Metro

TV station sues LI weatherman Reed McDonough for storming out

Long Island’s News 12 is now suing a meteorologist who caused some high pressure when he stormed off the job.

The network claims it was forced to scramble when Reed McDonough, 27, allegedly quit with no notice just five months into a two-year gig as a weekend weatherman.

The Brooklyn-based forecaster began griping about his commute to the company’s Woodbury studio after taking the job in February 2021, claiming he was getting “grief… from his significant other for spending too much time at work,” the station claims in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing against him.

On July 16 he asked for a change in his schedule, a request the station refused. He quit three days later, News 12 charges.

The weatherman, who now works for Google as a “strategic sourcing specialist,” allegedly “ignored” efforts to compromise and minimize “the harm his sudden resignation would cause,” the company claimed.

Reed McDonough
News 12 claims that Reed McDonough refused to compromise and his sudden resignation caused the network to spend over 200 hours of work time scrambling to find coverage for him. reedmcdonough/Instagram

“As a result, News 12 devoted more than 200 hours, including significant amounts of executive management time, to the process of securing coverage for McDonough’s sudden and unexpected absence,” and paid “premium compensation” to cover his on-air shifts, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

McDonough’s attorney, Lou Pechman, slammed the legal filing as “a baseless lawsuit with a false narrative.”