TBS' 'America's Next Weatherman' melds humor, competition

Jillian Barberie has given weather forecasts in her own lively, sometimes bawdy, way, but she also has a bigger view of what it takes to get the job done.

That's why she's one of the judges for “Funny or Die Presents: America's Next Weatherman,” a Mark Burnett-produced TBS competition series that leans toward humor and premieres Saturday, Aug. 8. As Matt Oberg (recently of FX's “The Comedians”) hosts, Barberie and another forecasting veteran of Los Angeles television — Johnny Mountain — gauge 12 contestants who vie for $100,000 and a weathercasting spot on the CNN morning program “New Day.”

Having also had a national presence on Fox football telecasts, Barberie realizes there is such a thing as “a weather-weenie crowd. They are just nerds about weather ... or there are people who are just hot and want to be on TV to do the weather because they think it's super-easy. There are all kinds.”

There also are all kinds of entrants in “America's Next Weatherman,” half of whom are women. Some have backgrounds in meteorology, one is a former Miss Ohio, another is a pastor, and still another is a fitness trainer who claims to have “only 5 percent body fat.”

“I've done weather for 25 years,” says Barberie, who also has had stints in Miami and her native Canada, “and I think because I do it in a certain way, I've had so many people say, 'I want to do what you do.' When it comes down to it and you're actually in front of that green screen throwing out real weather terms, it can be daunting. It's very interesting to see what happens.”

The show's grand prize appeals to Barberie herself: “$100,000 cash and a gig on CNN? OK. Every once in a while, I'd be judging and I'd say, 'Is it too late for me to jump in?'” (Barberie's current “day job” is as an afternoon talk-radio host on Los Angeles' KABC-AM.)

Given her own experiences, Barberie doesn't discount the notion of a solid career starting with a venture such as “America's Next Weatherman.” She reasons, “People are discovered on a daily basis. Think of Elisabeth Hasselbeck; she was a contestant on 'Survivor' and ended up hosting beside Barbara Walters (on ABC's 'The View'). You just don't know what this business has to offer, and I've learned that you can have a gem in the middle of a bunch of crazy people.

“When I was in Montreal trying to get a job,” Barberie notes, “and ultimately ended up working in Miami during Hurricane Andrew, I sent out a resume tape of all the screw-ups that happened to me on the air ... and how I recovered. And they hired me. I told the contestants here, 'You have to think outside the box.' Inevitably as a weather person, you have to be affable and able to go from one story to the next with ease. My approach has always been that it's not brain surgery, though there is a science to it.”