Magnolia Network, Discovery’s joint venture with Chip and Joanna Gaines—whose October 2020 linear debut was postponed because of the pandemic—will now make it to air on Jan. 5, 2022. (Adweek)
The channel’s debut—a rare event in an era of streaming fixation and a shrinking pay-TV bundle—will come in the form of a rebrand of Discovery’s existing DIY Network. (Deadline)
The Magnolia linear launch, like pretty much everything else in Hollywood and beyond, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Originally intended to be an SVOD option that could either be bundled with Discovery+ or subscribed to on its own, Magnolia was tacked on to Discovery+—for free—this past summer. (TheWrap)
But a linear cable network remains key to the endeavor, which aims to take the Gaines duo—best known for their Fixer Upper series on HGTV—and put them at the center of a home-arts programming universe in much the same way others tried to do with Martha Stewart and other domestic-arts gurus. (Variety)