The Morning After: Discovery Home Gets Ready to Die

In six days, Discovery Home ceases to exist, or, to put it more positively, is reborn as Discovery's enviro-themed Planet Green channel. It's a little sad. I always had a soft spot for Discovery Home; for one thing, it was the home to the now-defunct Cookin' in Brooklyn, restaurateur Alan Harding's offbeat food show based in my home borough. Still, I can see why the channel didn't last. It didn't have a clear identity. It was always a little this, a little that; a little cooking, a little home design, a little lifestyle. Now, it'll be a little this, a little that--but green!

Attention must be paid, though, even to cable's misfit losers, so I spent a while last night attending Discovery Home's televised wake for itself. Last night, the channel was running a block of shows like neat [sic] and Clean Sweep, which are both about the need to ruthlessly clean house and get rid of outmoded junk, without sentimentality. As they say on neat, you can sell the idea of throwing things out to kids by phrasing it differently: you're not throwing things away, you're choosing things to trade between the throwaway pile and the keep pile! (A strategy I totally plan to use with the Tuned In Jrs. when we get ready for a housecleaning stoop sale in a few weeks.)

Likewise, Discovery Networks isn't throwing out Discovery Home—it's trading it for Planet Green! I'm sure Discovery Home will clean up behind itself impeccably when it goes.