Food Network
Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Discovery, Inc. (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group (which owns the remaining 31%). Despite this ownership structure, the channel is managed and operated as a division of Discovery Networks U.S. The channel airs both special and regular episodic programs about food and cooking.
In addition to its headquarters in New York City, Food Network has offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Jersey City, Cincinnati, and Knoxville.
As of September 2018, 91 million households receive Food Network (98.6% of households with cable) in the United States.[1]
History
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Providence Journal company president Trygve Myhren in 1990 was attempting to grow the company and decided that basic cable programming at the time was a high growth area. With many basic cable channels at the time, Myhren was looking for something different. With food selected as the channel’s genre, the working title for the channel was The Cooking Channel up until the channel’s launch. Myhren hired Jack Clifford, Joe Langhan and Reese Schonfeld, co-founder of CNN, to help found the channel. Schonfeld, Landghan and Clifford were CEO, vice president of production and president. Both The Cooking Channel and the Food Network trademarks were taken by other entities, with the Food Network being a newsletter. Myrhen originally wanted the network to be operated from Providence, Rhode Island as he argued that a cable network’s costs were much more scalable from a lower-profile location, while Schonfeld preferred it be originated from New York, considered the American nucleus of culinary arts; Schonfeld’s preference eventually won out, though at the peril of the network’s launch budget, which was lower than it would have been from Providence.[2]
Food Network was founded on April 19, 1993, as “TV Food Network”; its legal name remains Television Food Network, G. P. After acquiring the Food Network trademark after several years, it shortened the name to that. The network initially launched on November 22, 1993 with two initial shows featuring David Rosengarten, Donna Hanover, and Robin Leach. On November 23, 1993, Food Network began live broadcasting.[3] Its original partners included the Journal itself, Adelphia, Scripps-Howard, Continental Cablevision, Cablevision, and most importantly, the Tribune Company, which provided the network’s technical output.
Given that the channel could not afford to not run anything that they would produce, the channel started tapping 5 shows with a potential host to see if they worked. This was later turned into Chef Du Jour series.[2]
Former logo, used from 1997 to 2003.
Schonfeld, was appointed as managing director of TV Food Network and maintained a spot on its management board along with two Providence Journal employees. The original lineup for the network included Emeril Lagasse (Essence of Emeril), Debbi Fields, Donna Hanover, David Rosengarten, Curtis Aikens, Dr. Louis Aronne, Jacques Pépin, and Robin Leach. The following year, the network acquired the rights to the Julia Child library from WGBH.
In 1995, Schonfeld resigned as managing director of the network, but remained on its board until 1998, when he sold his interest in the company to Scripps. In 1996, Erica Gruen was hired as the president and CEO of TV Food Network, becoming the second woman in history to be the CEO of a U.S. television network. Gruen led the network into an explosive growth until 1998, by launching the largest and number one site for food, FoodNetwork.com, more than doubling the subscriber base, tripling the viewership and multiplying the network’s yearly revenue.[4] In 1997, it was the second fastest growing cable network. Gruen changed the brand positioning from Schonfeld’s “TV for people who cook” to “TV for everyone who loves to eat,” thereby greatly improving the appeal to viewers and advertisers, and saving the network from bankruptcy. That same year, the “TV” portion of the name was dropped, thus making it simply Food Network. Greg Willis and Cathy Rasenberger were two of the original members of the start-up team who led the affiliate sales and marketing of the company from 1995 to 1998. Greg Willis served as senior vice president of worldwide distribution until he left to join Liberty Media in 1998.
Food Network logo used from 2003 to 2013. In 2013, a new version of this logo was introduced with a different font.
The A. H. Belo Corporation acquired Food Network when it purchased The Providence Journal Company in February 1997. Belo sold its 56% stake in the channel to the E. W. Scripps Company in October 1997, in a trade deal that resulted in Belo acquiring the television-radio station combination of KENS-AM/TV in San Antonio, Texas.[5]
The 1080i high definition simulcast feed of Food Network launched on March 31, 2008.
Food Network was first launched outside of North America in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2009, and in Asia on July 5, 2010 (on StarHub TV channel 433 and in HD on channel 468).[6] Since the UK launch on November 9, 2009 on Sky,[7] the channel has been added to the Freesat,[8] Freeview[9] and Virgin Media platforms.[10]
In January 2015, the Food Network collaborated with Snapchat and launched its own Food Network channel, “Discover Food Network”, where social media users can watch the channel through the app. The channel features recipes, food hacks, and tips to entertain and appeal to the social media savvy millennials of today while watching from the palm of their hands.[11]
In June 2020, Domaine Javier became the first-ever openly transgender woman to be featured in the history of Food Network, through the 20th season of the hit reality-competition series Worst Cooks in America.[12]
Food Network programming
Further information: List of programs broadcast by Food Network
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Food Network programming is divided into a daytime block known as “Food Network in the Kitchen” and a primetime lineup branded as “Food Network Nighttime”. Generally, “In the Kitchen” is dedicated to instructional cooking programs, while “Nighttime” features food-related entertainment programs, such as cooking competitions, food-related travel shows, and reality shows. Promos identify “Food Network Nighttime” programming but not “In the Kitchen” daytime programming. Many of the channel’s personalities routinely pull double-duty (or more) – hosting both daytime and nighttime programming – and the channel regularly offers specials which typically either follow its personalities on working vacations, or bring together a number of personalities for a themed cooking event. Food Network broadcasts on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. and weekends from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. ET, with the rest of the day being taken by infomercials. The UK channel broadcasts from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. (UK time GMT/BST as applicable) daily.
Mario Batali and Bobby Flay joined the network in 1995. In 1996, Erica Gruen, the network’s CEO, and Joe Langhan, an executive producer at the Food Network, created Emeril Live!, which became the channel’s signature series. Although Batali has moved on to other endeavours, Flay still appears regularly on many programs, including Iron Chef America, the channel’s well-received remake of the original Japanese series. Iron Chef America’s host, Alton Brown, gained a cult following for his Good Eats, which mixed science, cooking and off-beat humor. Later the network had a series entitled, “Ruggerio to Go” hosted by David Ruggerio.
In 2002, Food Network made an appeal to the home cook by adding Paula’s Home Cooking, hosted by Paula Deen. Home Cooking focused mostly on Southern cuisine and comfort food. The show took overly complicated recipes and classic dishes and broke them down for the home cook. The show did increasingly well, and Deen revamped the show in a series called Paula’s Best Dishes. In this series, friends and family members would join her in the kitchen and put a twist on classics and introduce new recipes. In June 2013, Food Network announced that they were not renewing Deen’s contract due to publicity about her racial remarks revealed in a lawsuit brought on by a former worker.[13]
Also in 2002, Ina Garten’s show Barefoot Contessa aired. Garten is well-known for cookbooks, including The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, and Barefoot Contessa in Paris. Garten was also mentored by Martha Stewart. Garten’s show features her cooking for her husband or hosting friends at their home in the Hamptons, New York.[14] Barefoot Contessa typically has about one million viewers per episode, and has received some of the highest ratings for Food Network.
Currently, the channel’s biggest cross-over stars are Rachael Ray and Paula Deen, who have both taken their cable following (primarily through the series 30 Minute Meals, $40 a Day, and Paula’s Best Dishes) into a syndicated talk show and Positively Paula. Both Paula Deen and Rachael Ray also have merchandise lines of cookware, food products and pet lines.
Beginning in 2005, an annual reality contest, The Next Food Network Star, brought viewers to New York City to compete for their own show on the channel. Previous winners include Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh (Party Line with The Hearty Boys), Guy Fieri (Guy’s Big Bite, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy Off the Hook, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, Guy’s Big Night, Guy’s Family Feast, Guy’s Grocery Games), Amy Finley (The Gourmet Next Door), Aaron McCargo, Jr. (Big Daddy’s House),[15] Melissa d’Arabian (Ten Dollar Dinners), and Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Party).[16] For the 2010 season, production of The Next Food Network Star was relocated to Los Angeles. It has become the network’s flagship show. For most of its 13-year run, season finales of the show have been followed by lead-out shows the network deems has great potential and will draw even more viewers. These consist of either premieres of new shows, season premieres of continuing shows, or episodes of continuing shows that are significant to the schedule. For instance, the most recent season finale of Star was followed by the season premiere of Beat Bobby Flay.
In December 2007, The New York Times business section published an article on the end of Emeril Lagasse’s show Emeril Live, and quoted Brooke Johnson, the president, as saying that Lagasse “remains a valued member of the Food Network family”.[17] Derek Baine, senior analyst at the media research firm SNL Kagan, is reported to have commented, “It’s not surprising that people move on… They pay almost nothing for the people as they are building their careers… That’s been their strategy all along”. The article also commented on the declining popularity of the Food Network whose daily ratings were reported had fallen “to an average of 544,000 people from 580,000 a year [earlier]”. It noted, “More significant, its signature weekend block of instructional programs, known collectively as ‘In the Kitchen,’ has lost 15 percent of its audience in the last year, to 830,000 viewers on average. This had left the network owing refunds, known as ‘make goods,’ to advertisers.” Erica Gruen, president and CEO of the Food Network from 1996–1998 who created Emeril Live during her tenure, was reported to have blamed the decline on increased competition, “There’s all sorts of instructional cooking video on the Web”.[17] But it reported that, “Bob Tuschman, Food Network’s senior vice president for programming and production, said the weekend ratings drop was ‘nothing we haven’t anticipated’. He said the network’s ratings in that time period grew by double digits in each of the last four years, growth that could not be sustained.”[17] It also wrote, “About a year ago, the Food Network began aggressively trying to change that with new deals that were ‘way more onerous’ from the stars’ point of view, said a person who has been affected by the changing strategy, by insisting on a stake in book deals and licensing ventures, and control over outside activities.[17]