Q: We’ve been watching “Home & Family” for several years, and it seems as if co-host Mark Steines has vanished from it with little or no explanation. What happened?

— Sharon Bossler, West Lawn, Pennsylvania

A: Amiable “Entertainment Tonight” alum Steines’ exit from the weekday Hallmark Channel show came quite suddenly at the end of May, with his representatives saying that he was told the show was going in a different creative direction … and that he’d had no idea his last day of working on the show would turn out to be that while he was doing it.

Viewers who tuned in the next day saw remaining “Home & Family” host Debbie Matenopoulos merely note that “Mark isn’t here today” at the start of the episode, with guests Kellie Martin and Nancy Grace basically filling the co-host role for those two hours. Then, at the end of that show, Matenopoulos — surrounded by a number of the show’s regular contributors, explained, quite tearfully, that Steines was no longer with the program. A number of days later, Steines took to Twitter to thank his fans for their messages and support. He has appeared since as a guest co-host on the syndicated “Extra.”

Q: I see that “The Middle” is staying on for the summer. Does that mean ABC changed its mind about canceling it?

— Jill Carpenter, Reading, Pennsylvania

A: No, it simply speaks to the repeatability of the show, even after it ended. (That’s also demonstrated by its reruns in Hallmark Channel.) However, there may be new life for at least one of the series’ characters, since discussions are being had at ABC about a spinoff for Eden Sher’s Sue Heck. Whether other “Middle” cast members would be available for it would remain to be seen — particularly in the case of Neil Flynn, alias family patriarch Mike Heck, since he’ll be in the new NBC sitcom “Abby’s” next season.

Q: Will there be another celebrity edition of “Big Brother”?

— Donna Wilson, Providence, Rhode Island

A: There will, most likely next year. CBS was satisfied with the ratings when the first U.S. celebrity-driven edition of the contest was used as counterprogramming for the Winter Olympics, so it stands to reason that the network might want to see how it fares when it doesn’t have such mighty competition.

The catch in scheduling it is in having celebrities who would be available for however long the show runs; the season had been compacted to only a few weeks for its purposes last winter. In any event, it goes without saying (though we’ll say it) that you can expect Julie Chen to be back as the host.

Q: Hearing Jimmy Dean again on commercials for his sausage products, I’m wondering when his TV variety series ran.

— Joe Cain, via email

A: The major primetime series done by the folksy personality, called (of all things) “The Jimmy Dean Show,” aired from 1963 to 1966 on ABC. One of its highlights was the interaction between Dean and the puppet dog Rowlf, which gave Jim Henson’s Muppets their first national television foothold.

Before that, a local show that Dean had done in Washington, D.C., was picked up and distributed nationally by CBS in 1957. Then in 1958, that network gave Dean a weekday show (also shown on Saturdays) that lasted just under a year. He also was an occasional guest host on NBC’s “Tonight Show” in the early 1960s.

Q: What show or shows has the wife on “Man With a Plan” been on previously?

— James Kish, Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania

A: Liza Snyder is best-known for another CBS sitcom — “Yes, Dear” — on which she had a very healthy six-season run. Before that, she was a series regular on the Christina Applegate sitcom “Jesse” and the police drama “Sirens.” She also did guest shots on shows including “Raising Hope,” “House,” “Chicago Hope” and “Murder, She Wrote,” and she also was featured in the movie “Pay It Forward.”

Of note in Snyder’s personal background: Her paternal grandparents were Oscar-winning composer-conductor Johnny Green (who worked on a number of legendary MGM musicals, including “An American in Paris” and “Easter Parade”) and actress and television personality turned consumer advocate and reporter Betty Furness.