DIY Network to Dig up 'The Dirt on Gardening' with New Original Series

Business Wire, June 22, 2005

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- DIY Network has started production on a new interactive gardening series titled "The Dirt On Gardening," a program designed to appeal to both experienced gardening enthusiasts and their "brown thumb" counterparts.

Produced by Sacramento-based The Idea Factory, "The Dirt On Gardening" will solicit questions via phone and email from DIY viewers about their most vexing and perplexing gardening problems and projects. Using an interactive format, master gardener and series host Kristine Hanson will answer viewer questions through demonstration segments shot on location. The show also will feature regional experts who will join the show by phone or Webcam.

DIY has ordered 39 episodes of the half-hour series, which is starting production this summer in Sacramento.

"The viewer interactivity on this series is a format that has proven to be popular and effective for DIY Network when we've used it in our home-improvement and automotive categories of programming," said Bill Sykes, vice president of programming for DIY. "It works because DIY viewers are so passionate about their hobbies and they appreciate the opportunity to get answers first-hand and directly from our experts."

"The Dirt on Gardening" will premiere in second-quarter 2006 and will join other popular gardening series on DIY Network such as "Fresh from the Garden," "Weekend Gardening," "Garden Sense" and "Grounds for Improvement."

About DIY Network

DIY Network is your television source for the best know-how and how-to when it comes to any type of do-it-yourself project. DIY presents 90 percent original programming across a broad range of categories including home building; home improvement; automotive and boating; crafts; gardening; hobbies; and living and woodworking. Informational and entertaining, DIY's programs and experts answer your most sought-after questions, plus offer creative projects that will inspire you to do something out of the ordinary - yourself. DIY's website DIYnetwork.com, features step-by-step instructions for all that you see on-air, totaling more than 15,000 projects online. These companion resources instruct millions of people everyday, which is why DIY is one of the fastest growing networks - now in 32 million homes, while DIYnetwork.com consistently receives 2 million unique visitors per month.

DIY is a property of Scripps Networks, which is headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Nashville, Scripps Networks is the leading developer of lifestyle-oriented content for television and the Internet, including Home & Garden Television (HGTV), Food Network, FINE LIVING, country music network Great American Country (GAC) and electronic retailer Shop At Home. Scripps Networks is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television, national television networks, interactive media, and television retailing. Scripps operates 21 daily newspapers, 10 broadcast TV stations, Scripps Howard News Service, United Media and Shopzilla.com.