Discovery greenlights lifestyle and entertainment commissions, recommissions
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Editor
| 20 February 2020

Entertainment giant Discovery has boosted its investment in lifestyle and entertainment shows with three new series’ and two major recommissions for Quest Red, HGTV and Really, with more to be announced during 2020.

Female-focused channel Quest Red will offer The Nolans in the Mood for Cruising (8x60’) following the singing sisters as they go on their first shared trip and first singing reunion, in decades. The sisters visit beautiful cities and towns and enjoy luxury treatment on board MSC Grandiosa, one of the biggest Cruise ships in the world, while preparing for a grand finale reunion show on the ship. The series, produced by Koska, explores themes around loss, finding love in middle age, the strength of female friendships and battling illness.

Cash in the Spare Room (10x60’ - pictured) produced by Glasgow based Friel Kean Films for HGTV follows Sarah Moore (Money For Nothing) and Max McMurdo (George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces) as they help people attempt to turn unused spaces in their homes into lucrative holiday lets. From spare rooms to garages, outbuildings to caravans – the design duo travel across the United Kingdom transforming spaces on a wide variety of budgets for profit.

Clear Out Cash In (10x60’) follows Yorkshire auctioneer Angus Ashworth and his team as they clear out houses packed full of trinkets, treasure and junk - transforming former family homes to empty shells, ready for sale. The items of value go to auction, with profits going to the owner, and the rest recycled or taken to the tip. Along the way in the programme produced by STV Productions for Really, the team also uncover the heartfelt stories behind some of the owners and the items going to auction.

Helicopter ER (30x60’) produced by Yorkshire based Air Television returns to Really for a fifth and sixth series, after delivering the channels’ biggest rating episode of the year in 2019. While The Bad Skin Clinic (12x60’) produced by Birmingham’s Full Fat TV for Quest Red returns to see Dr Emma Craythorne treat more desperate skin conditions in a second series, after delivering the channels’ second-highest rating ever.

Clare Laycock, SVP, head of lifestyle and entertainment brands at Discovery UK and Ireland, ordered the programmes. Commenting on the commissions she said: “I am so pleased to announce this stellar line-up of new commissions and re-commissions for our fabulous free-to-air channels Quest Red, HGTV and Really. Half of Discovery’s audience are now women, and our increased investment in lifestyle and entertainment content signals our commitment to deepening engagement with these viewers.”