Destination America is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Discovery Communications. The channel primarily features lifestyle and paranormal programming.
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. The channel has since 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.
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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". 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.
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. 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. 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.
The project began after the Discovery Channel bought the website Treehugger.com from owners Graham Hill and Ken Rother. 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.
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." 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.
Destination America
On April 4, 2012, Discovery announced through the early release of an article in USA Today that Planet Green would be rebranded as Destination America, targeted mainly towards Middle America and featuring mainly American-centric travel, food, and natural history programming that has been without a home on any Discovery-owned network since Discovery Communications' 2007 sale of the Travel Channel to Cox Communications, along with other Discovery archive content that fits the Destination America format. The channel was originally expected to have a Memorial Day launch on May 28, 2012.
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. Impact moved to Pop in January 2016.
The March 4, 2016, premiere of the paranormal invagative series Paranormal Lockdown was the highest rated series premiere in Destination America's history. The show was moved to TLC for its second season which premiered on December 16, 2016.
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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.
Shows previously seen on Planet Green include:
Current Destination America programming
Former programming
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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