Paramount relaunches Dabl as Black-strong comedy network

Paramount Global’s Dabl lifestyle network quietly relaunched in late December 2023.

The network introduced a new logo design along with an updated schedule.

The schedule largely centers around Black-strong comedy repeats, including “The Game,” “Girlfriends,” “Half & Half,” “Sister, Sister” and “Moesha,” replacing more general entertainment shows such as “Martha Stewart Living” and “60 Minute Makeover.”

Paramount owns the rights to most of the shows on the network.

The new logo goes in a significantly different direction than the previous pink and lime green look with curved strokes. 

The old Dabl logo.

The new design switches to a more standard, bold sans serif. In an attempt to make it distinct, the “a” has been moved up from the baseline with its right vertical stroke blended with the left vertical stroke of the “b.”

To fill the negative space below, a blue, yellow and orange design consisting of two triangles and a polygon is placed below the “a.”

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It’s hard to determine what, exactly, Paramount is going for with this design. Perhaps the upward placement of one letter is meant to be a literal interpretation of “dabbling” in something. 

Overall, the network has essentially traded a bad logo for an equally bad one. 

In addition to the new logo and programming, the tagline has been switched to “Get into it,” which is typically styled in all lowercase letters.

With the relaunch, Dabl is showing blocks of “One on One” at 2 p.m. and 2 a.m., “Moesha” at 4 p.m., “The Parkers” at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., “Half & Half” at 7 p.m., “Girlfriends” at p.m., “The Game” at 10 p.m. and “Sister, Sister” at midnight and noon.

E/I programming has been carried over from the previous schedule. 

Dabl has also discontinued its free streaming version, instead focusing more on over-the-air distribution.

The network offers a separate feed for the eastern and Pacific time zones and is carried as a digital subchannel on most Paramount-owned stations in the country. It is also available via pay TV provider YouTube TV, but has been yanked from FAST offerings Pluto TV and Xumo.

Some of the shows on the new Dabl schedule have been removed from streamers.