Destination America

Destination America
Launched October 7, 1996 (1996-10-07)
Owned by Discovery, Inc.
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV)
Country United States
Language English
Broadcast area Nationwide
Headquarters Silver Spring, Maryland
Formerly called
  • Discovery Travel and Living (1996–98)
  • Discovery Home and Leisure (1998–2004)
  • Discovery Home (2004–08)
  • Planet Green (2008–12)
Sister channel(s)
Website www.destinationamerica.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV 286 (HD/SD)
Dish Network 194 (HD/SD)
C-Band AMC 11-Channel 615 (4DTV Digital)
Cable
Available on many U.S. cable providers Check local listings for channels
Verizon FiOS
  • 668 (HD)
  • 168 (SD)
IPTV
AT&T U-verse
  • 1465 (HD)
  • 465 (SD)
Streaming media
PlayStation Vue Internet Protocol television

Destination America is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Discovery Inc.

The network first launched in 1996 as Discovery Travel & Living, as part of a suite of four digital cable networks the company launched that year. From its launch until 2008, the network primarily focused upon home improvement, cooking, and leisure-themed programs. In 2008, the network re-launched as Planet Green, which carried a focus on environmentalism and sustainable living; Discovery spent $50 million on developing programming for the network.

Planet Green was ultimately considered a failure; by 2010, the network had begun adding programming unrelated to ecology, and eventually populated its schedule with reruns of library programming ahead of a future rebranding. In May 2012, the channel re-launched as Destination America, which originally featured programming focused on American culture—including food, lifestyles, and travel (in a similar manner to then-former sister network Travel Channel). In 2016, the channel increased its focus on reality series devoted to paranormal topics and investigations.

As of February 2015, approximately 57,238,000 American households (49.2% of households with television) receive Destination America.[1]

History

The space was originally used for one of the four digital cable networks launched by Discovery Communications in 1996. The new networks were first announced in November 1994, with a launch planned for Spring 1995. At the time, the network had the working title Living and was described as "a home repair network".[2] The launch was delayed, and the channel made its debut in October 1996, originally known as Discovery Travel & Living and offering programming including do-it-yourself projects, cooking, interior design and landscaping, and party planning.

By 1998, it had settled on the name Discovery Home & Leisure, but the "Leisure" part of the name was dropped on March 29, 2004, when the channel became Discovery Home. Much of the travel-related programming was dropped in the process to provide more focus on home improvement and cooking.[3]

Planet Green

Logo as Planet Green.

Facing increased competition in the home-oriented programming sector, Discovery Communications planned a 24-hour channel focused on eco-friendly living in an attempt to capitalize on a rising environmental movement.[4] Discovery Home was relaunched as the environmentally-themed Planet Green at 6:00 p.m. ET on June 4, 2008; the only program from Discovery Home to continue on after the relaunch was the HGTV Canada-produced Holmes on Homes, which immediately moved to the American HGTV network.[5][6] The channel focused on environmental issues and ecological living, and Discovery invested $50 million in original programming for the rebranded channel with shows such as a weekly eco-newscast series with Bob Woodruff of ABC News.[7][8]

Initial launch logo as Planet Green.

The project began after the Discovery Channel bought the website Treehugger.com from owners Graham Hill and Ken Rother.[9][10] At its launch, Planet Green was available in 50 million U.S. households and included 250 hours of environment-related programming with a programming budget of US$50 million.[11]

In March 2010, Planet Green's programming was broadened to include non-ecology themed shows; despite this broadened focus, in February 2011, Discovery Communications executives were acknowledging the channel's failure. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav stated in a conference call with investors "We think we can probably do something else with that that would be more meaningful."[12] Shortly thereafter the channel had abandoned its theme, rerunning programs from other Discovery Communications channels and featuring programming blocks such as "Paranormal Fridays". Discovery announced a probable rebranding of the channel by the start of the summer of 2012.[12]

Destination America

Logo used until 2015.

On April 4, 2012, Discovery announced through the early release of an article in USA Today that Planet Green would be re-branded as Destination America, a network focusing primarily on cuisine, natural history, and travel programming appealing primarily towards Middle America. The launch lineup also featured programs that had previously aired on Travel Channel before its sale to Cox Communications. The channel was originally expected to have a Memorial Day launch on May 28, 2012.[13][14]

In 2015, TNA partnered with Discovery Communications to air the promotion's programming on Destination America, including Impact Wrestling. Later that year, the network also announced that it had signed a 26-week television deal for Ring of Honor's weekly show, Ring of Honor Wrestling, which would begin on June 3, 2015.[15] Impact moved to Pop in January 2016.[16]

The March 4, 2016 premiere of Paranormal Lockdown was among the highest-rated series premieres in the channel's history. In response to the success of Paranormal Lockdown, Destination America began to increase its focus on programs dealing with paranormal topics and investigations. The network underwent a rebranding in 2017, with on-air presentation carrying a darker and "uneasy" atmosphere (including a signature "glitch" effect) to reflect its change in programming direction.[17]

Sometime in September 2018, Destination America is gradually returning to its previous programming format with the addition of Georgia Pellegrini's show Wild Food, as well as re-adding shows from network's past and adding shows borrowed from its sister networks. Destination America will still keep its current focus on paranormal programming, although its now sister network Travel Channel is also drifting to that similar format.

Programming

Planet Green

Planet Green programming included ecologically themed shows built around celebrities including Ed Begley, Jr., Emeril Lagasse, Adrian Grenier, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ludacris, Tommy Lee, Tom Bergeron, SuChin Pak, Maria Menounos, Bob Woodruff, and Discovery Channel producer Tom Golden. In addition, celebrities gave 'green' tips within network bumpers that transitioned into and out of commercial breaks. The channel was programmed in eight-hour blocks, which repeated three times per day until April 2010. Lacking separate satellite feeds for the East and West coasts of the United States, prime-time programs ran from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time and were then repeated.[11]

Shows previously seen on Planet Green include:

1 originally shown on Discovery Channel
2 originally shown on Animal Planet
3 originally shown on TLC
4 originally shown on FX

Current Destination America programming

  • A Haunting
  • Alaska Haunting
  • Alaska Monsters: Bigfoot Edition
  • America's Bermuda Triangle
  • America's Most Haunted Asylum
  • Amish Hunting
  • BBQ Pitmasters
  • Case Files: Unknown
  • The Demon Files
  • Destination Adventure
  • Evil Things
  • Exorcism: Live!
  • The Exorcist File: Haunted Boy
  • Ghost Asylum
  • Ghost Brothers
  • Ghostly Encounters[18]
  • Ghosts of Shepherdstown*Ghost Stories
  • The Haunted: Death Rises
  • Haunted Case Files
  • Haunted Collector
  • Haunted Towns
  • Helltown
  • Hillbilly Blood
  • Killing Bigfoot
  • Kindred Spirits
  • Lost UFO Files
  • Most Haunted
  • My Child Sees Dead People
  • My Haunted House
  • Monster Witness
  • Monsters and Mysteries in America
  • Monsters and Mysteries Unsolved
  • Monsters Underground
  • Mountain Monsters
  • My Child Sees Dead People
  • Paronormal Survivor
  • Project Afterlife
  • Shooting Bigfoot
  • Swamp Monsters
  • Terror in the Woods
  • UFOs: Uncovering the Truth
  • UFOs: The Untold Stories
  • Unsealed: Alien Files
  • What Went Wrong
  • When Ghosts Attack!
  • Wild Food
  • World's Scariest Ghosts Caught on Tape
  • The World's Strangest UFO Stories

Former programming

References

  1. ↑ Seidman, Robert (February 2015). "List of how many homes each cable network is in as of February 2015". TV by the Numbers. Tribune Media. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Discovery plans launch of four newly created nets". Multichannel News. November 21, 1994.
  3. ↑ "Leisure Time Is Over". Multichannel News. February 29, 2004.
  4. ↑ NY Times
  5. ↑ Growth Plan at Discovery
  6. ↑ GM and Discovery Communications Form Media Partnership on First-Ever 24/7 "Green" Network, Planet Green, Discovery Communications, May 21, 2008.
  7. ↑ Discovery Communications press release
  8. ↑ Bob Woodruff to Anchor New Series on Planet Green
  9. ↑ TreeHugger Home Page
  10. ↑ green-treehugger-champion/ Ken Rother – VP of Planet Green & TreeHugger Champion Interview
  11. 1 2 Stelter, Brian (March 10, 2010). "Planet Green Moves Away From Its Eco Theme". The New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  12. 1 2 Schneider, Michael (February 12, 2011). "Discovery Plans to Revamp Planet Green". T.V. Guide. Lionsgate. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  13. ↑ "New Cable Network: Destination America". USA Today. May 2012.
  14. ↑ Levin, Gary (April 4, 2012). "Discovery Networks to launch Destination America". USA Today. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  15. ↑ Caldwell, James (May 27, 2015). "ROH news: ROH announces length of Dest. America TV deal". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Pop Gets Into Ring With Impact Wrestling To Become New TV Home". Deadline. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  17. ↑ "Destination America Steps into the Unknown with Design Refresh". The Daily Brief. Retrieved 2018-03-09.
  18. ↑ Ghostly Encounters
  19. ↑ "GHOSTS IN MY HOUSE".
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