Kelly Cass and Nick Walker moved from OCM to Contributor Role

[Adrian]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cutbacks-at-weather-channel-kelly-cass-and-nick-walker-move-to-contributor-roles_b249968

"Popular longtime Weather Channel meteorologists Kelly Cass and Nick Walker will be shifting from fulltime work to contributor roles"

[WeatherWitness]

Great. Let's keep cutting professional meteorologists who do a good job so that we can make room for more clowns.  At least they haven't been laid-off completely, but I wonder what a "contributor" role entails?

[IceManNYR]

Does this mean come 2015 they are done with live weather at 6pm and going to reality shows?
If they are it's a big mistake.

[gt1racerlHDl]

I won't be surprised if live programming is cut back to just 2PM ET, i'm wondering why TWC is promoting Amazing Out There Long Form on the "2015" promos.

[alex979]

Well, aside from hiring Dave Schwartz, this year has been an utter disaster at TWC. Kelly and Nick are pros, and TWC is treating them badly. And this comes after the channel spent a considerable account of money on a new expert studio, and the troubled morning show, AMHQ. They were apparently banking on the Sam Champion show being a hit, and that was a BIG mistake. Unfortunately, Kelly and Nick are just two of many victims of the bosses' mistakes.

[luesjo12]

Right now, TWC Has one way of fixing this whole mess in 2015 imho. Give the Axe to Long Form for Good.  Whoever is in charge needs to desperately do something.

[toxictwister00]

Well, it was nice knowin' ya Kelly & Nick! I'm afraid contributor is code word for: We're demoting you, which is just one step away from firing you and their days are probably numbered within the next year (at the most). Pfft, Contributor role, please. The folks at TWC in charge of making this decision are as transparent as water.

[Eric]

Corporate management has its own ideas.  As usual, the failure of these ideas can never be blamed on the people who came up with them, but the people who have to implement them.  (I suffer the same way, too.)

Someone up there in corporate is still convinced that non-weather longform programming is the key to The Weather Channel's success.  The audience doesn't think so, the staff doesn't think so, but that's how it is.  If the channel loses money because longform isn't working out, one of the easiest ways to save money is by cutting payroll, even if it means losing a lot of longtime and dedicated employees.  Fewer on-camera staff means less weather programming, which means more of the longform programming that corporate management has so much faith in to begin with.

In other words, it's just a cycle that's going to continue until The Weather Channel as we know it will simply cease to exist because of how much money it's lost.

[ruhgster]

I will ask again as I have before, while I am in agreement with everyone on this forum about long form, does anyone have any actual proof that the audience as a whole (not just the select few on this forum) do not watch for long form, and that ratings are lower during these hours?

[alex979]

Does this mean come 2015 they are done with live weather at 6pm and going to reality shows?

I hate to say it, but I think it's pretty certain that this is the case. Kelly has been the host of the 6-8pm edition. If they intend on keeping the show, why demote her? Does management just not like her as the host? That doesn't seem likely. So, unless they're doing something drastic like bringing back Abrams and Bettes: Beyond the Forecast , it's two more hours of longform. Amazing!

[WeatherWitness]

I don't see why long-form automatically has to come into the discussion of demoting OCMs or letting them go.  I mean, I understand the argument, but unless TWC has let more people go behind our backs, they seem to have a lot of "floater" or "fill-in" meteorologists.  So, as we saw in the past, it looks like they are again letting veteran OCMs go and bringing in new ones to pay them half of what they paid the veterans.

While I understand that this is how the TV business works, it just frustrates me.  No offense to some of the OCMs on TWC right now, but some of the new ones don't have as much of a sense of professionalism as the veterans and annoy me.  Yes, it probably takes time to develop that professionalism, but I personally would like to tune-in to weather to see someone who knows what they're talking about, not someone who's just reading off of a script.  Sadly though, I guess this is just what TV has become.

[TJTWX]

Right now, TWC Has one way of fixing this whole mess in 2015 imho. Give the Axe to Long Form for Good.  Whoever is in charge needs to desperately do something.

While they do need to take the the axe to the long form programming, they should rename all their live programming during the day to something other than Weather Center Live. Maybe like Afternoon Outlook or something to that effect. 

[TJTWX]

Well, it was nice knowin' ya Kelly & Nick! I'm afraid contributor is code word for: We're demoting you, which is just one step away from firing you and their days are probably numbered within the next year (at the most). Pfft, Contributor role, please. The folks at TWC in charge of making this decision are as transparent as water.

I'm not a real big Nick Walker fan, but why they couldn't keep him and Vivian together I don't have a clue. But I agree that their days are most likely being numbered. I do like Kelly, though.

[gdpweatherman]

Over the past few weeks, TWC has still been using Kelly and Nick on Weather Center Live. Interesting how they have taken a "contributor" role but continue to act a fill in OCM's. They are still listed as OCM's on weather.com.
Glad that TWC has still used them on camera.

[PAweatherman]

Kelly's last day will be this Friday. Next she she start a new adventure in a new city according to her Facebook page.