Crazy Days and Nights: Paula Deen Has Her Own Network Now

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Paula Deen Has Her Own Network Now

Paula Deen and her investors must think she still has a huge following and will make them all rich. Backed by a $100M investment, Paula Deen launches her own online cooking network tomorrow. If you love Paula and want to watch her you will have to pay about $10 a month for the privilege. That seems really steep considering how much Netflix and Amazon charge for their programming is actually a little less. Paula recently bought all the episodes of every Food Network show she ever filmed so is starting with those 440 episodes and is also going to have a live cooking show in front of an audience. With so many cooking shows available for free on cable or online, I just don't see how there are going to be that many people willing to fork over that kind of money just to watch re-runs of her old cooking shows and to see her cook new dishes. I also don't know if people have forgiven her yet to the point where they want to give her their money. It is one thing to watch her show, but another to give her money.

38 comments:

ladybaus said...: She will be bankrupt by the end of the year. Honey Boo Boo has better chance of success with their own network ---; 7:17 AM
cece said...: You know, being a racist (and not really being remorseful about it) is bad enough, but her out of bounds ego also makes her so gross to me. I can't see her without feeling repulsed.; 7:18 AM
CoBe said...: I've never watched her and don't plan to, BUT good on her for giving it a shot.

I'm sure the shows won't be limited to just what she has done. She will find a few good chefs and compete outright with the Food Network.

Martha came back stronger after scandal. So will Paula.; 7:18 AM
Kelly said...: I think it'll do well actually.; 7:20 AM
All Lace no Leather said...: I can't imagine someone paying monthly just for access to one show/series. I wonder how the investors crunched the numbers to think this could work?; 7:21 AM
Sherry said...: Agreed Derek. Even Oprah had to make her channel free and it has much more varied programming.

I'd much rather watch Ming, Lidia, Americas Test Kitchen and Jaques for free on PBS.; 7:21 AM
ladybaus said...: I for one am sick of cooking shows--I have basic cable and seems every time I turn on the tv it is some sorta cooking show or competition ---what ever happened to getting your recipes from a cookbook or the internet---watching people cook is boring to me.; 7:26 AM
MISCH said...: Let's put her right up there with Sarah Palin; 7:30 AM
Seven of Eleven said...: Isn't Sarah Palin trying the same thing on line?

It takes a certain level of self-delusion to think that people will shell out $120 a year for the sole privilege of listening to you talk, be it about politics or butter.; 7:30 AM
Kat has left the building said...: Well this explains why Wendy Williams just reported that Paula was on the Today Show apologizing again. I wonder why Wendy didn't mention the new venture... I thought it was weird of Paula to bring it up again but this explains it. For $10 you better get a lot!; 7:31 AM
All Lace no Leather said...: @Derek, where do you watch Girls?; 7:35 AM
ladybaus said...: ad not too mention he recipes are incredibly UNHEALTHY---the states have Michelle Obama focusing her efforts to end obesity and this ding bat adding pounds of butter to everything while bitching about being diabetic and health issues; 7:35 AM
ladybaus said...: @lace---the net or friends houses---and I buy the dvds when they come out : ); 7:36 AM
VeronicaCostello said...: Maybe she sends you complimentary sets of her cookware and cutlery with your payment, like the football phones Sports Illustrated used to give with a subscription.; 7:37 AM
Bokonon said...: Proud racists will subscribe just to spite the "liberal agenda". Hmm..Ads on FOX news should do the trick. If she drops an n bomb or two on air, she could probably raise the subscription fee!; 7:38 AM
All Lace no Leather said...: @ Derek I thought maybe you some secret access.; 7:57 AM
Dexamyl said...: I don't hold it against her that she used a racist term 30 years ago (a fact we wouldn't even know if she hadn't volunteered it during a deposition ). Her actions in the intervening years have shown her not to be bigoted.

That said, this venture seems ill-conceived. Still, despite all the free porn on the web, pay sites can be profitable as well. Maybe her fan base is big enough to make this viable.; 8:13 AM
auntliddy said...: Heres how i see it: we all know who she is and how she stands on certain issues. Up to watch person if they want to watch her or not. I wldnt, but i dont watch cooking shows anyhiw. There are alot of people on tv and radio i cant stand. My choice us to not watch or listen. Case closed. Everybody else can do as they please.; 8:18 AM
auntliddy said...: Each person; 8:18 AM
Essie said...: I think she will do just fine. I've never been a fan and won't be watching but there are plenty of people who still love her and think she got a raw deal. Plus, I'm sure the investors did their homework. New York and LA are not the whole of the US.

The reason Oprah's network got off to such a slow start is because Oprah wasn't on it. She thought her name would make it work but people wanted to see HER. Once she got truly involved with her own show and then got Tyler Perry to create shows, the network took off and is a moneymaker for Lifetime.; 8:43 AM
Dorothy said...: This won't do well. Her primary demographic is similar to Fox news - the older, less educated folks who either don't know how or cant afford a computer. Plus, those old ladies already know how to cook everything they're ever going to venture to make so they're not going to blow their fixed incomes on this.

I'm guessing the investors who backed this were the Koch brothers who have $100M to throw away on stupid ideas like a Paula Deen "network". God help whoever gives her their email address because they'll soon be inundated with pleas for money from every Republican candidate running for office once she sells her lists to make extra money to stay afloat.; 9:10 AM
Sunnykm said...: Wow @Dorothy! You got us Fox watchers profiled. While I won't be subscribing to Paula's network, I do watch Fox. I am educated, and am likely way more tolerant of everyone's life and lifestyle choices than what you just posted about me.; 9:20 AM
Ms B'have said...: There's a crazy article on Gawker written by a journalist who went on a Paula Deen "gravy" cruise.
I ❤️ chefs like Julia Child and Jacques Pepin!!; 9:28 AM
Susan said...: The blanketed stereotypical comments made on the Paula Deen posts on CDAN never fail to amuse me.; 10:15 AM
Tina Mallette said...: When Oprah is having trouble running a network, a whole channel is lot of time to fill up. And competing vs the Food Network's new and other programming is not going to be easy; 10:18 AM
NomNom83 said...: 1.) This is a brilliant move on her part. Seriously. If you are Paula Deen, you definitely love everything about this: other people's money, scandal is behind you, you can't be fired.

2.) I want to know who the investors are and why they think it's a $100 million idea. I don't get it. Or, rather, I don't see how they valued it *that* high. Those eps had to have been dirt cheap to buy and give her a catalog to work with but... that's just not enough.

3.) I wonder what's up with PD these days. Does she understand why her perspective and word vomit were so backwards? I'm talking all the other stuff besides her use of the N word. Like, you said it 20 years ago and you've gained an appreciation for how ugly and degrading the word is, I can look past it. But when you defend shit like the plantation wedding and mistreatment of non-white employees, when you back your racist-ass brother (who seems way, way worse)... nope. So, some time has passed and I wonder if she's really learned from it.; 10:24 AM
LogDog said...: HBO is considering making HBOGO subscribable for streaming, and they wouldn't even charge $10 a month.

If you're going to make a business venture into a field or industry you don't understand, you should probably try to understand it first.

The people who would subscribe to this are people who shun cable/satellite for being too expensive. So $10 a month? Sounds legit.; 10:46 AM
Seven of Eleven said...: @LogDog, HBO has THIS.

Paula Deen Network has THIS.

BUT I totally agree with you. As good a plan as it sounds, though, all of those former Verizon and Comcast leaders who now work at the FCC (and vice versa) are going to push the Comcast/TWC merger ahead and we're going to lose a lot of net neutrality.; 11:26 AM
Count Jerkula said...: She gonna make bank on this.; 12:45 PM
Trilby said...: +1, Unknown. I'm actually so iconoclastic I voted for Nader and would never watch Fox news; but I'm so disturbed by the utter arrogance and snottiness of the judgie comments on this thread. Wow. I'm no fan of Paula Deen's schtick, but I do think she was the victim of a hypocritical witch hunt, & got a raw deal. Wishing her success so she can tell all the real racists in sheep's clothing to fu*k off.; 1:13 PM
Trilby said...: And incidentally, while I don't agree with their politics (except on law and order sort of issues, & some other things), & I loathe the Koch brothers and the oligarchy this country has become; I will absolutely say that most of the segment of my friends who watch Fox News (b/c unlike closed-minded people, I have friends from all types of belief systems) are MBAs, at minimum (some JDs, MDs, etc. Superficial labels as epithets, kindergarten-style division, & p.c.-ing are great dangers to this society.; 1:21 PM
OKay said...: I can't stand Paula Deen. And I do think that the majority of her fans are people who can ill-afford to spend $10 a month just to listen to her schtick. I don't see this working for her, and that's okay with me.

If you are indeed educated and watch FOX news - can you please explain why?; 3:04 PM
auntliddy said...: Trilby-as for your friends who are so super smart but still watch Foxnews, think about what you're saying! And how come all of a sudden everyone who watches fox is a phd who really doesnt agree with their philosophy? Lol; 4:38 PM
Tori said...: @Nom got it right - saying Paula will go bankrupt isn't correct. I'm sure she put some of her own money up but a $100M investment is quite substantial and means her backers must hold her personal brand and following at a much higher valuation than the rest of us do.

One of the things I'm most curious about is how much of that investment was spent on the rights to her older content from Food Network. I'm guessing she probably got a fairly solid deal because Food Network likely had no intention of ever airing her reruns again.

I'm guessing it'll do OK. Nowhere near what investors and Paula must be expecting. But if she hires a solid team that churns out content like recipe blog posts, social media updates, a bit of advertising (lord knows they have the budget) and other shit regularly, they could grow their audience consistently and probably monetize their following by offering "special deals" (IE partnering with other brands to hawk their shit at a discounted rate, getting a negotiated percentage of sales). Maybe she'll go the Blake Lively route and try to curate products on her site.

Maybe it's just the wine I've had.; 6:39 PM
FlirtyChick74 said...: I still can't stand her but I think she will do well too. If people can justify buying expensive crap from infomercials then they can justify spending $120/year on her.; 7:57 PM
Henriette said...: $10 a month for to tell you to use a pound of butter in everything? I think that's a bit steep for heart disease.; 12:39 AM
PinkFlamingo said...: I live in Savannah, and I am here to tell you that Paula Deen still has an ENORMOUS fan following. Paula Deen tourism is a HUGE industry in Savannah. There is a Paula Deen Tour, on a trolley tour, and the lines for The Lady & Sons (her restaurant), at times, can stretch for 2 blocks. There is a Paula Deen Store next to the restaurant with all of her merchandise in it, and people haul it out by the truckload. People, LOTS of people, actually travel to Savannah on a vacation just to eat at her restaurant. Her restaurant is basically a home-cooking buffet, which is standard restaurant fare in the South. Her food is nothing special and exceedingly overpriced. If you are visiting Savannah and want a true Southern food experience, you are much better off going to Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House on Jones St. You'll still wait in line but the food is WAYYYY better.; 5:46 AM
A girl said...: Watched an episode of her show once and felt ill. So. Much. Butter! And other fat stuff. It wasn't appetizing, just nausea-inducing.; 9:25 PM

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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Paula Deen Has Her Own Network Now

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