voice mail message that was played on the air. DeGeneres called Gladys after playing the voice mail and they've become friends who talk pop culture since.

Q: Any idea when HBO's "In Treatment" will return?

-- Renee, 68, Penn Hills

Rob: The show will be back but there's no date set yet. Production has not even begun. Because of that, my best guess is early 2011.

Q: When TV shows go into reruns on USA, TNT and other networks, why don't the networks run the shows in order, from episode No. 1 through the last episode? It is quite annoying when episodes skip back and forth on the story line.

-- Diane, 56, Arlington

Rob: I agree. Unfortunately, cable networks do not care how annoying this is for viewers. They choose to air the episodes most likely to get a higher rating, especially during a sweeps period, regardless of how much it messes with the serialized storyline. This also applies to reruns airing in broadcast syndication.

Q: With so many people using DVRs, could you check with Comcast to see why they can't sync-up their time clock with the networks?

Almost every show I record on my DVR has the last 45 seconds cut off.

-- Bryan, 45, Bethel Park

Rob: Comcast was looking into this but had no reports of such a problem.

I think the problem is not with Comcast but with the listings Comcast uses. The DVR records a program for the show's scheduled run time as provided in those listings. Sometimes networks do not properly report (or change at the last minute) the running time of a program.

Comcast's DVR does allow you to set a recording to run a few minutes longer, which works out unless you're recording multiple shows at the same time and you have conflicts (if you want to record two shows starting at 10 p.m. and your 9 p.m. show runs a couple of minutes long, one of those 10 p.m. shows won't get recorded). Ultimately, it's up to listings services and television networks to more accurately report a show's precise running time.

Q: As you reported back in December, "At the Movies," with new hosts A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, currently airs on WTAE at 2:35 a.m. Sundays. And that's how it's listed in the PG's TV Week as well as the Comcast interactive guide.

But for the past several weeks it's been consistently airing at 2:33 a.m. -- two minutes early! And since that's a time when only insomniacs, VCRs, and DVRs are tuned in, I missed the first two minutes of the show for a couple weeks until I manually adjusted my DVR to compensate for the early start time.

So why is WTAE's clock running 2 minutes fast?

-- Mark, Squirrel Hill

Rob: Again, I'm not sure that it's a WTAE issue. A station spokeswoman said they'll look into it and correct if necessary.

It could be the listings that cause the discrepancy. But just as you can set a DVR to record longer than a program length, you can program a DVR to start recording sooner as Mark did. That's probably the best bet.

For those of us who don't like being forced to watch 25 minutes of Channel 4 news before we get the MegaMillions or PowerBall drawings which are done live at 11 p.m. I have a solution. WGN shows them live at 11 p.m.

-- Jim, 67, Plum

Rob: I checked it out Wednesday and Jim is absolutely right: The drawing aired at 11 p.m. on WGN and then WTAE aired the same drawing 20 minutes later.

Rob, thought you would enjoy this. Did you know that the pool of actors has thinned so dramatically that we have to look to vampires to fill the void?

-- Rachel, 37, McCandless

TV columnist Rob Owen's Tuned In+ is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.