Despite what the grumpy folks say, change is often a good thing. Heck, in the TV world it’s often a great thing. Rabbit ears have been replaced by cable boxes and PVRs, manual channel knobs have been replaced by remote controls. And Trauma has been replaced by Chuck.

TV networks can make wholesale changes as well, like Canwest, who recently shelved an entire channel in favour of another.

Launched on Monday, Oct. 19, DIY Network debuted, taking the place of Fine Living. Series such as Whatever, Martha and The Shopping Detective were immediately replaced by Cool Tools, Kitchen Impossible, Fresh Coat and From Junky to Funky.

It’s a wholesale change, and one that Karen Gelbart believes is timely.

“We thought it was just a great time to launch this network,” Gelbart, senior vice-president, Lifestyle Content, Canwest Broadcasting, said on the phone last week. “It felt like the right network for now. It’s hardcore home improvement television, and it focuses on how-to projects around the home. It seemed to us that saving money, learning a new skill and investing in your home are all things that Canadians want to know how to do now. The housing market is picking up, but at the same time, people are looking to improve the value of their home as opposed to making a lot of money on the sale.”

Both DIY and Fine Living (which was re-branded as Cooking Channel south of the border) are owned in the U.S. by Scripps Networks; Gelbart says DIY is the perfect fit for their other lifestyle networks such as Food Network Canada and HGTV.

“DIY has been very successful in the States, and we knew it would be a great compliment to HGTV,” she says. “HGTV has moved away from the DIY-type programming of its early years to more diverse formats and genres. On HGTV, we air programs not just about property and design and renovation, but the programs in prime time have become more story-driven in many cases, and some of them are docu-soaps or reality shows. We’ve expanded the notion of what an HGTV show is, and DIY gets back to basics.”

Gelbart points out that many DIY shows are geared towards men; Cool Tools and Man Caves are pretty self-explanatory in what they spotlight for viewers, but what else does DIY offer viewers?

“Sweat Equity shows people which home improvement projects will increase the value of your home and Wasted Spaces shows you how to take unused space under stairs or between ceiling joists to put things in,” she explains. “Desperate Landscapes shows you how to transform an ugly yard, and Cool Tools shows off fantastic devices that you never knew about. Those kinds of shows are all over the schedule.”

Launching in two million homes across Canada, I can imagine that diehard Fine Living fans had a few choice words when they tuned in and saw hammers being wielded instead of knives. But all change has a period of growth where people have to get used to it.

One group who was over the moon about DIY was the sales community.

“Our clients were very eager to get on this channel and couldn’t wait for it to launch,” she says.

Will those other two million follow suit?

greg@tvguide.ca

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READERS WRITE BACK!
I have a question for you. Why are all the CSIs, NCIS in reruns so early this year? —L. Saunders
Great question, and one I get all the time. Firstly, the World Series is airing on Fox right now. Competing networks know that millions of baseball fans will be skipping their favourite shows in favour of the Phillies and Yankees match-up, so why air new episodes when there are less viewers watching? Simple, they don’t.

But from an overall viewing standpoint, TV networks order a certain number of episodes per show each year. In the case of a drama like CSI or NCIS, CBS orders 22 episodes.

Since there are 52 weeks in the year, that means new episodes only air 22 times. So, networks air the new ones at the most important times. September, November Sweeps, February Sweeps (though the Winter Olympics will mess that up a bit), and May Sweeps.

So, what does that mean for you, as a viewer? LOTS of repeats!

 

 

 

 

Greg has been a fan of TV since he was five years old, eating dry cereal in front of the TV with his sisters watching Sesame Street, and scrambling downstairs after dinner to watch Polka Dot Door. His influential teen years were taken up by equal parts of The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, The Incredible Hulk, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Magnum P.I. and Friday Night Videos as well as daily doses of Toronto Rocks and the Power Hour on MuchMusic.

He is continually fascinated with the television process from idea to pilot episode and network pickup, development and casting right through to air, and likes all genres of TV.

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