Sam Champion To Return To ‘Good Morning America’ During Ginger Zee’s Maternity Leave

Sam Champion is returning to Good Morning America while chief meteorologist, Ginger Zee is on maternity leave. Champion previously delivered the morning weather for seven years on GMA.

Zee, 34, gave birth last month to her first child, a son named Adrian Benjamin. The meteorologist phoned in live on air this morning and gave her fill in a “to do list.”

“He has to take full credit for the dip in the jet stream, all the cold air coming in right now,” she joked. “Second, I have a tally of Lara’s puns [in ‘Pop News’], so if you can just keep that going. And finally, just take care of the audience because I am going to miss them probably just as much as anyone else.”

Champion said he was “excited to see the Time Square audience” even in the very cold NYC temperatures.

“[The audience] is the most fun part of the entire show, to get outside and spend some time with the people who come to see us,” Champion said today by phone. “I think I have to buy a winter coat.”

Champion, 54, passed the torch to Zee during his last GMA broadcast on Dec. 4, 2013 by giving her a pair of rain boots. “A necessity for meteorologists”, according to Champion.

When Champion returns to GMA he will be reunited with GMA family members Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Lara Spencer, and Amy Robach.