Discovery Channel | featured news

Silver Spring-based Discovery network has joined the march of nonfiction cable networks to the land of scripted programming. But Discovery has not strayed far from home: That first project is a miniseries about prospecting for gold.

OWN, the cable network joint venture of Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, "remains on track" to reach profitability in the back-half of 2013, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Tuesday. Previously, the company had promised that the network would reach cash flow break-even some time during the second half of next year and then post profits.

Oprah Winfrey is used to running the show, whether it was her hit daytime TV program or the fledgling cable channel named for her and which she rules as chairman and chief executive. But this week's Oprah Winfrey Network shakeup, which included a 20 percent staff layoff, thrusts her into a new dynamic: power-sharing with a top executive from the company that's bankrolled OWN with $300 million-plus.

David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, called his company's licensing pact with Netflix an 'economic win' and also said there's a disconnect between the strong advertising market and the overall economic malaise.

Sarah Palin and Kate Gosselin have helped Eileen O'Neill get a big new job at Discovery Communications.

With the Chilean miners rescued, at least two TV networks, Discovery Channel and PBS, are planning documentaries about the dramatic rescue mission at the end of the month.

Sig Hansen and brothers Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand are leaving Discovery's hit reality series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Earlier in the week, it was reported that the network was suing the two brothers for $3 million for failing to complete work for a spin-off show called "Hillstranded."

A man who railed against the Discovery Channel's environmental programming for years burst into the company's headquarters with at least one explosive device strapped to his body Wednesday and took three people hostage at gunpoint before police shot him to death, officials said.

Good news for those who can't get enough of Saran Palin: The former Alaska governor -- who's now a Fox News commentator, best-selling memoirist and Republican campaign machine -- has a deal in the bag with the Discovery Channel, a source at the network confirmed to PEOPLE.

A spokesman for The Discovery Channel says the captain of the "Deadliest Catch" fishing vessel Cornelia Marie has died. Capt. Phil Harris suffered what his family described as a massive stroke on Jan. 29 while the boat was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. He was flown to Anchorage for surgery.