Chip and Joanna Gaines’ long-awaited Discovery cable channel, Magnolia Network, has a new debut date—but don’t expect to see it on linear for nearly another year.
The lifestyle power couple’s Magnolia Network, which had been slated to premiere last October, will instead have a digital launch as part of Discovery’s new streaming service, Discovery+, on July 15, network president Allison Page announced today during the Television Critics Association’s virtual winter press tour.
In all, 150 hours of new programming from Magnolia Network will debut July 15 on Discovery+, including the complete first seasons of new originals Fixer Upper: Welcome Home and Magnolia Table, which Gaines’ star in, as well as other original series like Homegrown, Growing Floret and Restoration Road with Clint Harp.
The rollout of Magnolia Network on Discovery+ will coincide with the debut of an app, called Magnolia, that will host all of the network’s episodes—free for Discovery+ subscribers—as well as tutorials and workshops and a hub for shopping products.
But the debut of the couple’s linear network, which will replace Discovery’s DIY Network, has been pushed back until January 2022, more than a year after the its originally-scheduled premiere. The postponement has prompted Discovery’s ad sales team, which had sold Magnolia’s linear inventory in the upfront, to revisit its deals with marketers.
“We are working closely with all of our customers on an account-by-account basis to craft specific solutions to meet their short-term needs,” Greg Regis, evp, ad sales, Discovery, told Adweek. “Our marketplace is very excited about the launch of the Magnolia Network and they are eager to understand more about the Magnolia app as it builds and grows.”
This also marks a reversal of earlier plans in which a direct-to-consumer Magnolia product would follow the linear rollout.
“We did assume at the beginning of the process that we were going to lead with a linear product and then we were going to follow that linear product with a direct-to-consumer option,” Chip Gaines told reporters Thursday. “The cart and the horse have definitely been reversed.”
But the reversal was driven by necessity, as production delays continued to affect programming plans, and as the network realized it would not have the amount of programming it wanted for its linear debut.
“Because of the pandemic and everything, everything has just slowed down,” Joanna Gaines said. “The library that we’re trying to build, all of that has changed.”
Magnolia Network was initially slated to premiere last October, but that date was pushed after the Covid-19 pandemic threw production plans into disarray. Since then, other opportunities for the Gaines’ have emerged, primarily with Discovery’s direct-to-consumer streaming service Discovery+.
The couple first began previewing Magnolia Network’s slate of programming on Jan. 4 on the service in a dedicated hub, which will morph into home of all Magnolia Network’s content ahead of the linear premiere.
“What we got excited about with Discovery+ with this initial rollout was just to give everyone a preview of what we’ve been working on for the last year, two years,” Joanna Gaines said. “What we’re really excited about on July 15 is getting to show people our whole library. What we’ve learned in this industry is things change daily, and I think that’s where we get excited. We love this challenge.”
Magnolia Network’s arrival in July will surely serve as a boost to Discovery+, which debuted in January with a robust slate of original programming that the company has said it hopes will help it quickly build up a subscriber base among fans of unscripted programming. But it also means a shift in thinking for the Gaines’, who have been used to the production pace of linear television for years.
“When you’re in television, reality television specifically, you’re trading a year of your life for essentially 13-18 episodes,” Chip Gaines said. “With streaming, you can consume 13-18 episodes in a night. … It feels like an unquenchable amount of content that you have to provide that machine, and we’re trying to figure out what’s the right balance as it relates to that.”
