First Outlook

First Outlook was a morning weather program produced by The Weather Channel, an American television station.

Program history

First Outlook and Your Weather Today premiered in 2000, taking significant portions of time out of Weather Center AM, which soon disappeared. At the time of launch, the original pair of meteorologists for First Outlook was Rick Griffin and Cheryl Lemke, along with Travel Analyst Dennis Smith. They were replaced by Nick Walker and Kim Perez (now Kim Cunningham), and Jennifer Carfagno became the Travel Analyst shortly thereafter.

In May 2008, meteorologist Jeff Morrow joined the show, and Jennifer Carfagno became his new co-host after Kim Perez moved to Day Planner and Weekend Now in June of that year. At this point, the Travel Analyst position was eliminated, and Carfagno simply hosted the Travel segments from this point forward.^[1] The focus of First Outlook is on straightforward forecasts for business travelers and commuters. It includes several unique segments not found elsewhere on the network including the "Business Travel Desk", which regularly featured daily phone calls to the Federal Aviation Administration at 6:40 am Eastern Time, and, on Tuesdays and Thursdays "The Business Barometer" which focuses on the impact weather has on the business world. These segments were replaced by Wake Up with Al on July 20, 2009, when First Outlook was trimmed to two hours.

On September 14, 2009, Scott Williams, who had filled in for Carfagno during her maternity leave that summer, became her permanent co-host while Jeff Morrow hosted various segments on Your Weather Today prior to moving to Weekend View.

In 2010, Carfagno left the show to co-host Weekend View.

In May 2012, Williams left First Outlook and the Weather Channel. He was replaced by Alex Wallace.

In August 2012, Kyla Grogan joined Wallace as co-host of the show. Wallace and Grogan co-hosted from 4 am to 5:30 am ET, while Maria LaRosa hosted from 5:30 am to 6 am ET. Danielle Banks became a fill-in host.

The show was accredited to being one of the few that followed a specific format, and showed mostly weather-related segments and forecasts.

On November 12, 2012, First Outlook was replaced by First Forecast and On The Radar. First Forecast aired from 4 am to 5 am ET and On The Radar aired from 5 am to 5:30 am ET. The meteorologists hosting were Reynolds Wolf from Atlanta and Stephanie Abrams from New York. Wolf anchored both programs, while Abrams co-hosted On The Radar with Wolf. The 5:30 am to 6 am ET timeslot was replaced by an extended half-hour of Wake Up With Al.

In July 2013, Wolf also became the new co-host for Weekend View, and thus Alex Wallace began hosting the programs on Mondays, Tuesdays, and alternating Wednesdays. Wolf hosted on alternating Wednesdays, and on Thursdays and Fridays.

If there was a major weather event, First Forecast would start an hour early and air from 3 am to 5 am ET, and On The Radar would be pre-empted by an additional half-hour of Wake Up With Al.

On November 12, 2013, exactly one year after both shows launched, First Forecast and On the Radar were replaced by the extended edition of Weather Center Live program, as part of the 2013 relaunch of the Weather Channel.

References