Local weatherman blasts fans angry at tornado cut-in during Final Four

One reality of airing live sports on broadcast television is that, occasionally, sports will be interrupted by a news story of local importance. Typically, these interruptions are due to severe weather, or a story that is exceptionally important to a local community.

For viewers watching Saturday’s Final Four game between Florida and Auburn on Memphis CBS affiliate WREG, tornado warnings continuously preempted live game coverage, with audio from the Final Four broadcast being cut for live updates about the region’s severe weather.

As is typical in these situations, some fans were upset and took to social media to express their displeasure. The main complaint: those interested in a weather update could tune into any other local channel at that time, while there was only one channel to watch the Final Four.

That argument didn’t sit well with WREG chief meteorologist Tyler Eliasen, who issued a scathing statement to his detractors on Saturday night.

WREG weather guy. Madder than Bruce Pearl. pic.twitter.com/uFPQdZazgZ

— Geoff Calkins (@geoff_calkins) April 6, 2025

“I don’t want to hear one more comment about why we’re covering up the volume of the game,” Eliasen reportedly wrote per Geoff Calkins of The Daily Memphian. “You can see the game. You’re going to have to deal with my voice and then just deal with it again because we lost several people. Several people died Wednesday night and potentially this is saving someone’s life in Dumas right now. This is still not in that path, not there yet, I should say, but it is a significant tornado, a confirmed tornado and it was very violent going into New Albany, Mississippi. So we’re going to track this. It is what it is. Send me some emails later and we can chat more but this is what it is right now. Deal with it.”

While Eliasen might’ve caught some flak for standing with his convictions, he’s right. If a cut-in for a weather update could save someone’s life, it’s incumbent on the local affiliate to provide that information to its viewers. Fans that wanted to watch yesterday’s games uninterrupted could have watched on Paramount+, which would not have featured any cut-ins.

The timing of Saturday’s severe weather was certainly unfortunate for basketball fans in the region, but there are more important things in this world than basketball. WREG did a service to its community by continuing to cut-in with real-time tornado coverage, even if it made for a less-than-ideal basketball viewing experience.