As part of a first consolidation, Warner Bros. Discovery announced Friday that it will hand over oversight of its troubled U. S. business Networks to television studio head Channing Dungey.
That move will become official at the end of the year, when Kathleen Finch, director of Discovery, former journalist and longtime Food Network chef, retires from the company.
Finch spent 25 years at Scripps Networks and Discovery, helping to advise the company’s lifestyle cable channels, adding a few that were previously founded in Tennessee.
She guided the networks to peak notoriety and ratings, and the food-focused network to become a force with dynamic chefs, adding Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri. She also helped bring HGTV to the mainstream with shows that added “Fixer Upper” and “Property Brothers. ” She came to Discovery as part of the Scripps Networks acquisition in 2018 and has seen her portfolio grow.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has tapped Finch to lead the largest cable network group, consisting of HGTV, TLC, Food Network, TBS and Animal Planet, following its acquisition of WarnerMedia in 2022.
Dungey is one of the top executives of Warner Bros. Discovery.
He has run the prolific television studio since 2020 and has also worked at Walt Disney Co. ‘s ABC television network. and as vice president of original series at Netflix. Dungey became the first Black president of a major television network when Disney tapped her to lead ABC Entertainment in 2016.
She has become one of Warner Bros. Bros. Executives’ toughest executives. Discovery, responsible for one of its largest content production units, although it faces common challenges.
Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery wrote down the value of its core group of cable networks, which includes CNN, DTT, TLC and HGTV, for $9 billion. Investors sent the company’s shares tumbling, shaken by TNT Sports’ expected loss of its NBA contract. after next season.
The networks have been shaken by consumer adoption of streaming options, Netflix and Hulu.
“Channing is an unparalleled artistic director who has directed countless successful and award-winning programs,” Zaslav said in a statement. “She has the ideal experience and expertise (as a content developer, platform programmer and network administrator) to lead the networks in the United States. “
Dungey’s wallet is already full. He directs Warner Bros. Television, and adds the flagship television production studio responsible for hits such as “Abbott Elementary” and “Young Sheldon,” as well as its unscripted units, Telepictures and Shed Media. It also manages animated systems produced through Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe.
His organization currently produces around 90 series for streaming services, broadcast networks and local television stations.
Finch joined Scripps Networks in 1999 as a programmer at the startup Food Network, after 12 years as a reporter at CBS News.
“I started my adventure at the newly formed Food Network and am very proud to have helped grow it into a cable power space, then lead the team creating some of the most addictive unscripted franchises on HGTV and TLC, creating space call chefs and space fins and capturing cultural verbal exchange with real-life stories,” Finch said in a statement.
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