According to Fortune, comedian Byron Allen is the new owner of The Weather Channel through his brilliantly named Entertainment Studios production company. Allen reportedly bought the network from the Blackstone Group, Bain Capital, and Comcast for about $300 million, which is “a fraction of what it sold for a decade ago.” Rather than being able to blame that dip in value on milennials and their lack of interest in the weather (or something), it probably has more to do with the fact that The Weather Channel’s website and mobile apps were already sold off in 2016. That means Allen is literally getting just the TV network and not its associated brands, and in a statement he says that “a big storm” is like “the Super Bowl of weather” and that “as many as 30 million people watch.”
If Allen’s name sounds familiar but you can’t quite place why, it could be because you’ve found yourself watching late-night TV and stumbled on something called Comics Unleashed. That was a talk show (of sorts) centering on stand-up comedians that Allen hosts, and though its original run didn’t last long, it has seemingly lived for an eternity in syndication.