Long-time Good Morning America weather anchor, Sam Champion, resigned from ABC on Wednesday to take a managing editor job at The Weather Channel. It was a sad goodbye since Champion is one of the main reasons that GMA has been the top-rated morning show for so many years.

Champion and his co-anchors, Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer said a tearful goodbye as Champion made his final weather broadcast on Wednesday. “I promise there’s happy on the inside but the tears,” Elliott said. “I’m going to miss you and you are the best live broadcaster I’ve ever worked with. Thank you for giving the gift to us and to everybody at home every day.”

Although Champion will miss his GMA family, he says that taking the new job is just something that he has to do. “I think it’s something that people will go through in their life when you want to stay, doing something you want to, and there’s an opportunity that says you gotta take it,” Champion said. “I’m not going to leave you guys. I’m not going to leave you.”

Excited to have @SamChampion joining the team at Atlanta’s own @weatherchannel in early 2014! Welcome to #ATL!

— W Atlanta – Buckhead (@watlbuckhead) December 3, 2013

Champion ended his final GMA weather report with the phrase that he has said more than 7,000 times before. “That’s the weather around the nation, ladies and gentleman,” he said.

Only an amazing opportunity like this at @weatherchannel cld take me away from my @ABC family of 25 yrs and @GMA #blessedlife

— Sam Champion (@SamChampion) December 2, 2013

Ginger Zee, 32, has been hired as his replacement and hopes that she can fill Champion’s shoes. Zee already has experience with the morning show since she has been Champion’s fill-in for the past two years, and has also been the weather anchor for the weekends. Zee talked about her excitement for her new position with reporters, saying that she never thought she would land this type of position at such a young age.

“You know, some people will work their entire lives and at some point say maybe ‘that’s not the goal for me.’ I have just been so fortunate this whole way, and not to say that I haven’t worked hard,” she said. “There were so many times where I was in Flint, Michigan and I was seriously eating a bean burrito, just one every day because it was 79 cents and that’s all I could afford.”

.@SamChampion thank you for your guidance the last 2 years…you can never be replaced but I am so excited for us both in our new endeavors!

— Ginger Zee (@Ginger_Zee) December 2, 2013

[Image via Twitter]