HGTV Inks Deals with New Talent, Pitches "Ad Receptivity" at Upfront
By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/14/2007 2:32:00 PM
HGTV is heating things up with Nautica model and one of 2003 People's Sexiest Men Alive, Carter Oosterhouse. The carpenter turned TV personality has signed a deal with the Scripps cable network to host a show tentatively called Carter Can, as well as one for sister network DIY. Oosterhouse's show, set to join the schedule in October, 2007, headlines a panoply of new series on deck for HGTV. The flagship Scripps network is sticking to programming the home/lifestyle programming its niche audience likes best and expanding by signing deals with marquee talent in the genre. Carter Can will send Oosterhouse to solve homeowners' renovation challenges and offer eco-friendly advice. A regular guest on the morning talk show circuit, he will also star in a behind-the-scenes show for the DIY cable network about the making of Carter. HGTV has also resigned its deal with Vern Yip, the star architect/interior designer who was a judge on its summer design competition HGTV Design Star. While that show will return for a second season July 29, Yip will host a new show, Deserving Design, beginning in September. In the half-hour new show, Yip will make over two rooms of people who "need a break," HGTV says. Other new series slated for HGTV include August's Color Correction, with color expert designer Constance Ramos and Find Your Style with designer Karen McAloon. In October, the network will premiere Guess What You're Moving Out!, a show about adult kids whose parents kick them out of the house, Property Virgins, about first-time homebuyers, and Man Land, about basements, bars and other male haunts. The network was expected to announce its new slate at an upfront presentation in New York City on Wednesday evening. As the television industry heads into the upfront sales season, and TV networks start making claims about their audience compositions, Scripps of course had some of their own. For the 2005/2006 TV season, Scripps' cable networks outperformed A&E, the History Channel, Discovery and TLC in primetime audience growth with adults 25-54 and females 25-54 with household incomes of $75,000 and $100,000, the company said. The company also pitched advertisers buying based on a new metric - "ad receptivity." How an audience responds to an ad is "the greatest predictor of viewers' likelihood to take action," Scripps said, citing independent research, as well as data from IAG and Simmons Market Research. Following viewers' receptivity to messages, according to Scripps, is more important than just tracking ad exposure, sponsor integration or multiplatform targeting.
