Comedy on the Weather Channel
 

Yet another example of blurring the lines between the presentation of news and entertainment on TV...



Your new weatherman: Lewis Black

The Weather Channel experiments with celebrities

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Weather Channel forecast: a high-pressure system of comedy.

The cable channel will feature Lewis Black -- known for his rants on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" -- in a handful of segments starting Wednesday night.

He's the first in what the Weather Channel hopes is a series of celebrity guests.

"We're going to try a few segments to spice things up a little bit," said Terry Connelly, the network's senior vice president and general manager.

Black gets the chance to try out some of the network's forecasting maps and chat on camera with weathercaster Dave Schwartz. He also gets to deliver a few comic riffs on global warming and airport delays, Connelly said.

Connelly quietly put out the word recently, asking celebrities to drop by if they're near the company's Atlanta headquarters. Black, a closet weather fan, was quick to reply.

The Weather Channel hopes occasional celebrity guests liven what's often a staid presentation. The network has begun experimenting with a weekend morning show that puts the weathercasters on couches instead of behind desks, and is considering a weekday show that Connelly called a cross between "The View" and Martha Stewart's daytime program.

The Weather Channel does well in the ratings when, say, there's a hurricane, but needs a boost for days of more sedate weather.

"Lewis Black on the Weather Channel is unpredictable," Connelly said, "and we're in the business of predictions."

Good luck with that. It's the weather guys...nothing you can do will change that.
As the old saying goes...You can put a party hat on a pig, but it's still a pig.

Just stick with nice face people, and pray for bad weather.

Maybe rain dances?

But it has a freakin' party hat on... he may still be a pig, but he's one cool ass pig!!!!

Ten times more charming than that Arnold on "Green Acres."

I think they'd do better with additional hot weather babes.

what the hell is a closet weather fan?

Agreed. But for warmer weather, they'd do the news in bikinis...for colder weather, they'd do the news in...ah screw it, bikinis.

Someone who didn't have the courage to admit he enjoyed watching coverage of the weather until he realized he could get a paycheck.

Until reading the part about Lewis Black being a closet weather fan, I was about to say that one of the things he rants about is the Weather Channel. I guess he takes shots at it because he likes it. I like Lewis Black, and if I remember to watch this, I will. The thing is, I probably won't remember because I don't really give a flying start about the Weather Channel anymore. When I was a kid, I enjoyed watching it while I was waiting for Australian Rules Football to come on ESPN, but I watch TWC for specific information only now. I don't care if the weather forecast is being announced by a meteorologist or a comedian or a pig. I'll watch when I need to know something.

I think the only person who could get me to tune in just to see them give a weather report (naked hot chicks notwithstanding) is James Brown.

If you give a pig a pancake...

unless there is a hurricane or something who watches the weather channel for anything other than 5 minutes and their local forecast?

I could give a crap what the temperature is in the east bum crack dakota.

Maybe they'll go the ESPN route... air eveything except weather, and just have a weather ticker on the bottom of the screen... and air WeatherCentre in the morning. I think I might be on to something... they could have a Top 10, a blooper real... man what an awesome idea!!!

you might have something there

I must say that news networks (and, I would assume, weather networks) have hilarious blooper reels. If they played weather bloopers, I'd watch it nonstop.

Maybe they can show clips of David Letterman from the 70s.

My best friend's father used to always have the Weather Channel on. It fascinated him for some reason, and he always wanted to be on top of the slightest change in weather...

I think you're right. I mean, the man was a vegetarian for god's sake. A man that don't eat meat has got something loose in the head... ;)

TWC is a biggie for a lot of Men 55+ (my dad being a prime example). I don't understand it exactly either, but it's definitely something you can find pretty easily.

I probably watch the weather channel more than any other network. I will change the channel if I see Lewis Black, though.

TWC jumped the shark when they kept airing its usual 45 minutes of commercials per hour during the hurricanes, when even the news networks had stopped airing commercials. It's useless for local weather, and the national is too infrequent.

I could give a crap what the weather in New York and Boston is but I can't seem to find my weather on the weather channel because they're like any other media outlet in that they focus on the northeast corridor and California.

SI

Local on the 8's man. Learn it, live it, love it.

Oh, I know. It's all I watch on there. Even if we're getting our run-of-the-mill tornadic weather, that's better done by the local guys on Topeka and KC stations.

SI

"Fall is here and all I have to say is: fvck fall."

If he did that part of his routine on TWC, I'd watch it just to the faces of the other anchors.