New York – February 8, 2019 – Continuing its standing as the definitive home of the most iconic natural history programming on U.S. television, BBC AMERICA announced today two Emmy®-winning and globally renowned series loved by millions will return – Planet Earth III and Frozen Planet II. BBC AMERICA is the U.S. home and co-producer of groundbreaking series Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II, Dynasties and the most recently announced upcoming Sir David Attenborough-narrated series One Planet: Seven Worlds (w/t). The commissions demonstrate the BBC’S unprecedented commitment to natural history of the highest quality. The rare and highly coveted series Planet Earth III will have a truly global scale with crews staying longer in the field than ever before and new technology will be central to its approach. Collectively, these shows will ensure that BBC AMERICA remains the definitive home of natural history programming in the U.S. for the next five years.
Planet Earth III will be the most ambitious natural history landmark ever undertaken by the BBC. Combining the awe and wonder of the original Planet Earth, the new science and discoveries of Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II, and the immersive character-led storytelling of Dynasties, the series will take the ‘Planet Earth’ experience to new heights. It will air in 2022.
Frozen Planet II will take audiences back to the wildernesses of the Arctic and Antarctica. Ten years on from the original Frozen Planet, this series tells the complete story of the entire frozen quarter of our planet that’s locked in ice and blanketed in snow. It will air in 2021.
One Planet: Seven Worlds (w/t), the previously announced landmark series, to be narrated by Emmy®-winner Sir David Attenborough, is a brand new ambitious seven-part landmark nature docu-series. Each one-hour episode will transport viewers to a single continent and tell the story of its spectacular wildlife and iconic landscapes. Previously announced, it will air on BBCA in 2020.
These landmark series will help audiences everywhere to better understand the greatest issues affecting our planet and our relationship with the natural world.
“One of the things we’re most proud of at BBC AMERICA is that we’ve established the network as the U.S. destination for the very best nature programming on the planet, from the BBC’s award-winning natural history unit,” said Sarah Barnett, President, Entertainment Networks, for AMC Networks. “We are delighted to renew our successful partnership with BBC Studios, and to continue to co-produce these groundbreaking series. To bring together audiences for this kind of transcendent event television is a true privilege, we couldn’t be happier to continue to do this for the next five years.”
PLANET EARTH III
Planet Earth III, the third in a trilogy, is a brand-new series for 2022 – set to be the most ambitious natural history landmark ever undertaken by the BBC. Combining the awe and wonder of the original Planet Earth, the new science and discoveries of Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II, and the immersive character-led storytelling of Dynasties, the series will take the ‘Planet Earth’ experience to new heights. It will take audiences to stunning new landscapes, showcase jaw-dropping newly-discovered behaviors, and follow the intense struggles of some of our planet’s most amazing animals.
Across eight episodes, the series will have a truly global scale, with new technology central to its approach. Crews will spend longer in the field than ever before, and using the latest technology, including robotic cameras, stabilized rigs and deep submersibles, will take viewers from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, from the darkest caves to the hottest deserts.
Planet Earth III will also build on the approach of the BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s most recent landmarks, by reflecting the new realities of the natural world. It will not only reveal the greatest wonders of life on earth, but will also show the new challenges faced in the 21st Century by the animals and plants with which we share on our increasingly fragile planet.
Planet Earth III, an 8×60’ series for BBC One, is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit., co-produced by BBC AMERICA and The Open University. The Executive Producer is Mike Gunton and the Series Producer is Jonny Keeling. It was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, BBC Director of Content and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual.
FROZEN PLANET II
Back in 2011, the BBC aired Frozen Planet, the massively popular natural history series, celebrating life in our Poles. Ten years on, Frozen Planet II tells the complete story of the entire frozen quarter of our planet that’s locked in ice and blanketed in snow.
In this epic six–part series we explore this vast magical realm and discover frozen worlds of surprising variety and nature. From the frozen ocean of the Arctic, to the snowy forests and great plains of the far north, from the high-altitude peaks of our mountains to the ice-locked south of Antarctica. These are the last true wildernesses – so challenging for survival that only a heroic cast of animals can live here. From polar bears to Siberian tigers, snow monkeys and penguins, each frozen world raises different challenges for the animals that brave the extreme conditions here.
Today they are united by a new threat. As temperatures rise at an unprecedented rate, our frozen planet is literally vanishing before our eyes. What will be the true impact on humans and wildlife? In this series we will follow the heroic scientists, braving some of the most dangerous places on earth, in a bid to find the answers.
With intimate new character stories, dramatic new behaviors and never-seen-before spectacles: Blue Planet II goes Frozen.
Frozen Planet II, a 6×60’ for BBC One, is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC AMERICA and The Open University. The Executive Producer is Mark Brownlow and the Series Producer is Elizabeth White. It was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, BBC Director of Content and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual.
ONE PLANET: SEVEN WORLDS (w/t)
Narrated by Emmy®-winner Sir David Attenborough, One Planet: Seven Worlds (w/t) is a brand new ambitious seven-part landmark nature docu-series. Each one-hour episode will transport viewers to a single continent and tell the story of its spectacular wildlife and iconic landscapes. Millions of years ago incredible forces ripped apart the Earth’s crust creating seven extraordinary continents.
This series will reveal how each distinct continent has shaped the unique animal life found there. We will discover why Australasia is full of peculiar and venomous wildlife; why North America is a land of opportunity where pioneers succeed; and what the consequences are for life racing to compete on the richest of all continents, South America.
The series will feature remarkable, new animal behavior from all the continents including the baking plains of Africa and the frozen waters off Antarctica. In Asia, the biggest of all continents, we will showcase life at the extremes, while in Europe we will reveal surprising wildlife dramas hidden right alongside us. The series will celebrate the diversity of life on each of these continents, but also the many challenges faced by animals in a modern world dominated by humanity. Epic landscapes and intimate behavior have been filmed using the very latest techniques, allowing audiences to experience each continent like never before.
One Planet: Seven Worlds (w/t), a 7×60’ series for BBC One, is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC AMERICA, Tencent Penguin Pictures, ZDF and France Télévisions. The Executive Producer is Jonny Keeling. It was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director, BBC Content and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual.
About BBC AMERICA
BBC AMERICA is a hub of innovative, culturally contagious programming including the critically acclaimed series Killing Eve starring Golden Globe® and SAG Award-winner Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer and from Phoebe Waller-Bridge; top-rated phenomenon Doctor Who starring Jodie Whittaker; Emmy® and IDA-winning Planet Earth II and the producers’ next epic story of our planet, Dynasties; Emmy®-winning Blue Planet II; acclaimed drama Luther starring Golden Globe®-winner Idris Elba; ground-breaking unscripted series Top Gear; buzzy and hilarious The Graham Norton Show; and the world’s biggest darts championships. A joint venture between AMC Networks and BBC Studios (the commercial arm of the BBC), BBCA’s influential shows such as Orphan Black and Broadchurch, among many others, have attracted critical acclaim and earned Emmy® Awards, Peabody Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, TCA Awards, Gotham Award and Golden Globes®. Created in 1998, the irrepressible network has garnered one of cable’s most curious, educated and affluent audiences, with many properties boasting super-fan levels of engagement. Get caught up, BBCA offers full episodes On Demand across all major digital platforms, BBC AMERICA app and bbcamerica.com. Find out more by visiting press.bbcamerica.com.
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