Samantha Brown hosts ‘Places to Love’
You may know Samantha Brown from her years as a Travel Channel host for shows like “Great Hotels,’’ ‘’Green Getaways” and the ‘’Passport” series about Latin America, China and Europe, among others.
She’s back with a new series on PBS called “Places to Love,’’ launching Saturday with 13 weekly episodes through March.
“‘Places to Love’ is about finding the experiences, the destinations, but, most importantly, the people who really make us feel like we’re part of a place,’’ Brown said in an interview for the AP Travel podcast “Get Outta Here!’’
Destinations featured on the show range from Shanghai to places Brown says you might not think of going “but should,’’ like Huntsville, Ala., nicknamed Rocket City for its work with NASA and the space industry.
Brown talked about the show’s philosophy, some individual episodes and the challenges of succeeding as a woman on television.
Here are some excerpts.
THE FLOWERS OF TEXAS HILL COUNTRY
“When you are producing a show totally based on flowers being in bloom, it is a nail-biter. We were getting reports, updates, we had our flower-watchers. I was following bloggers and Instagram ... I mean we had a plan B but luckily they were in bloom and we saw the Texas bluebonnets in all their glory.’’
TRIPS ANYONE CAN DO
“‘Places to Love’ is all about what you can do. I am not having any experiences that you cannot have. None of my experiences are VIP, are exclusive, are created for the camera, which I used to do a lot in my past days. ... Everything I do, you can do. Just about everybody I meet are people you can meet.’’
CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN ON TV
“Even if the men’s ratings are low for a time, they will let that male host have that show for much longer so they can slowly gain those ratings to the point where they do have a successful show. Women are not given that chance. That to me was a huge frustration . ... It’s just sort of the male-driven kind of world that men have adventures and women really don’t.