‘Next Food Network Star' Rises on Other Channels

It will be hard to miss the season premiere of The Next Food Network Star, especially if you watch Scripps Network’s most popular channel.

After Next Food Network Star had its debut on the Food Network Sunday, the premiere was rerun on Cooking Channel Monday. It will also air on Travel Channel tonight and HGTV on Saturday.

Jon Steinlauf, senior VP for ad sales at Scripps Networks, said the idea is to try to  “draw more people into the storyline, and then funneling those viewers into Food Network Star next Sunday night and hopefully increasing the audience size for the entire run.”

The tactic is new for Scripps. It isn’t exactly a roadblock, and Scripps hasn’t come up with a name for it.

Next Food Network Star has 10 sponsors, most of whom also advertise on Scripps’ other channels. Ads from those sponsors will be steered into the show when it appears on those other networks. Those sponsors will also be protected because Scripps will make sure their competitors ads don’t appear when the show is rerun.