Discovery : JULIE TAYLOR ELEVATED TO DUAL SENIOR LEADERSHIP ROLE OVERSEEING THE STRATEGIC PROGRAM PLANNING TEAMS AT HGTV, FOOD NETWORK AND COOKING CHANNEL

New York [Sept. 18, 2019] Julie Taylor, an experienced program planning strategist, has been promoted to Group SVP, U.S. Scheduling and Program Strategy, HGTV, Food Network and Cooking Channel. She will report to Courtney White, President, Food Network & Cooking Channel and work directly with Jane Latman, President, HGTV.

In her dual role, Taylor will lead the New York and Knoxville-based program planning/strategy teams that manage the networks' overall programming budgets as well as leverage content and programming line-ups to attract and retain viewers. Her responsibilities include linear scheduling oversight for more than 1,450 hours of HGTV, Food Network and Cooking Channel content. She also will be charged with supporting international network teams to ensure the continued distribution of Food Network and HGTV programming around the world.

A key strategic lead at Food Network, Taylor and her team successfully scheduled the launch of new hit series such as Buddy Vs. Duff and Supermarket Stakeout. She also led the planning for Food Network's upcoming holiday programming season which launches September 23-developing the strategy for an increase of premiere hours for the timeframe covering Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah.

'One of the best strategic moves we can make is to put Julie at the helm of the scheduling teams in a cross-network, strategic planning role-developing and overseeing the game plan for both networks,' said White. 'As a masterful listener of the audience, she is instrumental in building night-after-night appointment viewing for top-rated competitions like Worst Cooks in America and the reboot of Restaurant: Impossible, as well as seasonal stunts like this summer's hit BBQ Brawl: Flay vs Symon.'

At HGTV, Taylor's team planned the September 9 rollout of A Very Brady Renovation, which was the highest-rated series and season premiere in HGTV history with more than 8.1 million viewers. Her team's scheduling of the Christina On the Coast premiere season, which launched in May, delivered double-digit ratings growth for HGTV-attracting more than 12 million viewers.

'Julie's keen understanding of our audience makes her an invaluable asset, devising the programming rollouts, stunts and events that keep audiences engaged,' said Latman. 'Popular series such as House Hunters, Property Brothers, Love It or List It and Flip or Flop as well as newer series like Home Town, Good Bones and My Lottery Dream Home are among the many top ratings performers bolstered by her skillful approach to program planning. Julie's leadership in this area is a big part of our long-term strategy.'

Taylor spent many years in senior scheduling roles for HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network and Great American Country. She joined the company as a production manager for Scripps Productions, supervising budgets and staffing for specials. Prior to joining Scripps Networks, Taylor worked in production roles for WBIR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is a University of Tennessee graduate with a bachelor's degree in advertising.

FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring, empowering and entertaining through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to nearly 100 million U.S. households and draws over 46 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine's rate base has grown 13 times and is the No. 2 best-selling monthly magazine on the newsstand, with 13.5 million readers. Food Network is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment spanning 220 countries and territories; the portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

HGTV delivers the superstar experts, fascinating families, compelling renovations and stunning transformations that make all things home fun. America's favorite way to get entertaining, relatable and inspirational home and lifestyle content, HGTV offers: a top 10 cable network that is distributed to more than 88 million U.S. households; a website, HGTV.com, that attracts an average of 10.8 million people each month; a social footprint of 20.6 million; HGTV Magazine, a monthly publication that reaches more than one million readers and exclusive collections of home-oriented products through the HGTV HOME™ consumer products line. Viewers can become fans of HGTV and interact with other home improvement enthusiasts through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. HGTV is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment spanning 220 countries and territories, whose portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

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