Plots display inline but not as pop ups when changing matplotlib backend (Ubuntu OS)

[cppt]

Working with the following system
Ubuntu 22.04
Python 3.9
Spyder 5.3.3
quantstats 0.0.62

I'm able to produce plots that send to the inline Plots tab, but when I change the matplotlib backend to qt to allow plots to pop out, nothing displays.

import quantstats as qs
%matplotlib inline

# displays in Plots tab in Spyder
stock = qs.utils.download_returns('SPY')
qs.plots.returns(stock) 

# doesn't show anything
%matplotlib qt
qs.plots.returns(stock) 

Why would this be and what am I missing?