Food Network Sinks Its Teeth Into Prime

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/3/2006 2:37:00 PM

Food Network is ramping up its entertainment-based nighttime programming,
bringing some of its marquee names into prime and aiming to firmly set
apart nighttime fare from the instructional cooking shows it runs during
the day.

The network plans to premiere at least three new prime time entertainment
series before this fall, trying to capitalize on the ratings success it’s
seen from series like Iron Chef America and The Next Food Network Star.

Coming in June are Two for the Road, a cross-country search for local
treats starring Food Network chef Paula Deen’s sons Jamie and Bobby, and
Throwdown with Bobby Flay, a cooking-competition series in which longtime
network personality Bobby Flay challenges experts in various specialties
to duels. In September, the network will premiere Paula’s Cooking Party
(working title), a more saucy version of Deen’s daytime show, featuring
audience interaction.

Mike H...

So, like her Paula Dean's Cooking School? That would be great, I'd rather
watch her in that format than the Ewok.

The goal, says senior VP, Programming, Bob Tuschman, is to compete with
other information-based networks with prime time programming that is
“dramatic, compelling, funny and entertaining.” Networks such as TLC, A&E
and Bravo have all evolved their brands in viewers’ minds by finding hit
reality series in prime.

Food, owned by Scripps Networks, sees its biggest audience during its
daytime In the Kitchen block with its target 25-54 female demo tuning in
to see instruction-based cooking shows from homegrown network
personalities such as Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray and Deen. The network
averages about a .65 household rating in the demo on weekend days and
about a .35 during prime, says senior VP of Marketing and Creative
Services Michael Smith.

The challenge, says Smith, is, “How do you harness that power you’ve got
in weekend and day and use it to drive ratings and prime? People think of
us as a network for great personalities and cooking and not
entertainment. The network you love at 4 p.m. can be the network you love
at 10 p.m.”

To that end, the network plans to continue pushing the marketing campaign
it launched last year, promoting prime with the tagline “way more than
cooking.” Food continues to evolve its daytime lineup as well; later
this year, Food add well-known chef Nigella Lawson to its Sunday daytime
lineup with sensual-food-themed Nigella Feasts.

Food is also slowly making its way into the multiplatform world. With
video-on-demand content on Time Warner and Comcast systems, a mobile deal
with Sprint and deals to distribute syndicated broadband content to MSN
and Yahoo!, Food will launch in HD in June with about 3 million homes on
EchoStar, and plans a broadband spinoff site for later this year.

Food, however, isn’t going to rush onto emerging platforms solely to keep
pace with others in the cable pack, Smith says – its average viewer is a
48-year-old suburban housewife who “doesn’t have a video iPod or a

fruitbat...

Yeah, but there are plenty of younger (straight) men who
semi-frequently watch, say, Good Eats, and occasionally stop surfing
for a Rachael Ray show or Unwrapped or something, right?

Web-enhanced cellphone” quite yet.