The made-for-TV couple from this season’s edition of The Bachelor — Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell — will be getting the hottest and most buzzworthy wedding gift that television can give: a spinoff series.

Their new series Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After — premiering this fall on Freeform, sister cable network to The Bachelor’s home of ABC — will join a multitude of spinoffs from successful reality series franchises across the cable dial. In many cases, these off shoots perform as well or better than their parent shows in the ratings.

More than one-third of cable’s top 30 reality shows for the period of June 1, 2015, to May 31, 2016, were reality franchises and their respective extension shows, according to Nielsen. Such extensions, which can potentially cannibalize viewers from their parent series, were once considered a risky play for networks. Now, they are sought-after content with built-in brand recognition and an audience base that can be lured in without a great deal of marketing effort.

“Spinoffs are so big these days because it’s so hard to launch new series today … there’s so much content to choose from and it’s so hard to reach people with new ideas and a new series,” Shari Levine, executive vice president of production for Bravo, said. “When you are doing a spinoff you’re delivering a show to a ready-made viewer that’s somewhat susceptible. You don’t have to explain the concept to them. Half of the marketing is done for you.”

Related:'Deadliest Catch’ Hooks a Spinoff [subscription required]

For some cable franchises just one or two spinoff shows aren’t enough to satisfy the appetite of loyal viewers. Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise — which follows the lives of affluent housewives from various parts of the country — has branded a whopping nine separate series over the past decade.

GETTING HARDER TO ‘KEEP UP’

E! later this year will launch its limited reality series Rob & Chyna, focusing on the lives of celebrity couple Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, another spinoff from the long-running series Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

VH1’s Love & Hip Hop, which chronicles the lives and relationships of hip hop and R&B musicians, has spawned three spinoff series: Love & Hip Hop: New York, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and Love & Hip Hop Hollywood.

And the Atlanta version has spun off two series of its own, K Michelle: My Life and Stevie J & Joseline: Go Hollywood. And despite all the iterations from the original franchise, it seems viewers are singing the praises of virtually all of these series. Current seasons of Love & Hip Hop, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and Love & Hip Hop Hollywood all finished among the top 15 most-watched reality series over the past year, according to Nielsen. The sixth season of parent franchise Love & Hip Hop averaged 3.3 million viewers (on a live-plus-7-day basis), topped only by the fourth season of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, which drew 3.6 million viewers.

Brand recognition is paramount when trying to break through in crowded television marketplace, E! and Esquire Network president Adam Stotsky said. Once a brand is established with viewers, he said, the ability to extend it over a multitude of programs gives networks a leg up on the competition.

E!’s Kardashians empire remains strong and fertile, according to Stotsky. Flagship Keeping Up With the Kardashians is still among the most-watched shows on cable, averaging 2.9 million viewers over the past year, besting all of its franchise extensions, which include I Am Cait, Kim and Khloe Take the Hamptons and Dash Dolls, as well as new series Revenge Body With Khloe Kardashian, to launch later this year.

“Given that competitive landscape and the marketing challenges faced in launching new franchises and brands from scratch, working off an existing base where viewers know who these characters are and the world they live in is like makes for an easier entry point for consumers, and alleviates some marketing pressure for the networks,” Stotsky said.

Still, a franchise extension isn’t a slam dunk. Producers must still find a viable new setting, location or character around which to build a spinoff series.

“You have to listen to your audience because they vote with their thumbs on the remote controls everyday,” Stotsky added. “It’s a balancing act — on the one hand, the opportunity to extend versus the risk of cannibalization and oversaturation, and that’s something we monitor.”

Discovery Channel decided to bring back contestants from its popular survival-themed series Naked and Afraid, challenging them to endure a much longer and tougher survival challenge in the buff via sophomore spinoff series Naked and Afraid XL, Denise Contis, executive vice president of development and production for Discovery, said. The result was another hit series for the network, with Naked and Afraid XL garnering 3.8 million viewers during its freshman run, beating out its predecessor’s 2.7 million viewers.

“The spinoff is authentically motivated by the contestants themselves, who are looking to push themselves even further,” Joe Boyle, executive producer of both series, said. “Instead of just that process of learning to work with one other human being, they’re learning to survive and work with a number of other human beings and the ramifications of that. It gives us a much larger playing field in terms of character development.”

EXTENSIONS OF ANOTHER KIND

Other networks are doing more unconventional franchise extensions. AMC, which this July will debut the Stephen David-produced Making of the Mob: Chicago — a spinoff of last year’s Making of the Mob: New York — also looked to basic cable’s top-rated scripted series, zombie thriller The Walking Dead, to beget Talking Dead, the reality genre’s most-watched series over the past year. The live recap talk show, hosted by Chris Hardwick, drew 6.3 million viewers during the period, according to Nielsen.

TV One is doing the complete opposite of AMC: It’s spinning off an episode of Unsung, its unscripted docuseries on popular R&B artists, into an original telefilm. An Unsung episode on the 1990s R&B singer Miki Howard served as the basis for Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story. Its June 12 debut drew more than 2 million viewers across multiple viewings, setting a network ratings record for an original film, said D’Angela Proctor, head of original programming and production for the African-American-targeted TV One.

As long as networks are serving viewers with unique content that fits within the confines of a particular franchise, there’s no such thing as too many spinoff s, Bravo’s Levine said. Along with the Housewives franchise, Bravo has already built multiple shows around such franchises as Million Dollar Listing, Married to Medicine and Below Deck.

“As long as it’s working, there isn’t a limit, but I don’t think you know until you actually do it,” she said.

Discovery Channel’s reality competition series Naked and Afraid has been a ratings juggernaut for the network since its debut in 2013. Over its four seasons the series, featuring a pair of survivalists each week who have to cope with harsh environments without clothes, water or shelter, has averaged more than 3 million viewers. A freshman spinoff series, Naked and Afraid XL, which puts 12 survivalists into the elements in a 40-day challenge, also generated more than 3 million viewers this past summer.

Naked and Afraid executive producer Joseph Boyle strips the series down to examine its success and appeal to viewers in a conversation with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead. Boyle, who also served as executive producer for Discovery’s Deadliest Catch, also discusses the potential of removing the infamous pixels in the series in a wide-ranging interview, an edited version of which follows.

MCN:What has been the biggest selling point ofNaked and Afraid?

Joseph Boyle: I think for me what is interesting in something like Naked and Afraid is that it showcases who individuals really are. A challenge this intense and living that way off the land in such an extreme way really shows what kind of mettle you have. I think that the people like to see individuals put in a position where they can show basically the triumphs of the human will and spirit.

MCN:Plus it doesn’t hurt that the participants are naked.

JB: Of course there’s the nakedness thing. I think this is relevant — clothing is our first line of defense and shelter that we have in any given situation, so stripping people down to the very barest of bones — pardon the pun — is really amplifying all of those factors that go into survival. Starting from literally a place of nothing makes for really the most authentic starting point in a challenge like this.

MCN:Are people living vicariously through the characters ofNaked and Afraid?

JB: We’re actually getting a chance to look back in time. I think the Adam and Eve comparisons are very obvious, and it gives us a chance to look back at ourselves as the original hunters and gatherers — the roots of who we are as human beings. Like a lot of television, Naked and Afraid takes us to places and situations that we might want to go to, and that’s a huge part of it because we shoot it on virtually every continent, save Antarctica. We’re in amazing situations and amazing locales showing just how adaptable and resourceful human beings are.

MCN:Are you surprised that the whole living off the land genre has taken off?

JB: No. There’s a lot of talk about authenticity — it’s more of a buzzword than ever before — but I think people have always craved that type of programming, even going back to Deadliest Catch. It offers people a chance to see seemingly normal people in extraordinary circumstances performing in extraordinary ways. I think that’s a huge draw, and it always has been. For us, even though it’s two naked people trying to survive in a really harsh location, to me there is heroism and frailty that comes out every single time. It’s the kind of television I want to watch.

MCN:You’ve expanded the franchise toNaked and Afraid XL— are there any other plans to further spin it off?

JB: We’re always trying to think of new ideas — XL is a fantastic and very natural expansion of what we’re doing, so we’re always considering what’s next. In this day and age in our industry, innovation in all forms is where we have to be, so it’s something that we’re always talking about.

MCN:Is there a possibility of creating an uncut, unedited version ofNaked and Afraidwithout the pixels?

JB: No, I don’t think so, because it’s outside of the point. It would be a distraction to the storytelling we’re trying to do. I suppose if we were in a world where nudity wasn’t an issue at all, then the show would be fully nude, but it’s one of those things where nudity would be a complete distraction, so I can’t imagine ever doing that.

Some of the hottest shows on cable these days are about people who have no TV.

Take Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People, in which a character shows how to properly prepare grasshoppers by pulling their heads off and allowing the guts to leak out before laying them out in the sun to dry. Add a little salt and pepper, and dinner is served.

Not hungry? Viewers are lapping up the year-old show, as well as other “off-the-grid” reality series that have become very appetizing.

Shows like Alaskan Bush People, History’s Mountain Men, FYI’s Unplugged Nation and Animal Planet’s The Last Alaskans — as well as rugged competition reality shows, such as Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid and History’s Alone — are providing viewers with an aspirational look at an alternative lifestyle that eschews modern technology for life off the beaten path.

RELATED STORY:‘Off the Grid’ Shows, Off the Hook Numbers

Some of the characters in these reality shows are hardcore naturalists who have no need for civilization; others are average people who are seeking the simple life. Some are new at it; others have been doing it for generations.

On these shows, hunting knives are more valuable than smartphones, and cable-network programmers say it’s the fantasy of unplugging from civilization that draws viewers in droves.

Off -the-grid shows comprised nearly half of the 10 most-watched reality shows during the third quarter of 2015, according to Nielsen. Alaskan Bush People, which profiles a family born and raised in the Alaskan wilderness, was the most popular reality show of the period, averaging 3.6 million viewers.

“There’s an aspirational element to the show that really communicates with people — we’ve always had that as a backbone to the program,” Russ McCarroll, senior vice president of development and programming for History, said. “These ideas of managing to live and doing hard work in places that are beautiful are what appeal to viewers.”

WILDERNESS ESCAPISM

During times frought with threats of cyber-terrorism, economic difficulties and military conflicts, History’s Mountain Men — which follows the real-life challenges of six guys who use their survival skills to live in desolate mountain areas across the country — attracts both male and female viewers with escapist content that focuses on a simpler life where people control where and how they live, McCarroll said.

Mountain Men averaged more than 3 million viewers during its fourth and most recent season, which concluded last week.

“There’s a lot of doom and gloom stories out there, whether it’s the breakdown of the economy or the environment changing, so there’s a great appeal as to whether to sustain one’s self and to find out, if everything really did go the wrong way, could I survive on my own?” McCarroll said. “You even see that in pop culture, with the success of series like [AMC’s scripted zombie dramas] The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. These shows appeal to the same type of thing but in a very different way.”

Animal Planet vice president of development Kurt Tondorf said a bit of romanticism surrounds the idea of men and women living off the land and killing or growing the food they eat, rather than going to the local grocery store to buy a salad or to a fast-food restaurant to purchase rotisserie chicken.

The network’s freshman series The Last Alaskans follows a handful of families allowed to live in a now-banned Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Unlike other reality shows in the genre, Tondorf said, The Last Alaskans — which has been renewed for a second season — features no narration, allowing the characters in the series to literally speak for themselves and for their lifestyles.

“People feel a lack of connectedness to the wilderness, and a great curiosity for those who want to live in such close connection to it,” Tondorf said. “We’re always striving to find those kinds of authentic individuals who live lives that almost reflect the great pioneering spirit that as children we all read about.”

FYI’s Unplugged Nation puts city dwellers into an environment where they must choose whether to return to civilization or transition to a more self-sufficient way of life.

The choice for urbanites to escape the concrete jungle of corporate America for a simpler existence in a beautiful, natural environment has resonated with FYI’s core 18-to-49-year-old audience, said Gena McCarthy, senior vice president of programming and development.

Unplugged Nation averaged 230,000 viewers during its summer run, above the network’s 178,000 viewers for the third quarter, according to Nielsen.

“Unplugged living is a genuine alternative lifestyle movement,” McCarthy said. “Many people are passionate about raising their families this way as an aspirational goal. There’s a play-along factor for viewers who can fantasize about whether they could hack it in the situations and the variety of homes we share with them in the show.”

DIY Network began exploring the theme “Building Off the Grid” with one-off specials that have grown into a franchise. Episodes have covered creating cabins in wilderness areas of Alaska, using cargo bikes to haul material for a new retreat in the Rocky Mountains, building mud-and-straw homes in Washington State and constructing a 30-foot-tall yurt in rural Montana (Yurts So Good).

The Scripps Networks Interactive outlet recently picked up the six-episode series Jon & Etta Go Off the Grid, now in pre-production, which will see Jon and Etta Sepp (and their 1-year-old daughter) create an off -the-grid bison ranch on the open range in Hot Springs, Mont.

CROSS-GENDER APPEAL

Allison Page, general manager of Scripps’s DIY, HGTV (whose mainstay House Hunters franchise has also gone off the grid) and Great American Country, said DIY’s “BOTG” specials had the pleasantly surprising effect of drawing more women than expected, given the male-skewing topic.

Going off the grid fits into DIY’s and HGTV’s growing number of “fantasy” shows, featuring enticing scenarios such as building a dream home on the beach, Page said. “There are ideas that have a romantic chord to them that you dreamed of as a child, or that you wish life could be simpler in a tiny home. They are all different manifestations of what people dream of living.

“I think viewers like seeing something where they can envision themselves,” she said. “It’s that aspirational-attainable balance. I might or might not do it, but I’m seeing someone who is, that could be me.”

For viewers who want a more edgy and exhilarating dive into the genre, competition shows like Discovery’s Naked and Afraid — where two contestants, a man and a woman, are challenged to live in a harsh environment with no tools or clothes — and History’s Alone, where contestants are literally left alone, with no camera crews following them, to survive by themselves in an unforgiving terrain for as long as they can, provided plenty of thrills for viewers and high ratings for networks.

Naked and Afraid and spinoff Naked and Afraid XL drew a combined 5 million viewers this past summer, while Alone garnered 2 million viewers, according to Nielsen. "[Naked and Afraid] showcases what individual human beings are made of," said series executive producer Joseph Boyle. "Living off the land in such an extreme way really shows what kind of mettle human beings have, and the people like to see individuals put in a position where they can show the triumph of the human will and human spirit in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable."

History’s McCarroll said he believes that the off-the-grid genre of programming will continue to thrive on television as technology continues to encroach on our everyday lives and people look for an escape to a simpler life.

‘There are a lot of people who go to work in an office or go to work in a cubicle, when in reality they’d rather be someplace that’s a little more inspiring,” he said. “We can take them there.”

Added Tondorf: “All of us get home after a hard day, and we can turn on the set to see these people who have marched to a different drummer all of their lives — there’s something about that kind of willingness to live a life that way that plays into a universal yearning that we all have.”

Discovery Communications chief financial officer Andrew Warren has signed a four-year employment deal with the programmer that will give him an annual salary of $1.175 million, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the documents, the agreement was effective on Sept. 1 and expires on Sept. 1, 2018.

Warren signed on as Discovery CFO in March,  after then-CFO Brad Singer announced his intention to step down.

Prior to joining Discovery, the home of such iconic programming as Shark Week, Deadliest Catch and Naked And Afraid -- Warren had been CFO at apparel company Liz Claiborne since 2007. Prior to Liz Claiborne Warren spent 18 years at General Electric and had been EVP and CFO at NBC Universal Television Group, responsible for all finance activities of NBC Network, Studios, CNBNC, MSNBC, USA, SciFi and Bravo.

According to the SEC documents, Warren will receive an annual base salary of $1.175 million and is eligible for an annual incentive of up to 120% of his base salary, with his target for fiscal 2014 being blended based on eight months at his previous bonus target of 100% and four months at the new target of 120%. Warren also will receive performance-based restricted stock units valued at $2 million within 60 days of the execution of the employment agreement. The PSUs will vest 50% on Sept.1, 2017 and 50% on Sept. 1, 2018.