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Exiting Warner Bros. Discovery Networks CEO Kathleen Finch on Outbidding Lance Bass for ‘Brady Bunch’ House, and the Challenges Facing Cable TV

24 Oct 2024, 15:30 by Jennifer Maas · Variety

Kathleen Finch is hungry for a break. The outgoing Chairman and CEO, US Networks, at Warner Bros. Discovery took over the company’s entire cornucopia of domestic cable networks after the merger of Discovery and Warner Bros., capping a career that included time as a programming exec at Food Network, then more lifestyle brands before ending with that huge portfolio platter.

But as the business evolves, Finch told Variety that she’s been cooking up an exit plan for some time. The announcement regarding her choice was formally made in August, but she said she actually “made the decision privately almost a year ago” to retire from her position. As Finch prepares to depart at the end of 2024, her oversight will be assumed by Warner Bros. Television chairperson Channing Dungey.

For CEO David Zaslav, who has worked with Finch since Discovery acquired Scripps Networks in 2018, he admitted that “when Kathleen shared that she wanted to retire at the end of 2024, it was hard for me to imagine this company without her. Her impact on solidifying the leadership position of our network brands, creating some of our most successful unscripted content, and generating incredible returns for our business cannot be overstated. I will miss her as both a colleague and friend.”

Finch first dabbled in food media writing restaurant reviews for the Stanford University student newspaper in college. She later spent 12 years as a producer at CBS News, before joining Food Network in 1999. Over the years she helped evolve that outlet’s programming to become a key lifestyle destination and build chefs like Guy Fieri into superstars.

“I may have started my journey with ‘Food Network Star,’ but the true star of the Food Network is Kathleen,” Fieri said. “Kathleen believed in my passion and my viewpoint from the very beginning, supporting me at every turn but also shooting straight at all times. She has more than earned her retirement, but we will absolutely miss her.”

As for what Finch plans to do next — and if she’s actually retired, or just retired from WBD — that’s up in the air at the moment.

“I’ve watched many friends go two ways: they either retire early, like I’m doing, and they say, ‘That’s it. I’m out. I’m going to go have fun,’ and they stay out. Or, within a year, they’re back,” Finch said. “I have no idea. I’ve worked since I was a teenager without a break, so I don’t know. I’ve already gotten some phone calls about, ‘Hey, would you think about coming and doing this?’ Maybe, give me some time. But my plan is to go out and retire. But I also know enough to never say never.”

Read more from Finch’s exit interview with Variety below.

When did you first discuss leaving with CEO David Zaslav and what was his reaction?

I had a couple of conversations with David as I was thinking it through. None of my conversations were definitive, they were all, ‘here’s what I’m thinking about doing.’ David was so respectful and, as a matter of fact, the first thing he said was, ‘Wow, you’ve had an amazing career.’ And I thought that was just lovely of him to say, because it’s kind of how I felt. It’s not like I haven’t put in my dues. I was nervous to tell him, I won’t lie, but he was so kind and supportive about the decision. And he totally got it. He and I have been in the trenches for a long time in this business; the ups and downs, the craziness, the weekends, all the rest. So he totally understood where I was coming from and was very respectful. So I guess you could say I worried for nothing.

What is the transition period like right now as you prepare to hand over things to Channing Dungey?

It’s very much a team effort. There’s plenty of time. I announced that I was leaving in August, but I’m not leaving until the end of the year. There’s many months, many opportunities, lots of sharing, lots of road shows and info gathering. It’s one of those opportunities to really do it the right way, to make sure that there’s plenty of time to absorb information, ask questions, have handoffs. I think it’s going to be very seamless. So far it has been. And I’ve got the best leadership team in the industry with everybody that runs these networks. I’ve got such a group of great people here who really know their brands. They know the audience, they know the production community, they know the agents, they know the talent. So I’m not worried about transition, because I think this is a really, really well oiled machine. Mama is leaving the building, but the kids are all adults, and they know how to do it.

How did your career at Warner Bros. Discovery begin?

I actually came to cable from broadcast. For 12 years, I was a news producer at CBS News. And cable was just kind of beginning and was the Wild West. And when cable was first beginning, it became a little bit of a refuge for a lot of women who were frustrated at not being able to get ahead in the broadcast business. A lot of them found great reception at the burgeoning cable business. So I went to the Food Network when it was just a startup. It was a brand new business and it was a staff of like eight of us and everybody thought it was a ridiculous idea. Who would want to watch a 24/7 network about cooking? Then, of course, we became part of the Scripps team that had launched HGTV, which was a 24/7 cable network just about homes. That niche cable business when it first was beginning was met with such skepticism in the industry, and yet we defied all odds. Millions and millions of people pledged their loyalty and subscribed to our cable channels and just became uber fans. It’s something that just a few years before, had been deemed a ridiculous experiment. We used to have parties for every 5 million additional subscribers. None of us knew it would become so big and and end up becoming the market share for so many years of media. And then we joined Discovery. So it’s interesting to watch it now, because you might say that my timing is quite brilliant — I got in just as a roller coaster was taking off, and now I just figured out the right time to get out. We were a 50% margin business for many, many years, and there was no stopping it. It was just a remarkable business to be in, and I’m really excited and feel very lucky to have been a part of that.

What is your proudest achievement throughout your time at Scripps, Discovery and then Warner Bros. Discovery?

Looking back on my whole career, my proudest achievement is something that we did a few years ago at HGTV called ‘A Very Brady Renovation.’ We bought the house that had been used for the exteriors. And I will tell you, ‘The Brady Bunch’ television series is the reason why I got into television. When I was a little kid, I grew up with these super intellectual, Greenwich Village, artsy parents who did not let me watch very much television at all. It was very highly regulated. They thought it was a waste of time. ‘The Brady Bunch’ was one of the very few things that they would allow me to watch. And I just lusted after this show. I thought it was like this amazing family, everything about it. So when the ‘Brady Bunch’ house came on the market and we had the opportunity to buy, we totally overbid for it. We were able to buy it and we decided we’re going to renovate it and make it look like the actual ‘Brady Bunch’ house with interiors like the show’s sets were modeled after. And then the biggest task I’ve ever been given in my career was by David Zaslav, who said, ‘All right, now you have to get all six of the Brady kids to commit to be on the show.’ And they had famously never done anything together since ‘The Brady Bunch’ days. But lo and behold, was able to make it happen. And they all came on board. We did this amazing renovation show. I got to hang out with them, which was my childhood fantasy. Every morning now, I drink out of a coffee cup that has a picture of me with the six ‘Brady’ kids standing in front of the ‘Brady Bunch’ house. So without a doubt that was my most proudest achievement.

It was insane, and one of those crazy ideas, like, can we do it? Should we try? And David was very supportive. We got into this huge bidding war with Lance Bass, of all people, and we won the house because David said, ‘I don’t care how much it cost, it’s a great idea. Go buy the house.’ We spent so much money renovating the house, but it looked incredible. And I was standing in the house when all six of the ‘Brady’ kids walked into it for the first time, and their minds were totally blown, because they’d only ever been on fake sets with a fake upstairs and no real roof. There was no such thing as the interior of the house. So to be able to stand there while they all walked in and saw it for the first time was something I will never, ever forget. And then the show rated really well!

With all the talent you’ve worked with and those you have personally discovered over the years, how have you balanced maintaining who these people were and turning them into what they are now?

That’s a good way to phrase it. When I first came to Food Network, the very first talent that I worked with was Anthony Bourdain, before anybody really knew who he was. And he was a really good example of somebody who was a little bit larger than life. He had an attitude that came through the screen. And he was a challenge, I’m not gonna lie, to work with. But he just had this personality that made you stop. And one of the things that I used to say back in the early days when we were trying to find talent was, they have to pass the ‘remote test.’ Meaning you’re sitting on your living room couch, you’re flicking through the channels with your remote, and if the person makes you stop and at least spend like 15 seconds checking them out, then they’re worth investing in. So people like Anthony passed the remote test. Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, Guy Fieri, the Property Brothers. The first time I saw the Property Brothers, I was like, I cannot wait to get these guys on television. They are amazing. There’s something about people that are normal, everyday people, but they have something special.

One of the sweetest notes I got from one of the Food Network talent when I announced that I was retiring. He sent me a very long, sweet text, and he said, ‘If it weren’t for you, I would still be a line cook at TGI Fridays.’ And he was kidding, but it was very, very funny. It did sort of sum up what we’re able to do for some. We build brands around these people. They have furniture lines, they have restaurants, they have pots and pans. I mean, the businesses that that these people are able to build with us in partnership is incredible, and I feel so lucky to have witnessed that and be a part of it, because they all deserve it. These guys are incredibly talented and to have some small part in giving them an opportunity that is just really incredible. It’s always been one of the most satisfying parts of my job: finding a talent that you really want to see be successful, and then just trying everything you can to help them.

What projects across the larger Warner Bros. Discovery are you looking forward to watching from the outside now?

‘Superman’ is going to be incredible next year and we have so many things planned on the U.S. network side to support it and to ride the superhero wave. So that I am really excited about because I think that’s one of the things that our company does better than anybody; we all lean in. And when it’s something like a ‘Harry Potter’ or a ‘Barbie’ or a ‘Superman,’ there are so many touch points for so many different people, men, women, children. Everybody loves it, and everybody can come to it from a different angle, different stage of life. So the fact that we’ll be able to celebrate it in different ways across the U.S. networks is going to be really fun. We have a lot of very cool ideas around Food Network and ‘Shark Wee'” and all kinds of things. So that’s something I’m very excited to see next summer launch.

Are you going to bring James Gunn onto HGTV to make the Fortress of Solitude?

No, you know what we want? We’ve already said we want James Gunn to do — and I was able to ask him this in a public forum — he’s a huge animal advocate, and we want to use him for the ‘Puppy Bowl.’ The good news is, we’ll probably get him to adopt about 12 more puppies, and then everybody wins.

You’ve had oversight of the T-Nets — TBS, TNT, Tru TV — for a couple years since the WarnerMedia merger. What did you learn from that experience vs. managing the Discovery portfolio?

The T-Nets remind me a little bit of my days back at CBS. It’s very much a broadcast model as opposed to a cable model. The T-Nets are not niche networks. They are really run like broadcast networks with an audience point of view, but not a genre point of view. TNT was very well known for drama, but then we added sports, we added AEW wrestling, we added a lot of things that spoke to a big, broad audience. But we’re not necessarily that narrow niche that a TLC or an ID or a Food Network are. And one of the things that has been very exciting about working with the T-Nets is being reminded of the power of movies. We can stack these really great like superhero movies, movie stunts around Halloween and movie stunts around Christmas. We do have some new scripted content that’s going to come starting next year, which has been fun to work on, but it’s just different. It’s much more of a broadcast model, which is not what I traditionally have worked in. I’ve been much more of a niche specialist, but it’s been fun to kind of spread out a little bit.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the linear business as you exit?

There are a lot of challenges facing the linear businesses. People want to watch content, so I think the one thing that a linear executive cannot dwell on is focusing on the platform that your content is airing on. Because people want to watch the content, they don’t necessarily want to watch it on linear. So it’s finding the other ways to get it in front of an audience, or to make sure that it’s on linear often enough that the audience has a chance to find it. The old days of, “It’s Thursday, I have to turn on NBC,” are gone. People are sampling. They’re going to streaming first. The audience behavior is so completely different that you can’t gain the audience the way you used to be able to. Just make sure that you’re getting your great content out on every platform as many ways as you possibly can, so that people have an opportunity to find it. There isn’t enough marketing money in the world anymore to drive a big event on one night of the week, and then assume that people will know it’s on and come to see it.

How have you approached working with Channing Dungey to take over your job running U.S. networks, while simultaneously remaining in her position as head of the WB studio side?

She’s the person for the job. I don’t want to speak for her, but I would say the team here is so good and so seasoned and so successful already that I feel very proud of the tools that she’s being given, and the team that she’s given, because they’re really good at their jobs, and they really want to win, and they really want these brands to stay successful. So she has such a great team and such a great group of people to learn from on the U.S. nets side, and everyone is so enthusiastic about her coming in that I think it’s going to be a really easy transition for her. Yes, on paper, it sounds like a lot. I mean, I couldn’t believe when David said he wanted me to run 25 cable networks. It sounds impossible, but it’s not as long as you hire the best people, put them in the jobs and empower them to make the right decisions. I mean, could a micromanager do Channing’s job or my job? No, but people who have learned that you make sure that you’ve got the right people, and you trust them, and you empower them, and you’re there for them when they need you, is probably the best way to run of these businesses that are so large.

Any final thoughts?

My second-most-proud moment, just because I thought it was kind of amazing. A few years ago, the Property Brothers came to me, and they had this idea for the show ‘Celebrity IOU,’ celebrities giving back with a home renovation. They said, ‘We can get all these A-list stars and it’ll be a great show.’ And I said, ‘I trust you guys, I always think you deliver. But A-list and cable doesn’t really always go together, and I really worry about the caliber of talent we could get.’ And they said, ‘Well, how about if we could get you, Brad Pitt?’ I said, ‘Well, if you get me, Brad Pitt, you’ve got 13 episodes guaranteed.’ So about a month goes by and they’ve sent me a list and sure enough, they got Brad Pitt, and the reason that they were able to get him was because he was such a fan of HGTV. And that’s how we have continued to book A-list stars on that show, because all these celebrities love HGTV. That’s something that makes me so incredibly proud to think, that somebody like a Brad Pitt would get excited about being on our little cable network that we started 25 years ago, that we didn’t even think would amount to a whole lot.

This interview has been edited and condensed.