TVSquad

You think Oprah Winfrey is already the most powerful person on television? You have no idea.

Winfrey and Discovery Communications announced a deal today that will have the Discovery Health Channel given to Oprah and switched to The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN - really!). In return, Discovery gets Oprah's web site. I'm not really sure what getting to run Oprah's web site means for Discovery, but it will be part of the network.

If you're a fan of the channels that make up the Discovery Communications kingdom then you have probably seen Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and their 16 children in one of their specials. Maybe it was Raising 16 Children, where we were introduced to the Duggar clan, or On the Road With 16 Children, which focused on their trip to Disneyland. Or, perhaps, you may have caught Creating an Independent Country With 16 Children, which was shown only once and removed from the air by the government (and, if you watched that special, they would like to have a word with you. Something about conspiracy).

Well, get ready for another slew of specials because Michelle, Jim Bob, and all of their J-named children have welcomed a new baby girl into the brood. Jennifer Danielle Duggar was born on August 2nd at 10:01 in the morning. She weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 21 inches long. Jennifer is the seventh girl to be born to the Duggars, who previously had six girls and 10 boys, including two sets of twins. Mother and baby are doing just fine and Michelle is already saying she'd love to have more children.

By the way, I was serious about a new set of specials. Discovery Health will premiere a new Duggar show in September that will feature Jennifer Danielle shortly after her birth and at home with her family.

The partnership between Animal Planet (owned by Discovery Communications Inc.) and the late Steve Irwin can be traced to the network's inception in 1996. Back then, Irwin's series The Crocodile Hunter was one of the initial offerings of the fledgling network. The pairing of the two resulted in Irwin becoming an international star and Animal Planet reaching 160 countries across the globe. That's why it's no surprise that Animal Planet channels around the globe will honor Irwin on Sunday, September 10th with an all-day marathon of Best of the Croc Hunter programming.

Discovery Communications, the company behind the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, and a bunch of other networks with the word "Discovery" in them, has brought its video content to Google Earth, Google's tenacious mapping project. Right now the content can be seen by clicking a globe icon located next to ten of our National Parks. Users can select short-form videos featuring content from that particular area. More videos will be added in the coming months, as many as fifty, and will expand beyond just the United States. Finally, you can visit a National Park without exposing yourself to bear attacks. I assume that was the point of all this.