fter his company, the former
Discovery Communications,
bought Scripps Networks In-
teractive in March 2018, David
Zaslav immediately began look-
ing for ways to make a big splash
and “supersize” the audience for
HGTV and the other networks
in his expanded portfolio. During an early meet-
ing with his new management team, the Discov-
ery Inc. chairman and CEO recalls, he told them,
“Let’s open up the lens. There’s a lot of great char-
acters and properties and opportunities out there.
What would we do if we could do anything?”
The first answer came that July, when reports
surfaced that the Brady Bunch home—i.e., the
house in L.A.’s Studio City that had been used
for exterior shots in the iconic ’70s sitcom about
a blended family with six siblings—was on the
market. During an HGTV development meet-
ing, director of programming Robert Wimbish
suggested making a bid on the property, which
quickly led Kathleen Finch, Discovery’s chief
lifestyle brands officer, to email Zaslav with the
idea. Within moments, Zaslav—who had watched
a Today segment about the house that morning
with his wife, Pam (“She said to me, ‘That’s my
and everyone I know’s favorite house. That’s the
house we all wanted’”)—was on the phone with
Finch. “I said, ‘It’s done; we’re doing it,’” recalls
Zaslav, who ended up paying $3.5 million to se-
cure the property. “We would have paid anything
for this. It really wasn’t an auction, because we
were buying it.” Notes Finch, “I had no idea that
he would react so enthusiastically, because he
wrote a big check to overpay for a house. But he
wants us to think big—and that’s really fun.”
Both execs, to paraphrase The Brady Bunch’s
iconic theme song, knew it was much more than a
hunch that the pricey property would ultimately
lead to an audience and advertiser bonanza. That
split-second decision to take such a big swing—one
that Finch said would have never been considered
under HGTV’s previous owner, Scripps—has led to
A Very Brady Renovation, which debuts Monday,
Sept. 9, on HGTV. The series reunites all six Brady
INSIDE A VERY
BRADY
RENOVATION
