HGTV owner Scripps Networks likes to keep a clean house.
Scripps, which also owns Food Network, Travel Channel and other niche lifestyle channels, said it steers clear of nudity and edgier content even as cable rivals get racier.
“There are no naked people. We don’t have that issue in our programming,” Scripps chief revenue officer Steve Gigliotti told an audience of advertisers and media buyers Wednesday at the company’s annual “upfront” pitch.
Gigliotti appeared to be getting in a dig at rival networks that have started a trend of reality-TV shows featuring contestants in the buff. Those include VH1’s “Dating Naked” and Discovery’s “Naked and Afraid.”
Scripps even screens advertising for potentially objectionable content, such as erectile dysfunction drugs, he said, adding that the family-controlled company once banned an ad that showed a woman’s head spinning around on her body.
“I try to filter for our audience,” he said.
When viewers see things they don’t like on screen, they light up the phones. Scripps CEO Ken Lowe makes him respond to every complaint, Gigliotti said.
Apparently, viewers and advertisers are sold on the squeaky clean image. Last year was the highest-rated year in HGTV’s history.
Instead of sex, Scripps is bulking up on stars swinging sledge hammers. The company rolled out a slew of celeb-fronted shows, including 1980s icon Mr. T (“I Pity the Tool”), actor and comedian Jim Belushi “Building Belushi”), and singer Daryl Hall (“Daryl’s Restoration Over-Hall”).
A returning show, “The Vanilla Ice Project,” has the former rapper renovating mansions in Florida.
And professional hoofers Mark Ballas and Derek Hough from “Dancing with the Stars” are trading in their tap shoes for nail guns in “Mark & Derek’s Excellent Flip.”