Too fun for cnn?

Network mixes personality shows with news in quest to compete, David Bauder reports in New York.

Mike Rowe never expected his new travelogue series, Somebody's Gotta Do It, to land on CNN. Yet when you think about it, Rowe fits what has become the network's mold for nonfiction entertainment programming: well-known personalities making series related to the work they are best known for, with a twist or two. Rowe and Lisa Ling recently joined Anthony Bourdain and John Walsh with new entries.

Somebody's Gotta Do It broadens the Dirty Jobs franchise that Rowe led on Discovery for eight years. He's still looking at interesting professions, like a woman who runs a hair museum, yet not necessarily stories that require him to get down in the muck.