HGTV Names ex-Cartoon Network Chief Samples as GM

Longtime Scripps Networks Executive Girard Announced Retirement Earlier This Year

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/12/2007 8:56:00 AM

Scripps Networks’ Home & Garden Television named former Cartoon Network chief Jim Samples as its new president.

Samples left Turner Broadcasting System’s Cartoon last year, taking the fall for an embarrassing marketing gaffe during which much of the city of Boston was shut down over blinking Cartoon devices police mistook for bomb threats.

He replaces longtime Scripps vet Judy Girard beginning Oct. 1. She announced her retirement earlier this year .