Let’s Play Two

It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature, the old commercial for margarine said. Well, Discovery Networks has gone in the other direction, doing something nice for its dear, old mother.

Last Wednesday evening at 6 ET, it began carrying Planet Green, the eco-friendly entertainment channel.

Thing is, Mother Nature rained on Planet Green’s elaborate parade. The channel was to be inaugurated, appropriately, in Washington, D.C., at the new Nationals Park, before a baseball game between the hometown Nats and the St Louis Cardinals. The innovative partnership between Discovery and the Nationals included, among other things, green hats all around and a pitch for Planet Green in the form of Discovery chief David Zaslav throwing the opening pitch that night.

But Mother Nature intervened, sending a tornado to D.C. whose tail eventually washed out the game. But it wasn’t easy—nothing with Mother Nature ever is.

For those who arrived at the Park before 6 pm to watch the birth of Planet Green on the Nationals’ 4500-square-foot HD scoreboard, the night began well. The D.C. area had just been pelted by a brief but violent storm that knocked out power for nearly 500,000 people. Yet the field looked to be in good shape and the Sun was shining. Some 30 minutes before the game, though, a light rain began. The rain continued sporadically for another four hours, and somewhere around 10 p.m. the game was called.

With the Cardinals making just one migration to the D.C. area this season, Major League Baseball was loath to postpone the game, and so the players, and most of the fans and Discovery’s 600 or so guests waited inside the stadium’s gut. Those lucky enough to be schmoozing with Zaslav, his good-looking family and Planet Green talent Emeril Lagasse inside Discovery’s suite at the Park fared much better. Open bars dispensed liquid refreshment, complementing pub grub and green M&Ms (what, no green beer?).

While they didn’t see a game, the early arrivals caught the opening moments of Planet Green, playing on the scoreboard for about 5 minutes. Those inside the suite had to decide: Do you watch the final countdown from Discovery Home to Planet Green outside on the scoreboard or on the many HD screens tuned to the channel in the suite? With a glass of champagne in my hand, I straddled the line, literally. I stood at a suite door that opened out to the field. I took turns looking in at a TV and outside at the huge scoreboard where Maria Menounos was hosting Hollywood Green, a series bursting with movie-star types espousing green lifestyles. Menounos looked fine on both screens.

Right after that, Zaslav proposed a toast to Planet Green and the work of its staff, which managed to get the channel up in roughly 9 months. The best part, Zaslav joked, is that last week “I got to hang out with [Planet Green talent] Tommy Lee and Ludachris, which makes me seem a lot cooler than I am.”

Yes, you get a second chance to anoint a channel. Tonight many of the Discovery faithful will be at the ball park again, the beer will be flowing and again Zaslav is scheduled to hurl the first pitch. Predictions for the evening’s weather? Hot and humid, with temperatures expected to be about 95 degrees. Combined with a humid air mass, the heat index value could reach 105 degrees, The Weather Channel’s weather.com says. At least the Nationals are cold, having lost 7 of their last 8 games.