Last summer Bill wrote about how many cable networks were abandoning their roots to grab more audience. Now comes word that The Weather Channel will be airing feature films. That’s right, The Weather Channel will be airing movies.
Ok, sure, they will be movies with some kind of weather tie in, so it’s perhaps not as drastic as some of the moves by other networks. But still, movies. On The Weather Channel. From the press release:
ATLANTA (October 20, 2009) – For the first time in its 27-year history, The Weather Channel® (TWC) will add movies to its programming schedule with “The Weather Channel Presents…” This new movie series launches Friday, October 30, with the TWC premiere of The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney, which coincides with the anniversary of the ferocious “perfect storm” of 1991, on which the movie was based.
Following The Perfect Storm on Oct. 30, TWC will air feature films every Friday night in November. Weather plays a central role to the story, plot or overall theme in each of the movies selected.
TWC meteorologist Jen Carfagno will host the new series, introducing each film and providing relevant commentary.
“From the Nor’easter in The Perfect Storm to the tornado that takes Dorothy to Oz, weather has a long history as a film star,” said Geoffrey Darby, executive vice president of programming for The Weather Channel. “Adding films to our Friday night lineup is a great way for us to further demonstrate how weather is an all-encompassing part of our lives that entertains and inspires us.”
“The Weather Channel Presents…” will feature the following movies:
The Perfect Storm – Premieres Friday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m. ET (18-year anniversary of the “perfect storm” on which movie was based)
More on SlashFilm.com
This story managed to sneak past my radar yesterday, but thanks to reader Michael, I saw it.
I really don’t mind, as I explained to Brian Lowry:
http://weblogs.variety.com/bltv/2009/10/weather-channel-to-run-movies-and-weather-alerts.html
So that is pretty much the end of themed networks. My cable company added “digital subchannels” of local ABC and NBC affilates that provide 24 hour local weather. So I guess the weather channel was useless now anyway. Also the Travel Channel started airing movies like “National Lampoons Vacation” and “Lost in Translation”. I am sure the weather channel is going to air “Twister” which is the only movie that i found to be so awful that it is funny, especially when the cows are flying in the air.
Weather Channel has aired hour or 2-hour documentaries in the past, so why would this be a big change?
If you think about it all other cable networks show stupid documentary on air. It is not a bad idea to put it on Friday night. Just for a couple of weeks who cares.
Plus TWC needs the rating because there was no hurricanes this season and that is where they get the huge ratings
Bob ur right
The Perfect Storm, Twister, even Key Largo, okay, I can see it. But trying to tie Wizard of Oz into weather is pretty ridiculous. Yes, there’s a tornado at the very beginning of the movie, but the rest of it has nothing to do with the movie!
Jens a hottie too.
Does anyone really watch that channel anyway? It is easier and faster for me to go on the internet and search for my local weather than to watch that channel and wait for them to talk about what I am looking for. I would think that the only viewership it gets is during hurricanes and other large-scale natural disasters. That and people who don’t know how to use a computer.
They should start showing Al Gore’s documentary over and over again.
say it isnt so
now we will see megastorm and other syfy b movies have a place to air
lol
MTV strayed way away from their initial concept years ago. There used to be music videos on MTV! Bravo, A&E, and TLC all have reality shows. AMC has TV series. Lifetime has Project Runway. Weather Channel is just continuing that move. Just seems that movies where weather is central to the story are scarce. The Wizard of Oz would be a big stretch…
Why is Misery considered a weather movie? Granted, it plays a somewhat important role, but it’s not the 100th thing I think of when I think of Weather-related movies.
One day we’ll look back on The Weather Channel….when it actually showed weather forecasts!
What a waste. But now that it’s run by NBC, who’s surprised!
Can’t wait for them to start showing movies and TV episodes where weather caused problems with running commentary about the accuracy of the portrayal by the Weather Channel crew…
Next week! Twister with special 3-D commentary by Heather Tesch and Carl Parker!
The Weather Channel is dead. It is just not a “weather” channel anymore. Maybe there’s no need for a national network devoted to weather anymore. If not, they should just come out and say so. It’s true that there are numerous local weather stations now. My cable company offers a service from TWC called “Weatherscan” that has the radar, forecast and current stats anytime I want. There’s also a local weather station from my NBC affiliate on my cable service. I can also get weather info on a widget that’s available on my cable service. Still.. it’s just sad to see the Weather Channel get so far away from its core mission while still calling itself The Weather Channel.
NBC should just change the name of the channel and quit pretending that weather is the main focus. It’s not and hasn’t been for a long time.
The Weather Channel is trying to draw more viewers. The average person must watch for five minutes in the morning to get the forecast. Perhaps another five minutes at night. Maybe a movie will attract more eyeballs.
WC is going to route of MTV. MTV used to be a channel showing Music videos now it shows mostly reality show trash. Weather Channel used to be a place to find out about the weather, now it just has dry boring Weather History documentaries and now movies about the weather?
When is “Twister” going to be on? Or the awesome “Atomic Twister” !! Or “Night of the Twisters” Or a game show based on TWISTER! Right Foot Yellow! The movies could be commented on by Heidi “Fleiss” Cullen on how Global Warming caused these movies to be made. I expect that Al Bores movie will be on heavy rotation along with “The Day After Tomorrow”.
Allen: Actually I know quite a few people who watch the Weather Channel. It actually does pretty well given that it’s a speciality channel.
The weather channel is going downhill since NBC bought it. Al Roker bites and now movies? It would be okay if they were all historical documentaries, but Perfect Storm?
They are showing MISERY because of the snow storm? I cant wait for the blizzard of THE SHINING. They could add a crawler on the bottom giving temperature and windchill factor. When Nicholson gets trapped in the maze they could have a graphic showing the effects of hypothermia and declining body temperature. Herrrrrrrrres JOHNNY !!!
As if NBC wasn’t satisfied enough with destroying their own network, they have to buy up other networks and kill them too! Ever since they got rid of nearly all their on-camera meteorologists (that had been there since I was a kid) it’s gone downhill. Now movies? Give me a break.
It will be interesting how they do the movie. Weather info at the bottom? Live Meterologists in the breaks? I would be interested in seeing a schedule of movies. Could probably throw in some of the weather related syfy channel movies from the past?
Dumb, dumb, dumb.