Weather Channel leverages streaming channel name, look on climate focused show

Just before Earth Day 2022, The Weather Channel introduced a new two-hour block focused on climate change. 

Hosted by Jordan Steele and Stephanie Abrams, who are also co-hosts on “America’s Morning Headquarters,” the six-hour show that immediately precedes it, the show uses the same studio as “Headquarters.” 

The show debuted April 19, 2022,

The show’s name is “Pattrn” (pronounced “pattern”), which is the same name as a free streaming channel the network has offered on similar topics since 2018.

The purposeful misspelling of the word “pattern” is inspired by an abbreviation frequently used in science and math and also feels reminiscent of the dot-com trend of purposefully omitting letters in company names that are still pronounced as if it’s a full word (Flickr, anyone?).

The two offerings share the same pink logo with a white interlocking outline that creates a “P” with the suggestion of a bright green leaf in the middle that looks a bit like someone took the Airbnb logo, rotated it slightly and then “bent” part of it. 

It appears the streaming offering switched to this logo in the fall of 2020, with previous versions including type-only and what appears to be the top of a pink umbrella as if viewed from above.

The show uses the network’s standard graphics package, including the promo box in the lower-left corner that frequently displays the logo.

Advertisement

Animations include overlapping curved elements inspired by the logo as well as, quite appropriately, repeating patterns of the outline version of the logo combined with lifestyle and nature imagery in elements such as opens and wipes.

For the show, the studio different lighting cue that’s a bit darker and includes switching numerous backlit surfaces to a bright pink shade. Other off-white surfaces get pink splashes of light.

The morning show’s curved sofa remains in the space, with a glass two-person anchor desk placed some distance in front of it and two shots framed to capture the pivoting video panel integrated into one of the walls between the co-hosts. 

“Pattrn” focuses less on current weather conditions and more on longer-form storytelling and can include investigative-style pieces with in-studio debriefs at the anchor desk or more informal segments over on the sofa.

It also has a recurring segment called “Hot Topics” that is presumably meant to a be a tongue-in-cheek reference to similar segments on talk shows such as “The View” and “The Wendy Williams Show” but with a nod to the global warming climate crisis.

Like many shows that run for extended periods of time, both “Pattrn” and “America’s Morning Headquarters” repeat select segments over their run time since it’s unlikely anyone watches straight through. “Headquarters” also have Jim Cantore, Jen Carfagno and Alex Wallace as co-hosts, giving Steele and Abrams some time off camera — so they’re generally not on air for eight hours straight.