Well, it looks like Discovery has finally discovered streaming. On December 2, the media company announced the global launch of its own streaming service, Discovery+, which will debut on January 4, 2021. Discovery+ bills itself in the press release as “the definitive streaming service for the best real life entertainment in the world,†with “real life entertainment†being a fancy new way of saying “reality TV.†Networks under the Discovery umbrella include HGTV, Food Network, TLC, OWN, and Animal Planet, so there will be much more than just nature documentaries (although there will also be nature documentaries, including BBC’s Planet Earth).
In addition to offering more than 55,000 episodes from over 2,500 series available to stream on demand, Discovery+ will also debut new original series from familiar talents. These include:
- Three new spinoffs of 90 Day Fiancé
- A spinoff of Long Island Medium, subtitled There in Spirit, that sees Theresa Caputo conducting séances over Zoom in the COVID era
- A Jim Henson baking show called Duff’s Happy Fun Bake Time
- A topiary-competition series called Clipped, hosted by Michael Urie and featuring Martha Stewart as judge
- A show where Ludacris learns how to cook
- … and a nature-doc series narrated by famed paleontologist David Schwimmer
Discovery+ will cost $4.99 a month with ads, $6.99 ad free, and Verizon customers will get a free year. Basically, it’s the sort of programming you’ve been hanging on to cable for, but in a cord-cutter model.