Planet Green Announces New Series That Looks at Household Eco-Horrors and Turns Energy and Waste Savings Into Cash

Planet Green Announces New Series That Looks at Household Eco-Horrors and Turns Energy and Waste Savings Into Cash

How Wa$ted! is Your household?

SILVER SPRING, Md., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Planet Green, Discovery Communications' new 24/7 eco-lifestyle television network set to launch in 2008, announces the start of production for the original series, WA$TED! Hosted by Annabelle Gurwitch, best known to television audiences from her years hosting the cult favorite Dinner and a Movie on TBS, WA$TED! sets out to prove that American homeowners don't have to be extreme to be green. From solar power to heat pumps, WA$TED! takes the average household full of eco-horrors and turns it into a clean, green haven, saving participants serious cash in the process.

Every week, the WA$TED! team, led by Annabelle along with "green" handyman Holter Graham, audits a household's waste, energy, water and transportation consumption. These households are comprised of families, groups of friends and other unique living situations, such as a fraternities or bed and breakfasts. Confronting them with the shocking results and the terrifying truth about the household's environmental "issues" and long-term impact on the planet, WA$TED! puts these households on a "green regime" to clean up their acts.

Through a series of exercises, Annabelle, Holter and the team provide suggestions and recommendations to reduce consumption and waste. The WA$TED! crew is armed with a series of tested and proven methods, tools and materials to help with the audits, including an internationally recognized eco-calculator built especially for this series with input from the Global Footprint Network, one of the world's most respected organizations that developed the Ecological Footprint, a measurement and management tool for realizing the planet's limits.

Each household is given three weeks to reduce its consumption. All improvements in energy efficiency and waste reduction are awarded to the households dollar for dollar for the recognized savings in the three weeks. As an added bonus, Planet Green multiplies those savings by the projected savings for the year per household as a nice cash bonus for all participants.

For the past two years, WA$TED! host, actress and writer Annabelle Gurwitch, has interviewed scientists, activists, environmentalists and the like on environmental issues for her humorous commentaries about the environment on the NPR program Day to Day, and she is also a columnist for The Nation covering everything from pop culture to politics. Currently, Gurwitch writers, directs and narrates a webisode series entitled "My Big Fat Environmental Crises" for the recently launched website The Daily Green. Gurwitch's critically-acclaimed book, Fired, Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized and Dismissed (Simon and Schuster) was deemed a "merry compendium of failure" by The Washington Post and was #1 on the New York Post's "Hot List." The book also became a successful documentary and Off-Broadway and touring live show, Fired!, carrying the message of opportunities for growth through humor, perspective and a little imagination. Gurwitch has hosted numerous comedic series, including six seasons on Dinner and a Movie on TBS and series for HBO, SCI-FI, Style, VH1, ABC and GSN.

Co-host and "green" handyman Holter Graham has been acting professionally in film and theater since 1985, when he landed his first role in the film Maximum Overdrive. Graham has also appeared on various television series, including Rescue Me, As the World Turns and Law and Order. A self-professed environmentalist, Graham has a home in New York that has been running solely on alternative energy for three years.

WA$TED! is a 10-part primetime series produced for Planet Green by Lion Television, Inc. Tony Tackaberry and Allison Corn are executive producers. Timothy Kuryak is executive producer for Planet Green. WA$TED! was created by Carthew Neal of Fumes TV (New Zealand).

Planet Green is Discovery Communications' global, cross-company initiative with a commitment to document, preserve and celebrate the planet, including the first-ever 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network scheduled to launch in 2008 to more than 50 million homes. Planet Green speaks to people who want to understand green living and to those who truly want to make a difference by providing tools and information to meet the critical challenge of protecting our environment. Planet Green will meet the demands of consumers and viewers by providing content that will enlighten empower and most importantly, entertain.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Planet Green

CONTACT: Annie Howell, +1-240-893-9757, Annie_Howell@discovery.com, or
Reenie Kuhlman, +1-412-478-7947, reeniekuhlman@yahoo.com, both of Discovery
Communications for Planet Green

Web site:

http://www.discovery.com/

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