Today weatherman Al Roker will co-host a new morning show on The Weather Channel, as part of a cross-network programming scheme designed to link NBC to its sibling cable network.
Premiering this summer, Wake Up with Al will run weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., one hour before Today dawns each morning on NBC.
Roker will share hosting duties with The Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams, who’ll hold down the fort from the network’s home studio in Atlanta.
The program was introduced during Wednesday’s installment of Today. Abrams promised viewers that Wake Up with Al would offer live weather coverage from the field, and would place an emphasis on the lighter side of meteorological developments. “We’ll have a lot of fun,” Abrams said. “The weather doesn’t always have to be so serious.”
Wake Up with Al represents the first concerted effort by NBC Universal to create programming synergies between the two properties.
“Simply put, Al Roker is synonymous with weather. He has an energy and a style that jumps off the screen, and we already know that people want to wake up with him in the morning,” said interim Weather Channel CEO Lisa Gersh. “We have spent months coming up with the right way to integrate Al into The Weather Channel’s programming, and I think, alongside Stephanie, we’ve come up with the perfect formula.”
With an assist from private equity partners The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, NBC Universal closed on its $3.5 billion acquisition of The Weather Channel in July 2008.
