HGTV Extends Pact With ‘Property Brothers’ Through 2022 (EXCLUSIVE)
Click here to read the full article.
The Property Brothers have become famous for their home renovations. In 2020, they intend to start building something else – a content empire.
Drew and Jonathan Scott have renewed a deal with Discovery Inc.’s HGTV that will keep them on the home-improvement network through 2022. As part of the agreement, the siblings and their Scott Brothers Entertainment received pick-up orders for “Property Brothers: Forever Home” and a new season of the competition series “Brother vs. Brother.” They will also develop other home-related series – they say they have a TV project set to be revealed in the new year – and digital content.
More from Variety
The brothers attribute their success to keeping up with their fans. “We actually have a team that takes all this data and analyzes it, and when people say, ‘Here’s what we want, here’s the way we live, here’s something you’re not doing,’ those are the things we keep paying attention to,” says Jonathan Scott, in an interview.
There are other big endeavors in the work as well. Meredith with launch Reveal, a new magazine built around the duo, and Drew Scott is set to launch a new podcast that will have him and his wife, Linda, interviewing celebrities and inspirational personalities.
The association with HGTV helps the brothers’ overall business, says Drew Scott. “People see HGTV as a safe haven for positive programming that anyone in the family can watch,” he adds.
The Canadian twins have long held jobs in the real-estate sector – just not the kind that required them to be in front of a camera. Drew Scott was a real-estate expert while Jonathan was a contractor. But they were noticed by the Canadian production company Cineflix, and launched “Property Brothers” for distribution in their home country. As time went by, HGTV noticed the series, and when it debuted in the U.S., its ratings helped buoy the network.
Since that time, the Scotts also launched “Forever Home,” a show that tackles renovations not in new homes but in houses that have been in families for generations; as well as the competition series. They were also involved in Discovery’s recent series built around renovating the home that served as the centerpiece for the vintage series “The Brady Bunch.”
The brothers were recently able to acquire the rights to the seasons of “Property Brothers” they did not originally control, says Jonathan, which gives them more control over one their production company’s major assets.
“Drew and Jonathan are multi-talented HGTV stars and producers who deliver innovative and impactful content across all our platforms—linear and digital,” said Jane Latman, president, HGTV, in a statement. “They are great collaborators, full of fun ideas and our audience and advertisers love them. It’s why we’ve ordered 40 more episodes of ‘Property Brothers: Forever Home’ and six new episodes of ‘Brother vs. Brother,’ and why we have several new projects in development with them.”
The Scotts say they want to keep on renovating. “We have now hosted more hours of original content than any other person in the history of our space,” says Drew Scott. “We have done 400 episodes of our shows. That’s bananas. And there are a lot of people we have been able to help, which is really rewarding.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
