Les O'Dell

Remember The Weather Channel? Or, better said, remember the old Weather Channel? You know, the one you could turn to for forecasts and actual weather? It’s gone. Today it seems to me that TWC (as fanatics call it) is all about making celebrities and being something else.

Take for instance early mornings on The Weather Channel. The shows used to have non-descript names like “Your Weather Today”. Instead now, we get “Abrams and Bettis”, from the “hosts” of the program. (When did weather start needing hosts? I thought all we needed were meteorologists.) The show is less about weather and more about them.

Don’t even get me started on “Wake Up With Al”. If I want an “entertainer” (and that is a real stretch), I’ll watch something else. If I want bozos with signs outside the studio, I’ll watch one of the mindless network morning shows. Give me weather, not entertainment. I hate what NBC has done to TWC.

Evenings are no better. In fact, they’re worse. Instead of shows with just a hint of weather, we get half-hour long attempts by The Weather Channel to be something else. “When Weather Changed History”: didn’t I see this on The Military Channel? “Storm Proof”: TWC tries (and fails) to be Mythbusters. “Cantore Stories”: The Weather Channel’s only legitimate “star” pretends to be Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild. Then there’s “Storm Stories” or as we call them at our house, “Storm Bore-ies”.

Don’t forget the other stupid segments. For example, iWitness Weather. I mean, who cares what it’s doing at Aunt Claudia’s house in Cheyenne. I don’t.  Of course, by telling people that the network will air footage of storms and tornadoes only encourages yokels who should be taking care of their families and finding shelter to instead stand by the window (or worse, go outside) into the path of serious weather for 15 minutes of fame.

The tailgating forecast during the football seasons? Give me a break. It’s just a chance for drunken people to hoo like baboons on national television. Most of the games they give us forecasts for are played in domes. Hello?

Please, TWC, give me back my weather. If I want entertainment, I’ll watch something else.