Sam Champion's Weather Channel Premiere Flops...Hard
Ouch. Viewers just aren't all that into Sam Champion's new show America's Morning Headquarters (AMHQ), according to premiere day ratings posted by The Hollywood Reporter.
That number [207,000 viewers] would not be a huge bummer for Weather — it isn't exactly a ratings force — were it not for the fact that AMHQ actually fell 12 percent from the four-week time slot average. And that's following weeks of an aggressive marketing campaign from the network, which is actively trying to broaden its brand (and its audience).
AMHQ's haul had it ranking 80th in all of cable between 7 and 10 a.m.. That's below HLN's Morning Express with Robin Meade (No. 52) and a Lifetime rerun of Frasier (No. 66).
To be fair, that episode of Frasier was a classic. Ha ha...oh Roz.
But anyway, after weeks of The Weather Channel hyping up their new addition to the team, the premiere episode ranking "80th in all of cable" is incredibly disappointing for the network.
Champion's new morning show aims to format itself as a true morning news program in the same vein as Good Morning America or The Today Show, featuring non-weather news, sports, and documentary programming according to TVNewser.
The Atlanta-based weather network may have overplayed its hand with AMHQ by assuming its audience craves less weather programming and more of everything else, especially after its announcement two weeks ago that the information-turned-infotainment channel would add four more new reality programs to its lineup this year.
Regardless, Weather Channel CEO David Kenny took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that "#amhq is off to a great start."
[Image via AP]