Don’t panic as you ask what happened to Discovery Health or Discovery Fit & Health when searching your lineup. The network remains in the same channel number position, it’s just going through a rebranding — something the net has done a few times now since its inception in 1998 going from Discovery 
Health to Discovery Fit & Health to its newest moniker — Discovery Life Channel. Hyped as a network that offers an unfiltered look at real people in extraordinary situations, Discovery Life Channel will continue to offer its popular medical phenomena-type programming but expand into programming that focuses on relationships emphasizing people as they face hardships, take risks and, ultimately, persevere. Who doesn’t like a feel good story, right?! The network officially changes names to Discovery Life Channel today (Thursday, Jan. 15).
Currently in 47 million homes, DLF or DLIF (depending on how your TV provider lists it) will target women age 25-54 with its non-fiction programming slate. Fan favorites like Mystery Diagnosis, Medical Detectives, Monsters Inside of Me, Hoarding: Buried Alive and Untold Stories of the ER will continue to air, as well as a rich new slate of series that feed into the network’s anthology programming blocks of Medical Mysteries at 8PM, Trauma Drama at 9PM, and Medical Incredible at 10PM. A few of those new series catching our attention include:
Outrageous Births: Tales From the Crib (premieres Jan. 15 at 9pmET, and then moves to its regular timeslot of Fridays at 9pm beginning Jan. 16) To give you an idea of what some of these women are going through, Episode 1 (tonight) tells the story of a woman giving birth prematurely during Hurricane Sandy, a woman who gives birth in shopping mall parking lot and an Army soldier who coaches his wife’s delivery from Afghanistan. Episode 2 (Jan. 16) recreates an emergency birth that interrupts a wedding, and a woman who delivers after crashing her car; Episode 3 (Jan. 23) is going to tell the story of a baby that was born twice and a woman in labor who was torn apart by a tornado.
50 Ways to Kill Your Mother (airs Thursdays at 10pmET beginning tonight) This docu/adventure/travel series follows the endearing relationship between daredevil Baz Ashmawy and his brave 71-year-old Irish mother who go on extreme adventures together. Read our interview with Baz to see who really is more balsy.
Body Bizarre (premieres Saturday, Jan. 17 at 9pmET) with the episode “The Incredible Upside Down Man,” which features a bizarre birth defect that caused a Brazilian man’s vertebra to twist so severely that his head is now upside down. The first episode also profiles a girl’s face tumor, triplets who undergo surgery and a man with misshapen tumors and giant-sized limbs. As you would decipher from the premiere, the series profiles individuals living with the most mysterious and incredible medical anomalies, and focuses on the transformative aspects of those inflicted as they undergo treatment. Each hour-long episode uncovers several cases spanning the globe of real but astonishing medical abnormalities that continue to stump doctors and experts, drawing viewers into a still unknown realm in medical science.
The Mistress (premieres Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 10pmET) In each half-hour episode, Sarah J. Symonds, author and self-proclaimed former mistress of Chef Gordon Ramsay and Lord Jeffrey Archer, dishes out tough love to mistresses ready to finally escape the trap of extramarital affairs. Symonds draws from her own personal experiences to prove that there’s rarely a silver lining when you’re the other woman.
World’s Worst Mom (premieres Thursday, Jan. 22 at 9pmET) Finally, someone who makes me feel better about my parenting skills … this series follows Lenore Skenazy, a mother of two, author and seasoned parenting expert — who in 2008 suffered intense public criticism after she allowed her 9-year-old son to ride the NYC subway on his own. Following that media maelstrom, Skenazy went on to get overprotective parents to tone it down some or unloosen the bubble wraps so kids can enjoy a normal childhood. In each episode, Skenazy serves as a
“Supper Nanny” type as she performs interventions with families whose kids are being held back by “helicopter parents.” Each family are subjected to her candor, as well as a series of challenges designed to push their boundaries, give their children more freedom, and help unravel their fears by debunking myths around perceived societal dangers.
Discovery Life Channel officially replaces Discovery Fit & Health today (Jan. 16).
My FAVORITE channel has now been DESTROYED! All my favorite medical shows have been replaced with hours of “Hoarding- Buried Alive”, teen pregnancies, birthing shows, and a HOURS of infomercials! GAKK! I haven’t seen “Dr. G” since ??? Plus “Mystery Diagnosis”, “Monsters Inside Me” and more are all gone or sparsely aired. I’m now looking for replacement channels & shows since DLIF is “rebranding” AGAIN. Why oh why have you forsaken me?!
Horrible! It is nothing but commercials with about 5 seconds of programming.
What happened to Dr. G. I am so disapointed in this channel. The things you have on now I don’t even care to watch.
I’m so disappointed that you took the “FIT” out of the channel–
looked so forward to that part (and with our un-fit society, we could all use it!). All that was left was 2 half-hour programs with Gilad–and now those are gone, too.
So far a huge disappointment. With the state of the health of most Americans a channel devoted to health and science based fitness is needed.. Not more “reality” programs.