Weekend Now is a weekend weather program on The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel is a US cable and satellite television network since May 2, 1982, that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, along with entertainment programming related to weather 24 hours a day...

. The program, which originally featured unique segments including world weather, lifestyle-oriented weather, and light weather news, debuted in 2001 as the first of multiple weekend programs on The Weather Channel.

Program history

Weekend Now launched in April 2001 on The Weather Channel as Weekend:Now, two months before the debut of the channel's "Live By It" campaign (even though promotions for the new campaign were already airing), as part of TWC's shift from one program for most of the day (Weather Center

Weather Center

Weather Center Live, previously named Weather Center from its March 2009 relaunch until May 2011, is a weather news program produced by The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia.-Program history:...

) to multi-hour shows with set hosts and tone. The show was unique at the time it was originally hosted by four on-camera meteorologists (consisting of two teams). One team was Kelly Cass and Bill Keneely, and the other team was Melissa Barrington and Bob Stokes. Any given hour of the program would be hosted by one team while a member of the other team provided special segments like the Travel Forecast and Weather Maker.

Graphics were distinct from the rest of TWC, using a blue and green color scheme - and most notably, the voiceovers of Bob Stokes and Kelly Cass for the local forecast introduction. Among the segments were "World Weather Watch", a look at weather in Latin American countries with meteorologists from The Weather Channel Latin America; "Weekend Wow!", where extraordinary weather would be featured; and local and national forecasts; and Weather Maker, where one of the on-camera meteorologists not hosting that particular hour would use a telestrator

Telestrator

A telestrator is a device that allows its operator to draw a freehand sketch over a moving or still video image. The telestrator is most famously recognized in sports and weather broadcasts to diagram and analyze sports plays or incoming weather patterns. The talent typically draws on a...

 to explain the meteorological details behind the day's most important weather system.

In 2003, the show's format and timeslot was given to a new show titled Weekend Planner while Weekend:Now was renamed Weekend Now and was given its current 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. ET timeslot. The show in the new timeslot, unlike the original program, contained much less in the way of special segments and was much more like other programs on the network such as Weather Center

Weather Center

Weather Center Live, previously named Weather Center from its March 2009 relaunch until May 2011, is a weather news program produced by The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia.-Program history:...

 and PM Edition

PM Edition

PM Edition is a weather program on The Weather Channel, an American television station. It focuses on weather conditions for the evening commute...

. Directly after the relaunch, the show retained some semblance of the original program, such as using the telestrator for the Travel segment, but by the time of the next network relaunch in 2005, the program had little if anything in common with its original format. On August 2, 2008, the program began airing in high-definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

.

Weekend Now is the oldest of the three weekend-only weather programs on The Weather Channel today, as Weekend View

Weekend View

Weekend View is a weekend weather program on The Weather Channel, airing from 5-7 a.m. and 7-11 a.m. Eastern Time. Because of this timeslot, it can be considered the weekend equivalent to Your Weather Today, although it airs for six hours in comparison to the three-hour time length of Your Weather...

 was introduced on October 1, 2005, and Weekend Outlook

Weekend Outlook

Weekend Outlook was a weekend morning weather program on The Weather Channel. It was comparable to First Outlook, but with a different focus: Weekend Outlook was geared toward weekend planning and forecasts, compared to the commuter/straightforward style of First Outlook...

, which ended in March 2009, after less than six years.

Weekend Planner

After the network's September 2003 relaunch, the weekday and weekend dayparts were split into a number of differently titled shows to correspond with the time of day. The weekend morning block was split from simply Weekend Now into three different programs, one of which was Weekend Planner. Out of all of the shows, Weekend Planner along with the final hour of Weekend Outlook

Weekend Outlook

Weekend Outlook was a weekend morning weather program on The Weather Channel. It was comparable to First Outlook, but with a different focus: Weekend Outlook was geared toward weekend planning and forecasts, compared to the commuter/straightforward style of First Outlook...

 inherited the original Weekend Now timeslot as well as the show's exact same format, except with different graphics and music. Weekend Planner was replaced by Weekend View

Weekend View

Weekend View is a weekend weather program on The Weather Channel, airing from 5-7 a.m. and 7-11 a.m. Eastern Time. Because of this timeslot, it can be considered the weekend equivalent to Your Weather Today, although it airs for six hours in comparison to the three-hour time length of Your Weather...

 on October 1, 2005, and leading up to the end of Weekend Planners run, many of the original Weekend Now special segments and features, such as "Weather Maker", were slowly removed, resulting in a more watered-down format of the show compared to its debut format and the format of its predecessor Weekend Now.

Schedule

All times are eastern time.

Weekends

• 11:00am–02:00pm - with Todd Santos & Maria LaRosa

Former hosts

• Hillary Andrews - Left in 2006 from the show, and The Weather Channel due to claims of sexual harassment against Bob Stokes
• Carl Parker - Left in November 2010 for Day Planner.
• Kim Perez (Cunningham) - Left in March 2009 for PM Edition Weekend (Part 1)
• Kevin Robinson - Left for Weather Center with Cantore with Steele in June 2009, then in December 2009 he left The Weather Channel
• Bob Stokes
  Bob Stokes
  Robert Elton "Bob" Stokes, Jr. is an American television meteorologist, and formerly for The Weather Channel from 1996 through 2008. He co-anchored the weekend morning show Weekend Outlook during his last several years at the station....
  
  - Got fired in February 2008, due to sexual harassment claims by Hillary Andrews
• Heather Tesch - Left in November 2010 for Day Planner.