Sam Champion, His Weather Channel Show Tanking, Tried To Go Back To ABC

Sam Champion tried to return to ABC News when it became clear that his Weather Channel morn­ing show was a fail­ure, but his for­mer “Good Morning America” boss­es told him there was no room for him at the net­work any­more, sources tell Confidenti@l. “He thought he’d be show­ered with mon­ey, pow­er and pres­tige” when he ditched “GMA” at the height of its pop­u­lar­i­ty for the Weather Channel in 2013, a TV indus­try insid­er told us. “Instead, he’s been left high and dry.”

“We love Sam and he’ll always be part of the ABC fam­i­ly, but we’ve got the best weath­er team in the busi­ness already in place,” said an ABC rep. The Weather Channel, which is part-owned by NBC and two large equi­ty funds — Blackstone Group and Bain Capital — has been mak­ing major changes as it seeks to cut costs in the wake of reports that the funds are try­ing to sell their stakes. Among the most vis­i­ble moves in recent days: a plan to focus more on weath­er and less on lifestyle and real­i­ty pro­gram­ming. That includes clos­ing the company’s New York City stu­dio, can­cel­ing Al Roker’s ear­ly-morn­ing show and remov­ing Champion from the low-rat­ed “AMHQ.”

Champion, who is said to be paid around $2 mil­lion a year, will now focus on prime-time weath­er report­ing and “dig­i­tal prod­ucts,” accord­ing to a Weather Channel staff memo. His final “AMHQ” tele­cast is Oct. 30. Fifty staffers will lose their jobs as a result of the changes. “He is pissed!” says a source close to Champion. According to our insid­er, “He left ‘GMA’ for this job with tons of promis­es, includ­ing get­ting a per­cent­age of mer­chan­dise sold with his name on it — umbrel­las, boots, hats, etc. None of it hap­pened.” The chan­nel very pub­licly lured him away in December 2013. “Brand Champion” was promised more mon­ey and influ­ence as well as the right to mar­ket mer­chan­dise under his own name, which his con­tract at ABC pro­hib­it­ed. “This is not true,” said a Weather Channel rep. “There is no such lan­guage (about mer­chan­dis­ing) in his contract.”

Though Champion will remain with the Weather Channel “to cre­ate reg­u­lar prime-time shows that high­light the inter­sec­tion of new tech­nolo­gies and weath­er,” accord­ing to the chan­nel, it is clear that his chance to become “the face of the net­work” — as he was promised — has passed.

“They’d love to get rid of him and his big salary,” a source said, but right now they’re stuck with each oth­er. We’re also told Champion remains close to his for­mer “GMA” col­league Josh Elliott, who left ABC short­ly after Champion to work for NBC Sports. “They are both start­ing to think they were played,” a source told Confidenti@l. “NBC want­ed to destroy the ‘GMA’ fam­i­ly. They didn’t care about Sam or Josh.”

NBC and ABC have been locked in a morn­ing-show rat­ings war that saw ABC take a lead in May 2013 that it hasn’t relin­quished. NBC has nar­rowed that gap since Champion and Elliott’s depar­tures. But Elliott’s future at NBC has become uncer­tain, and he’s rarely been seen on air. Worse, he got a luke­warm endorse­ment from his boss, NBC Sports chiefMark Lazarus, in an inter­view Thursday with The Wrap. “Josh is still at this point a part of the com­pa­ny and we’re work­ing to see what kind of sched­ules can work,” Lazarus said. Asked if there was a “good chance” Elliott won’t be part of NBC in the near future, Lazarus respond­ed, “Don’t know.”

TV insid­ers not­ed there were many com­mon denom­i­na­tors between Champion and Elliott, includ­ing both being rep­re­sent­ed by pow­er agents at CAA likeOlivia Metzger and Alan Berger, who “played to Sam and Josh’s big egos” and talked both men into leav­ing “Good Morning America” for lucra­tive deals “that have since gone nowhere.” Read more here :Sam Champion, his Weather Channel show tank­ing, tried to go back to ABC