Teeming With Humanity

Weather Channel Profiles People ‘Braving the Elements’

By R. THOMAS UMSTEAD -- Multichannel News, 1/30/2012 12:01:00 AM

The Weather Channel’s new docudrama/ anthology series Braving the Elements will push snow, rain and wind into the background, instead highlighting people who deal with extreme outdoor conditions to do their jobs.

Braving the Elements will feature three miniseries, each consisting of four 30-minute episodes that chronicle the workers who tackle inclement weather to make life easier for others.

Turbine Cowboys (debuting in April) chronicles men and women at work on wind turbines; Iron Men (June) profiles workers who help construct New York’s biggest skyscrapers; and From Lights Out (June) follows crews seeking to restore power during severe weather.

With each miniseries, the network is hoping to build characters with whom viewers can identify and want to see more of, Bob Walker, executive vice president and general manager of networks and content at Weather, said.

PEOPLE AT WORK

“The consumer knows that the weather has a certain impact on them, but there are also a lot of people who have to do what they do no matter what the weather is,” Walker told Multichannel News. “In Braving the Elements, we have a chance to do a lot of different and interesting jobs of people that are outside braving the elements and the weather.”

Unlike previous Weather Channel series, in which individuals often played second fiddle to nature’s wrath, these new shows will focus on the lives and personalities of the characters, both on and off the job.

Walker said it’s a network-wide effort that began recently by getting meteorologists Stephanie Abrams, Jim Cantore and Mike Bettis out of the studio and on location during big weather-related news events.

Other new shows, such as Lifeguard, following lifeguards up and down the Southern California coast (coming in March), and Hurricane Hunters, about Air Force reservists who fly into the middle of hurricanes to collect information, will also place a heavy emphasis on the characters and personalities that perform specific, weather-related jobs.

“For us it’s more personality, period, whether it’s live coverage and getting our people out of the studio and into the weather or focusing on interesting people doing interesting things in the weather,” Walker said. “We’ll never abandon our commitment to making people safe in dangerous weather and to telling people how weather will impact their lives, but finding a way to make it more entertaining is clearly part of our opportunity in the future.”

NEW CEO ON BOARD

The Weather Channel Cos. last week named former Akamai president David Kenny as chairman and CEO. Kenny will work with the programmer’s board of directors to help create an integrated strategy to accelerate the company’s growth in the U.S. and internationally, company officials said.

“David brings a strong leadership background, having served as chief executive at global companies across different aspects of the media industry,” read a statement from the consortium of Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group and NBCUniversal that owns The Weather Channel Cos.

Kenny replaces Mike Kelly, the former AOL executive who has served as president and CEO since 2009. Kelly will serve as a special adviser to the CEO and board.