HGTV Adds Sara Burns and Liz Brach To Programming and Scheduling Teams

HGTV has added two new staffers to the network teams that develop content, oversee production and formulate the scheduling and program strategy for such hit series as Property Brothers: Forever Home, Flip or Flop, Christina on the Coast, My Lottery Dream Home and, premiering Sept. 9, A Very Brady Renovation. Sara Burns transitions to the network from Discovery, Inc. sister net, Investigation Discovery (ID).  She has been elevated to senior vice president, scheduling and program strategy at HGTV.  Burns is charged with steering HGTV’s long-range program planning and spearheading the collaborative effort among its various teams.  She will be based in New York City, reporting to Julie Taylor, senior vice president, U.S. scheduling & program strategy.  Liz Brach joins the network as senior director, programming. Based in New York and reporting to Betsy Ayala, senior vice president, programming & development, Brach will develop/supervise series and specials for the top-performing cable net.

“We’re continuing to up the ante on how best to inspire viewing among coveted audiences, so adding two more A+ players, like Sara and Liz, to the team is a big win,” said Jane Latman, president, HGTV.  “New insights, perspectives and big ideas for how we can stretch what it means to create and share content in the home space — and keep viewers coming back to HGTV’s on-air and on digital platforms – is job one.  Keeping the internal talent bench strong is a huge part of our overarching goal.”

Burns, who previously served as vice president of programming for ID, helped optimize the network’s program schedules and guided long-range programming needs for more than 650 hours of original content each year.  Burns was part of the launch team for Investigation Discovery in 2008 when it was rebranded from Discovery Times Channel and served as director of programming and manager of programming for both ID and Military Channel.  During her tenure, she also worked on several productions and is credited on programs such as Wicked Attraction, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, Solved and Last Seen Alive. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona.

Brach joins HGTV from Natural History New Zealand (NHNZ) where she served as vice president of production and development for NHNZ’s U.S. clients, including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic and PBS. Prior to joining NHNZ, she was senior director of development and programming for Discovery Networks International where she oversaw development and production of global series and specials, including the award-winning Rise of the Warrior Apes and the multi-platform series Everest Rescue. Before her career at Discovery International, Brach was vice president of production and development at Discovery Channel US, where she supervised the creation of Emmy-winning Cash Cab, Emmy-winning event series LIFE, Man vs Wild, Storm Chasers, Most Evil and Future Weapons. While in this role, she also oversaw the production of returning series including Deadliest Catch, Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs, as well as three of the highest rated Shark Weeks in network history.

ABOUT HGTV

HGTV delivers the superstar experts, fascinating families, compelling renovations and stunning transformations that make all things home fun. America’s favorite way to get entertaining, relatable and inspirational home and lifestyle content, HGTV offers: a top 10 cable network that is distributed to more than 88 million U.S. households; a website, HGTV.com, that attracts an average of 10.8 million people each month; a social footprint of 20.6 million; HGTV Magazine, a monthly publication that reaches more than one million readers and exclusive collections of home-oriented products through the HGTV HOME™ consumer products line.  Viewers can become fans of HGTV and interact with other home improvement enthusiasts through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. HGTV is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment spanning 220 countries and territories, whose portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.