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It’s Official: Food Network Parent Company Now Owns Travel Channel
Published on: November 6, 2009 – 11:33 am by Jillian Madison 
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Scripps, the parent company of the Food Network and HGTV, just finalized a deal to purchase a 65% controlling share of the Travel Channel. This is awful news for travel and television lovers, because the Travel Channel is one of the last resources of intelligent, compelling television. Scripps seems to ruin everything they get their grubby little hands on, and many fear the channel is now destined to become a monetized bastardization of its former self.
Perhaps Anthony Bourdian, host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations, best summed up the Scripps mentality:
I used to be on the Food Network, but I think I slipped under the wire. The network at that point used to be run by a cabal of people getting bored with their own programming. For whatever reason, they gave me two years of traveling wherever I wanted, doing pretty much what I’ve been doing on “No Reservations.” After two years, they wanted me riding around on a pony in a parking lot doing chili cook-offs instead of going to foreign countries. My feeling was, “Let someone else do that.”
That’s right, folks. The changes are a-comin’. Here’s a small taste of what we should all probably expect to see on the new, Scripps-ified Travel Channel:
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---Food Network Anthony Bourdain-isms---New Cooking Channel/Food Network Shows
---If We Were Their Travel Agents…
---UPDATE: Cablevision Drops Food Network And HGTV
---FIRST LOOK: New Cooking Channel Shows
THIS WEEK: Ina Garten's "beginner" recipes, new Food Network shows starting in September, thumbing through an issue of Semi-Homemade magazine, Rachael Ray's daytime talk show, Aarti's "accountability group", Claire Robinson on Big Daddy's House, another sensual reading of Alex Guarnaschelli's tweets, sink or swim voicemail, and much more.
It’s a freakin travesty.
However, Jillian, you may have something with Aunt(hic)(burfpff)Sandy and Zimmern…he’s put alot of weird stuff in his gullet, up to and including roaches, but nothing, absolutely NO THING could possibly compare to the horrific concoctions the Queen of Vodka ‘creates’.
And Bourdain? He’s not going to hang around with that motley bunch of morons. You can kiss him buh-bye…
I had my fill of Samantha Brown last week during my cruise. The Princess channel (in-room) features Ms. Brown on various Princess ships doing just about everything in different segments: boozing, gambling, shopping, visiting our ports of call, etc. There was little else on the stateroom TV, so I kept the Princess channel on for background noise. She’s cute and perky, sported some fantastic clothes, and has a fab haircut, but a little of Sam Brown goes a long way…jmo
CR, I agree. I watched her a few times here and there. It irritates me to no end to see somebody getting paid to vacation and then tell me how much I am missing by not doing what she’s doing. Give me a break.
First, she gets to do alot of activities that wouldn’t even be accessible to the average traveler. Then, if my pockets were deep and endless, well by golly, I’d be out and about all the time to various and asundry exotic places. She seems real and nice, but the entire premise of the show bites.
Giada looks cross-eyed in her picture. Anyhow, bye bye to relevant, fascinating and intelligent entertainment as we know it. Scripps = Money Grubbing. If it doesn’t turn a profit, they turn it to the trash. I honestly think that Scripps just does what it wants to. It manipulates people into thinking what they program is what they should like. There’s no regard for actual taste. Oh, the humanity!
sad part is I can see this happening
I think that Bourdain show may involve Tony tackling and beating the living cripes out of Chip (or Dale) who keeps oggling his food.
Of course Scripps does what it wants, IT’S THEIR COMPANY, DUH!
And all companies do market research, trying to reach the most customers and become increasingly efficient, in order to, GASP, make as much money as possible. You want to always be growing, without abandoning your existing customers. It seems pretty evident their studies have proven their core, majority of customers are average-to-mediocre (inexperienced)cooks. They also jumped on the reality TV bandwagon, can’t really blame them, every other network is making BUCU dolares from it, with very little capital outlay.
Just throw us above average cooks/food enthusiasts are friggin bone Scripps! A few more new Batali-like chefs. And America’s love of reality crap is starting to wane. It’s never good to be the last one holding on to a passing fad.
We shall see.
And God, Giada’s body….
Did the Travel Channel want to be purchased?
Melissa McMommy’ll be the Bargain Bacon Hunter.
Guy F’slob was supposed to be on The View today, but windbag Charlie Gibson cut in with a special report.
Thanks for the insight Dank. So Travel Channel’ll dumbed down like FN, for inexperienced (ding dong) travelers?
Just…God Damnit.
I’d watch Giada’s Sexiest Beaches.
“Giada looks cross-eyed in her picture.”
@Alex: You actually looked at her eyes? LOL!
Her giant forehead didn’t blind you?
The Travel Channel was driving me nuts anyway with all those paranormal and poker shows. What does that have to do with visiting new places?
Going beyond the grave is like visiting a new place, wouldn’t you say?
@oh come on. Who knows what direction Scripps will take it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of cross-promoting shows.
And as Ferd stated above, TC is already branching out on their programming.
Perhaps we can look forward to a show all about church carnivals. Maybe even a reality show based on “carnie” life? Oh that would be sweet, must see TV. They can show us what it really is like to swirl cotton candy with a deformed hand, while high on meth.
I agree with Mr.Dillweed . I think we might be at the point where reality TV has run it’s course. I know in my selected circle, we find it fashionable to ridicule those that are captivated by reality TV. Call it connoisseurship of TV viewing habits.
“woman vs. food” starring ina garten
Right. And now each time a FN star goes on vacation, they’ll have camera crews with ‘em and guess where THOSE episodes will show up.
And Douche Bagieri’s road show? Oh yeah. We’re gonna see what it’s like for him and his Kulinary Kronie friends to live on a tour bus for two months on the TRAVEL CHANNEL. Makes total sense. I can hardly wait.
And he was on The View? Gee, how ever did I miss that gem? But I did hear he’ll be on DIY tonight. Scripps seems to love cross-utilizing their, uh, “talent.”
the bizarre foods one is hilarious.
Although Discovery Communications has distributed the Travel Channel since 1997 when Discovery acquired most of it (they got all of it in 1999), a couple of years ago Discovery sold it to Cox Communications, the giant private cable empire (which offers cable in my area).
Perhaps because of this, they’ve refused to make Travel Channel HD available to satellite TV customers like me, and I’ve never seen a single beautiful TC program in HD. Just over-compressed, letterboxed-on-four-sides, washed-out standard definition (because both major satellite vendors overcompress all SD programs like Alton Brown wringing the juices out of a sponge representing an overcooked protein).
You can hope Scripps doesn’t mess it up too much—they’ve already announced intentions to change Fine Living to “The Cooking Channel” in 2010, which should mean less competition for Travel Channel’s shows within the Scripps channel lineup. But if I can just see “No Reservations” in HD, I’ll call it a win.
@Dank: What I was trying to write was that Scripps doesn’t actually take into consideration what “we” want to see. What “we” like has steadily been going off the air for some time now. It behooves them to pay closer attention to who really watches their programming. They may not see $$$ right away, but in time, it will be there. Not all businesses trash anything that isn’t a cash cow. That’s what I mean by “Scripps = Money Grubbing.” Though Scripps can do what it wants (which I am VERY well aware of, thank you very much,) they have no business without advertisers and an audience. Do a degree, we dictate what they do. As such, we should use our influence accordingly.
@CherryRose: How can I put this… Female body parts just don’t do it for me.
Anyone else think Scripps did this just to mess with Bourdain?
Also, the Dhani pic is hilarious.
Ina could have another show on FLN: How Easy Is That? with Ina Garten
To Oh Come On: “…The Travel Channel will be dumbed down…”. You mean it’s currently high-brow entertainment? Where? Xtreme Fast Food, Man v. Food, Ghost Hunters? If it weren’t for the beach scenes in the Samantha Brown shows I’m not sure TC would have any viewers at all.
Or Ina could have “Where’s Jeffery?”, a travel adventure show that takes her to various places in search of her forever gone husband.
@ Alex, the problem I believe is that “we” are the minority. What started as a cable network devoted to fans of great chefs, and the skilled home cook, has morphed (at an increasingly frightening pace) into an entertainment channel.
The “cooking phenomenon” has really taken off. This popularity is obviously the result of many people who weren’t interested in TV cooking shows now tuning in. So, ultimately the median skill level is lowered. Now the big wigs must “dumb down” their programming. And with the successes of RayRay, the popularity of Paula, and the whole merchandising of these cooks, you’ve got the current FN.
Yes, it is disappointing. And yes, I agree, they should listen to and accommodate us diehard, veteran viewers/cooks. But that’s just the way modern media operates today. Best way to complain: don’t watch, and let the company know why you’re not. Less viewers=less ad revenue.
The Travel Channel was already in the toilet, in my opinion. ITA with comments above about their crappy programming, like nonstop Samantha B., stupid beach shows, poker, “extreme eating” crap, etc. Other than “No Reservations,” the Travel Channel jumped the shark quite a while ago.
I’m waiting to hear what Bourdain says about it. My understanding is that “No Reservations” has a private production company, the same one that did “A Cook’s Tour” on Food Network, and they just moved over to the Travel Channel with Bourdain. Perhaps they can move again to another network. Or maybe, just maybe, Scripps will recognize that Tony is a cash cow and they should just leave him alone. Doubtful, but one can have hope, right?
I agree BC with your sentiment Bourdain is a cash cow. Only problem may be, they try to exploit the hell out of him. Will he give in? The temptation of cash has been the downfall of many men. Can he resist?
As jaded and anti-PC he may be, he also has a huge ego. It’s very easy for us to feed our egos, forgeting what we really stand for sometimes.
@CherryRose: How can I put this… Female body parts just don’t do it for me.
I’ll say no more about it ;)
@Dank: “Best way to complain: don’t watch, and let the company know why you’re not. Less viewers=less ad revenue.” I wholeheartedly agree. Still, I find enjoyment in complaining in a forum such as this.
Yeah, Alex, I bet there a lot of us who are “gluttons for punishment”.
Or as John Cougar said, “Hurts so Good”.
I’ll be surprised if Bourdain does anything but go along. Cash and ego stroking go a long way toward placating so-called purists.
Look on the brightside everyone…. our (not so) secret dream of a Bourdain vs. Semi-Ho smackdown is about to come true.
Although now that I think of it, it seems a little lopsided…Anthony Bourdain all hopped up on foreign beer and warthog ass would have the advantage over Aunt Sandy’s drunk, preservative filled, saggy boobs any day.
JohnO: “You mean it’s currently high-brow entertainment? Where? Xtreme Fast Food, Man v. Food, Ghost Hunters? If it weren’t for the beach scenes in the Samantha Brown shows I’m not sure TC would have any viewers at all.”
Point taken JohnO. You mean you’re not interested in Giada frolicking with Playboy dummy Bridget and Aunt Sandy hang gliding with Samantha Brown?
I do love Bourdain.
All I ask is please don’t mess with Man vs Food. It might not be the most culturally investigative show, or a “travel to bizarre locations!” show, but it’s so good at what it does.
It’s the type of show that perfected what TFN tried doing with dozens of shows of their own.
Jillian, better buy travelchannelhumor.com!
Can already see cross pollination of Guy Fiedi with the guys on Ghost Adventures. “Dude!” “Bro!” “Money!”
Bourdain is the only Travel Channel show that doesn’t fit the Scripps model but I doubt they’ll mess with it for a while. Tony’s show holds up well to re-watching.
Extreme everything, Zimmern, Man vs. Food and the dumbed down Sandra Brown weekend getaway shows all fit the FN model already. Sandra’s 2005 European series was all about smart travel – now they just try to get her boozed up in a bikini or tight dress whenever possible.
I’ve been advocating the Cooking Channel ever since FN turned into Cake TV. Lots of junk on FLN – hope they bring back Mario, Ming Tsai and Sarah Moulton. Of course that will free up FN to be Guy, Aunt Sandy, Pauler and Cakes 24/7.
Anything intelligent on the Travel Channel is now officially fucked.
Sad sad sad, as the Guy Ferrization of Travel Channel officially starts……..
…now.
@Robb – I know that opinions are like a–holes, so I’ll be brief. I respectfully disagree about MVF. I will watch occasionally (usually because my husband is controlling the remote) but with sickening dread and horror. I cannot believe what this man does. I feel like a voyeur watching an extended suicide attempt. It amazes me that this is entertainment to so many. I wonder if this is evidence of the shift, as referenced in above comments, in TC’s programming.
Ferry-boy can fit in with the other douches on “Ghost Adventures”. Samanthan Brown annoys the crap outta me! She’s always like “And look at these beautiful drapes in the room! They match the carpet PERFECTLY!!!1″ W.T.F. Maybe on Bizarre Foods Andrew can go to Johnny Garlic’s :D
I’d watch Giada’s Sexiest Beaches…hell, I’d watch Samantha Brown’s Sexiest Beaches! I think she’s quite attractive.
I worry what Scripps will do to stuff like Ghost Adventures.
The Samantha Brown one was brilliant.
They should have a show about America’s Most Polluted Beaches instead of sexiest. It wouldn’t be all that sexy to step on a syringe (as someone actually DID in a travel review on trip advisor! Yikes.) Of course everyone on the sexy beaches would not be paying enough attention to the pollution if you know what I mean, so they would be riddled with syringes and all sorts of flotsam and jetsom. That show would be interesting, plus it could be a medical show where you follow up with whatever gangrene or infection has set in.
Tonight I went to a Q&A with Anthony Bourdain. He mentioned the Scripps acquisition. He basically said he hopes they will understand how he operates and let him continue doing what he does. Although, he did joke that maybe he would end up in a hot tub with Guy Fieri! He also poked fun at the sunglasses on the neck thing and how unhygenic wearing rings is.
He was terrific– absolutely hilarious and uncensored.
He told a lot of great stories, including the Sandra Lee encounter. He also talked about booting Dale off top chef a couple of years ago. He said Dale’s butterscotch scallops were like, “felching Mrs. Butterworth!”
I highly recommend for people to attend his events. Very entertaining.
@Katie – I can definitely see why people wouldn’t like much of the show, mainly the glutton aspects of it. I actually prefer the first two thirds of the show, where it’s more of a Diners Drive-Ins & Dives type show, except with a much better host and better locations.
As far as the contest goes, I still find them enjoyable, especially the hot challenges. I don’t concern myself too much with his health, because he has said in the off-season he practices a pretty strict diet. Which he’d pretty much have to, I guess.
Friggin Giada. I want her so much.
Maybe a show about Brian Boitano’s Fire Island share?
Squarebob, thanks for the info about Bourdain. I hope Scripps does leave his show alone.
I just did some reading and found out that Scripps won a bid war for Travel Channel, beating out Fox News. Fox News! Well, in that case, I certainly feel better that Scripps won, given the alternative…yikes.
Giada does have a sweet rack, and seems slightly smarter than Bridget. Please make that show. But I need Bourdain to be as big of a jerk as always otherwise the show is ruined. He almost died in Puerot Rico when he had to drink a shitty pina colada. Dont let him die. Plus Madventures rules!
RF Horrible, now The Travel Network will turn into another Food TV Network. Horrible when a big company starts devouring other networks and taking over their programming. But that’s the way it is in Television right now. I’ve recently noticed they’re now putting Food TV shows on the Travel Channel. How Depressing.
I stopped watching Food TV because they stopped traveling alot. Now they’re taking over The Travel Channel which I have watched as an alternative. Now they’ve followed me.
RF
I hope Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern and Andrew Richman can maintain control of their shows without interference.
Peace
RF
Food TV, now Cooking Channel, now The Travel Channel turning into another Food Network. Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
Travel Channel Executives, please at least maintain some control of your network and keep a Travel Direction in your network.
Thanks.
As an aside, this happend with Tech TV which I loved, then they combined it with G4 Gaming Network, which destroyed Tech TV. And this happend in MMA when the UFC took over my beloved MMA Pride FC. They also took over Pride FC and their fighters and took over their organization and also destroyed Pride FC.
So Whatever happens, it’s going to happen.
I just hope I can be happy and some positive things happen.
The Food Network taking over The Travel Channel, it’s not a good thing, but that’s the way it is in today’s television. Even if I don’t like that or want it to happen, that’s going to happen. Food tv took over I think the Fine Living Channel, now they take over The Travel Channel. Sad but true the realities of Cable Network telvision. For whatever reason, The Travel Channel sold majority share to the company that runs the Food Network.
RF
RF
Sad but true what happened
This shit sucks, holms. Food Channel has become worthless piece of crap. Iron Chef is so lame now (same ole shit). Chopped is aight but the shit ain’t original. The Food Challenges are boring as fuck. Then you get the new dumbfuck stars showing up every day now … even the fuckers who didn’t win get their own lame ass shows. The only thing worth watching is Triple-D.
Food Channel is not about cooking or culinary world … it’s about marketing the fuck out of food personalities. Rachel Ray ain’t no chef, mang. The lame ass “stars” suck shit too.
Travel Channel at least much better food content than the Food Channel. HOw fucking ironic is that shit? Bourdain, Zimmern, and MvF trump all the lame ass shit the Food Channel produces.
I’m wondering when Scripps will fuck up the Travel Channel too?
Fucking lame, holms.