​“Ellen’s Design Challenge” is set to debut next year, Food Network is working on 20 new series including a daytime show with Valerie Bertinelli and Travel Channel greenlit eight pilots this week.

With that much on its plate, Scripps Networks (which includes HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and DIY) has a lot to present this upfront season. First, HGTV announced it is enlisting daytime talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres for a design competition series set to debut next year. “Ellen’s Design Challenge” from her A Very Good Production company will focus on furniture design and put six contestants to the test over six episodes to win a cash prize.

DIY also has plans to enhance its celebrity brand, including renovation shows with William Shatner and Daryl Hall. HGTV and DIY also just unveiled their new upfronts branding project, featuring big names with pops of color to cover the New York city streets.

Food Network has 20 new series in the works, including a daytime show from “Hot in Cleveland’s” Valerie Bertinelli coming this fall and a teen version of its “Chopped” competition series. “Chopped: Teens Tournament” will be a limited series set to debut in July, with teen chefs competing for a culinary school scholarship. The channel also has its priority on celebrity brands, with a competition show with Bill Rancic on its development slate as well as one from Joey Fatone.

“Increasing our development slate to satiate the audience demand for entertaining and informative programming has been our focus,” Brooke Johnson, president of Food Network and Cooking Channel, said in a statement.

Food Network also recently purchased data startup Food on the Table as a way to expand its digital presence. The local startup aims to help consumers shop for and plan meals. Cooking Channel is planning to add a cooking show with actress Haylie Duff.

Scripps’ Travel Channel greenlit eight pilots as part of its upfront this week, including an investor opportunity in “Adventure Capitalists,” personal stories in areas of conflict in “Breaking Borders” and “Nigel’s Last Resort” with developer Nigel Franklin (all working titles).

Steve Gigliotti, Scripps’ president of ad sales, also said this week that advertisers need to stop focusing their media plans on the same kind of genres they’re used to, which typically puts channels like Food Network and Travel Channel into the general entertainment category. Instead, advertisers should create a new subsection called “lifestyle.” The lifestyle category, he says, gets more engaged viewers who also lean toward live programming.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Ad Age.

Brief Take: Scripps spread out plenty of celebrity-centered projects across its lifestyle channels during its upfront, making sure advertisers know the networks both as a single brand and as individual networks with specific audiences.

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