Jan. 04--Former "Good Morning America" weather anchor Sam Champion is making a brief return to the ABC morning program while his successor Ginger Zee is away on maternity leave.
Champion will fill in next week in the role he filled for seven years. He was part of the team that helped "GMA" pull ahead of NBC's "Today" in the ratings in 2012.
Champion left GMA in Dec. 2013, after failing to come to terms on a new contract. He moved from New York to Atlanta, where he joined the Weather Channel and became anchor of its morning show "AMHQ." Champion left that show in October 2015 after cutbacks at the cable channel.
He last appeared on "GMA" in November to celebrate the program's 40th anniversary.
Zee gave birth last month to her first child, a son named Adrian Benjamin.
