Country singer Kellie Pickler and "Extra" contributor Ben Aaron (husband of "Good Morning America" meteorologist Ginger Zee) will co-host a weekday lifestyle show for WCPO-TV and 19 other Scripps TV stations this fall.
The yet unnamed daytime show will air at 3 p.m. starting Sept. 18, says Jeff Brogan, Channel 9 Vice President and General Manager. It replaces "T.D. Jakes," already canceled in its first season.
Executive producers include Grammy-winning country singer Faith Hill, former "Oprah Winfrey Show" executive producer Lisa Erspamer, and Sandbox Entertainment president and CEO Jason Owen, in partnership with Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Company.
The "fun-filled celebration of everyday living and activities…. will cover everything from cooking, gardening, entertaining and home design to beauty and fashion," says the Scripps announcement.
Hill in the media release says Pickler "will bring a little bit of southern charm" to daytime TV. "Kellie is very much southern while Ben is everything New York – complete opposites but together their chemistry is magic and our viewers are going to love them," Hill said.
Since finishing sixth on "American Idol" in 2005, at age 19, Pickler has released four country music albums and won several CMT Music Awards. She also won ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" in 2013. Last week CMT renewed her reality series, "I Love Kellie Pickler," which returns this summer.
Aaron, a former child actor who married Zee in 2014, won three Emmys for reporting and co-hosting on WNBC-TV's "New York Live." He also hosts the syndicated "Crazy Talk" show. Hisacting creditsinclude "Hill Street Blues," "Webster," "Perfect Strangers," "Moonwalker," "Mathnet," "The New Mike Hammer" and "Beverly Hills Buntz."
Aaron and Zee also have a cable TV series. In June they star in a four-week DIY Network reality series, "Renovation Realities: Ben & Ginger," about buying a fixer-upper outside of New York City. "With their one-year old in tow, Ginger brings her home repair know-how to guide novice Ben as they navigate the challenging and often hilarious realities of a renovation," DIY says.
If the Pickler-Aaron daytime show survives its first season, don't be surprised if it is syndicated to stations nationwide, as Scripps did with "The List" and "Let's Ask America."
