Warner Bros. Discovery puts Channing Dungey in charge of TV networks
In a major consolidation, Warner Bros. Discovery said Friday that it would shift oversight of its struggling U.S. Networks group to television studio chief Channing Dungey.
The move will become official at the end of the year when Discovery executive Kathleen Finch, a former journalist and longtime Food Network chief, retires from the company.
Finch has spent 25 years at Scripps Networks and Discovery, helping guide the company’s lifestyle cable channels, including some that were previously based in Tennessee.
She guided the networks to prominence and high ratings, turning the food-focused network into a force with dynamic chefs, including Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri. She also helped steer HGTV into the mainstream with shows, including “Fixer Upper” and “Property Brothers.” She came to Discovery as part of its 2018 acquisition of Scripps Networks and saw her portfolio swell.
Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav entrusted Finch to lead the larger cable networks group, which includes HGTV, TLC, Food Network, TBS and Animal Planet, after his takeover of WarnerMedia in 2022.
Analysts point to the David Zaslav-led company’s expected loss of the NBA contract and underperformance in key business units during the last two years.
Dungey is one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s most respected executives.
She has shepherded the prolific TV studio since 2020 and also has TV network experience from running Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and as vice president for original series at Netflix. Dungey became the first Black president of a major TV network when Disney tapped her to lead ABC Entertainment in 2016.
She becomes one of the most powerful executives within Warner Bros. Discovery, responsible for one of its largest content producing units, albeit one that faces extraordinary challenges.
Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery took a $9-billion write-down on the value of its basic cable networks group, which includes CNN, TNT, TLC and HGTV. Investors have sent the company’s shares plummeting, rattled by TNT Sports’ expected loss of its NBA contract after next season.
The channels have been reeling amid consumers’ embrace of streaming options including Netflix and Hulu.
The David Zaslav-led media company posted disappointing second-quarter earnings Wednesday, sending its shares tumbling in after-hours on Wall Street.
“Channing is an unparalleled creative executive who has shepherded countless award-winning hit shows,” Zaslav said in a statement. “She has the ideal expertise and experience — as a content developer, platform programmer, and network executive — to lead the US Networks.”
Dungey’s portfolio was already heaping. She runs Warner Bros. Television, including the flagship television production studio responsible for such hits as “Abbott Elementary” and “Young Sheldon,” as well as its unscripted units, Telepictures and Shed Media. She also manages animated programming produced through Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe.
Her group is currently producing nearly 90 series for streaming services, broadcast networks and local TV stations.
“They can’t go on like this,” Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said, referring to the lagging stock and string of missteps by Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav.
Finch joined Scripps Networks in 1999 as a programmer at the startup Food Network, after 12 years as a journalist at CBS News.
“I began my journey at the fledgling Food Network and am so proud to have helped turn it into a cable powerhouse, and then to lead the team developing some of the most addictive unscripted franchises across HGTV and TLC, creating household names out of chefs and house flippers, and capturing the cultural conversation with real-life stories,” Finch said in a statement.
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