Litton Entertainment announced today the March 2008 rollout of BETTER LIVING, a series of smart, relevant, daily one-minute news reports exclusive to one station in every market. Hosted by TV news veteran Jill Cordes, the BETTER LIVING news service consists of 260 reports covering ways that viewers can take positive steps to live a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle—through diet, home maintenance, community practices and more.
In the reports, Cordes will condense the overwhelming amount of opinion and complex science into tangible, realistic solutions that can make a difference in viewers’ everyday lives, helping them to live healthier, save money, reduce their environmental footprint and create a more sustainable world for their families.
A recent Gallup poll revealed that over 70 percent of Americans are willing to change their habits and lifestyles for the sake of the planet. BETTER LIVING addresses this issue by cutting through the sometimes confusing jargon to provide concrete advice to those wanting to make a difference in their diet, home, community and planet.
“We all realize that the planet needs our help and viewers are ready to hear the solutions,” says Dave Morgan, President and CEO of Litton Entertainment. “BETTER LIVING offers stations a turnkey solution, with high-production values and hard-news credentials, saving stations from having to devote valuable staff reporting time to these complex issues.”
From Monday to Friday and into the weekends, BETTER LIVING will explore topics from planet-wide sustainability to personal health and nutrition. Jill Cordes, a veteran reporter with years of network affiliate experience, is well-known to viewers from hosting stints on cable networks including the Food Network. Her warm, inviting style combined with hard-news experience make sustainability easy to understand and easy to act on, while a brand-name talent will help local stations lead their market in green reporting.
BETTER LIVING provides turnkey content to stations with not only the 260 year-round, high-definition reports but also an online module that supports the daily content and provides links to supplemental, topical information. As the green revolution sweeps the nation, BETTER LIVING is a station’s best tool for giving their viewers the content they need and demand.
In 2007 alone, Jill Cordes climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, rode a camel into the Sahara in Timbuktu, and ran the New York City Marathon. What began more than a decade ago as a reporting stint for a local NBC affiliate in South Dakota has evolved into a flourishing career for this highly energetic and passionate woman, who has hosted shows including HGTV’s My First Place, Food Network’s The Best Of, and recently www.petstyle.com.
What sets Cordes apart from other television hosts is that she is a reporter first and foremost, and an adventurous one at that. When working on The Best Of, she wrote and produced more than half of her segments. She also coauthored the book, Food Network: Best of the Best Of, which details her many adventures on the road, seeking out the best restaurants and recipes.
Cordes, a graduate of Penn State, began her television career as a news reporter in Rapid City, South Dakota, and quickly moved up the news ladder — to Sioux Falls as a reporter, Omaha as a morning anchor, and eventually to Minneapolis, reporting for the CBS station. In her spare time she enjoys traveling the world off the beaten path and writing about her adventures. She is an avid reader, scuba diver and runner. She and her husband, a filmmaker and screenwriter, live in Brooklyn.
