Leo Headlines for Green
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 7/22/2007 8:00:00 PM
Beverly Hills, Calif. — Actor Leonardo DiCaprio will help launch Planet Green, Discovery Communications’ eco-lifestyle channel, by resurrecting a tiny Midwestern town as part of a new TV show.
DiCaprio will be working on the first series that Discovery Communications has green-lit for Planet Green, Eco-Town, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said at the recent Television Critics Association summer tour.
Discovery is relaunching Discovery Home as Planet Green in the first quarter of next year.
A casually attired Zaslav, dressed in an open white shirt and blue jeans, said that Planet Green’s 13-part series will be about the rebuilding of Greensburg, Kan., a town of 800 homes that was destroyed by a killer tornado on May 4 this year.
Planet Green, which has 50 million subscribers, and Discovery will help Greensburg rebuild, from the ground up, as a green model of the future, a sustainable model of eco-living.
The project was brought to Discovery by DiCaprio and Craig Piligian of Pilgrim Films & Television. DiCaprio and his production company, Appian Way, will executive produce the series, along with Piligian and Discovery Studios, the company’s in-house production arm.
Zaslav and Discovery Communications founder John Hendricks invited DiCaprio to sit on Planet Green’s board of advisers, which will include 18 environmental leaders.
In his first appearance at the TCA since joining Discovery six months ago, Zaslav told the assembled writers that the nonfiction programmer’s networks, particularly Discovery Channel, are back on track.
“We are really going to try to stay defined and focused,” he said.
Discovery Channel is at its best when it deals with adventure and exploration, programming like the Planet Earth series, according to Zaslav. And the channel has gotten back to that focus, on brand, he said.
“We took a lot of the programming off of Discovery that didn’t fit within that niche, some forensics programming,” Zaslav said. “We also took off some crime programming … when we took the programming off that wasn’t really core to what Discovery’s brand is, our ratings grew.”
Zaslav added that Discovery Communications will also be turning more of its attention to The Science Channel.
Discovery began promoting and investing in The Science Channel during the past year and its ratings are up, according to Zaslav.
“We are going to spend a lot more money on The Science Channel,” he said. “You are going to see it promoted not only on Discovery, but across all of our platforms.”
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