Jillian Barberie returned to Fox’s struggling NFL pregame show on Sunday and made her presence felt immediately by scoring a fascinating interview.

“It’s great to have Jillian back on the show,” said longtime co-host Terry Bradshaw.

Barberie was let go by “FOX NFL Sunday” at the end of last season after six years with the show as a weathergirl. But she was hastily brought back this week in light of the show’s dipping ratings.

“We are going to have Jillian do the weather again, but we are also going to use her in some other areas, too,” said Jim McDowell, the executive producer of the show. “For whatever reason, a lot of male viewers really like seeing her on the show and we’re nothing if not agreeable to our viewers’ most base desires here at FOX, so we brought her back.”

After wowing her colleagues and viewers with her interview on Sunday, Barberie will talk one-on-one with her on this week’s show. And the following week she will do an instructional piece showing viewers how to apply sunscreen to their entire body should they ever find themselves naked at a Dolphins home game.

“This is basically a public service piece,” said McDowell, “to educate people about the dangers of skin cancer. And skin cancer is especially serious on the skin, so we’ll be sure to really have Jillian inform our viewers of the potential dangers.”

Barberie’s weather forecasts will also soon be delivered in a different format.

FOX NFL Sunday co-host Howie Long said he thinks the show is much improved with Barberie back.

“All I know is that I got wood on Sunday when she gave the weather,” he said. “That’s never happened before for me during the weather. In fact, Al Roker has never even come close to giving me one.”

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