Bear Grylls behind-the-scenes on Ultimate Survivor
Discovery Networks recently held their Spring/Summer Upfronts at an event in downtown Cape Town to showcase new shows for the upcoming season.
The event and new programming coincides with the 25-year anniversary of Discovery on air. The network has been creating shows for 25-years and been available in South Africa for 14 years.
The Upfronts featured a look at new programming on the Discovery channels available on DStv, namely:
Discovery,
Discovery World,
Discovery HD and
Animal Planet.
Titles in the line-up include signature favourites such as the next seasons of Bear Grylls' Ultimate Survival and The Deadliest Catch, as well as various new titles, which have a reinvented perspective.
When you see the shows you'll notice that there's a very definite shift from a focus on wheels and the inside mechanics of machines to personality and celebrity-driven series.
A Discovery insider told TVSA that this has been a conscious shift in trend and that all personalities and celebrities chosen to be part of the shows have been carefully selected.
So you won't find Britney Spears hosting a show about her interest in alien phenomenon in the universe because she happened to be married to one (KFed). Rather, Morgan Freeman hosts a new show with a cosmic angle, because he's genuinely informed about the topic.
Who would you trust as the informed authority on the meaning of life?
Other notable personalities making their debut in the upcoming months include Stephen "boff" Hawkin and South African poison addict Donald Schultz.
A first-look at the season:
SEPTEMBER/SPRING 2010 ONWARDS
Ultimate Survival 5Premieres: September 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Mountaineer/explorer and ex-special forces man, Bear Grylls returns for a new season to relive epic stories of human survival.
He's climbed Everest at the age of 23, the youngest person ever to do so. He’s crossed frozen oceans of the arctic and survived in the world’s hottest deserts.
In this season he tackles swamps and the Sahara.
Fast facts: the show has different titles in different parts of the world and is also known as Born Survivor: Bear Grylls and Man vs Wild. The fifth season premiered in the US in June 2010.
Deadliest Catch 6Premieres: September 2010
On: Discovery Channel
The fishing vessels and their captains return for a sixth season deadliest catch'ing.
This is the season in which the series highlights how deadly going for the ultimate catch is. The season in which Captain Phil dies after suffering a stroke:
Deadliest Catch Captain Phil Harris Dies.
Worst Case ScenarioPremieres: September 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Also hosted by Bear Grylls, the series looks those moments in which unthinkable - yet realistic - thing happens in what seem to be the most regular circumstances. When simple circumstances turn deadly.
An elevator ride... a drive to work... a walk in the park. Most crises arise close to home, in everyday life. Knowing exactly what to do in these situations could be the difference between life and death.
Over the courseof six-episodes Bear Grylls puts himself into life-threathening situations to deliver a how-to guide to surviving a Worst Case Scenario.
He shares the skills needed to succeed in urban survival situations such as escaping a high-rise apartment fire, fending off a shark attack and escaping out of a sinking car. He also puts his knowledge to the test by escaping various deadly situations himself.
Surviving DisasterPremieres: September 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Surviving Disaster delivers crucial knowledge that could save your life in a dangerous situation.
The show features elaborate disaster simulations to take a look at a variety of techniques that could potentially keep people from harm.
Presented by former Navy Seal, Cade Courtley, the show demonstrates the best way to survive a series of natural and man-made ordeals including an earthquake, plane crash, hijack, hostage crisis and deadly tsunami.
Cade provides helpful tips, hands-on instruction and points out common misconceptions and fatal mistakes.
Miami SwatPremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Beyond the façade of Miami’s golden beaches and sun-bronzed elite lies a city that houses some of America’s toughest and most ruthless criminals. These are the brutal gangs of Miami.
They reign supreme over the city’s streets, governing the seedy underworld of the drugs, arms and prostitution trades. These men of war have met their match in Miami’s Special Response Team.
The crime-fighting unit is regarded as one of the best in the world and uses state of the art assault weaponry to bring the criminal gangs to book. This series follows them.
Behind BarsPremieres: October 2010On: Discovery Channel
Behind Bars explores the reality of prison life. Through unrestricted access to the cell blocks of some of the highest level security prisons, each hour-long episode captures a world where each day constitutes a fight for survival.
On the surface, prison life is built upon order and discipline. The prison guard shifts run like clockwork as they closely monitor the inmates and escort them back and forth from their cells. However, underneath this routine is a seedy underworld.
The series includes trips behind the bars of Alaska's fiery Spring Creek Correctional Centre, renowned for being the state's most treacherous lock-up and the Pendleton Correctional Facility - a high-security lockdown.
Man Hunt: Search For A KillerPremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery Channel
The series explores the danger involved in the process of capturing relentless murderers.
Each episode reveals the difficult challenges and pivotal clues that lead to the arrest of three notorious individuals intent on harming others. Cases covered in the show include the Washington Sniper who randomly selected his victims without motive, the BTK Killer who tortured innocent people and the Green River Killer who preyed on helpless women.
The show includes interviews with the key investigators and dramatic reconstructions which bring the investigations to life.
Science Of The MoviesPremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Science of the Movies explores the scientific world that exists behind the silver screen.
Hosted by self-proclaimed movie geek, Nar Williams, the show introduces
visionary artists, investigates the innovative technology and discovers the techniques responsible for creating hi-tech, dramatic moments in blockbuster
films.
The series breaks down famous movie scenes to give the inside track on how the sequence was produced, what equipment was used and the obstacles the technical crews faced in pulling it all off.
It includes blow-by-blows on film techniques, interviews with award winning artists, state-of-the-art cameras and the creation of 3-D worlds.
Stephen Hawking's UniversePremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Reknowned Professor Stephen Hawking explores the splendour and majesty of the stars and planets, galaxies and supernovas that shape and populate the cosmos.
How did the universe begin? Could alien life be found in distant planets? Does our galaxy have a life expectancy? And is time travel possible?
More than 20 years after writing A Brief History of Time, Hawking offers a fresh perspective on these mysteries, charting the history of the universe, from the energy of the big bang to the end of time itself.
The series combines special effects, digitally enhanced NASA footage and live
action to bring Hawking’s vision of the universe to the screen for the first time.
Through The Wormhole With Morgan FreemanPremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Guided by Morgan Freeman and aided by the latest science, this series embarks on a quest to solve the deepest problems and uncover the richest possibilities of the universe.
The show follows a journey that combines hi-tech visuals with complex questions that humanity has been asking for thousands of years.
Till now these questions have been the domain of religion, philosophy, art and science fiction. They fill movie theaters and have created instant classics like ET, Back to the Future, The Matrix, and War of the Worlds. Now, new scientific disciplines such Astrophysics, Astrobiology, Quantum Mechanics and String Theory are allowing hard science to find a grip on our deepest, most eternal problems.
River Monsters 2Premieres: November 2010
On: Discovery Channel
River Monsters 2 continues on a journey through the dark side of nature, mixing action and adventure with mystery and a battle of wills between man and the almost supernatural beasts that lurk in our waterways.
Hosted once more by Jeremy Wade, the series sees him coming face to face with fear as he tries to understand mysterious predators who have a taste for
human flesh.
Through the series he puts his life on the line to find monster sized fish in places including India, Germany, Australia, Brazil and the state of Texas. Fish he searches for include piranha, the alligator gar, wels catfish, bullshark, piraiba/candiru and arapaima.
Swamp Loggers 2Premieres: November 2010
On: Discovery Channel
Swamp Loggers returns for a second season to further explore the trials and tribulations faced by the loggers in the swamps of North Carolina.
The series centres round fourthgeneration logger Bobby Goodson and his team as they attempt to harvest timber from the swamp forests. Using a technique that involves laying down skid roads, the men go in guns blazing to get what they came for, putting their lives on the line.
Venom Hunter With Donald SchultzPremieres: September 2010
On: Animal Planet
A series which centres round animal adventurer, adrenaline junkie, venom expert and South African Donald Schultz, who risks his life to hunt venom and gather fragile bio-samples.
His adventures include harvesting venom from the fangs of deadly black mamba in South Africa, collecting deadly jellyfish tentacles off the remote coasts of Papua New Guinea and bringing down a 400lb wild African lion to get a blood sample.
Through the course of his adventures he also faces a battle against time as he needs to move each bio-sample from remote areas to institutions and zoos while they're still usable.
Whale Wars 3Premieres: October 2010
On: Animal Planet
Maverick Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society return for more radical adventures to eradicate whaling from the seas.
If you've caught previous seasons you'll know that they'll use any means necessary to achieve their goals, including ramming and disabling whaling ships and boarding and dispersing fleets of whaling vessels.
The action of the series takes place on the frozen wastes of the Antarctic Ocean, at the bottom of the world, where the crew of activists and eco-pirates scour the horizon for their prey: the vast killing ships of the Japanese whaling fleet.
Fast fact: the eco-warriors added more firepower to their vessels for the season; also, a surprise, secret third vessel is introduced.
World's Deadliest Towns With Dave SalmoniPremieres: December 2010
On: Animal Planet
Animal behaviourist, large predator expert and beefcake, Dave Salmoni, visits the last places on earth where man and beast are still locked in mortal conflict and tries to understand how these situations - and the delicate balances they offer - can be improved for the benefit of both.
Dave as he ventures into three transitional danger zones in the series: first to India, where he joins villagers battling elephants that have been driven to a stress point so extreme, they may be turning into man eaters.
Then to India’s Sundarbans, a dense and unforgiving wilderness, where Royal Bengal tigers have added man to their menu, killing a human nearly once a week.
Finally to Zambia, where villagers along the Zambezi River depend on this waterway for all of their needs, but in doing so have to face the deadliest animal in Africa.
In each of the places, Dave finds paradise lost as he explores the reasons why
man and animal fight each other - to live.
Atlas 4DPremieres: September 2010
On: Discovery World
Atlas 4D transports viewers through millions of years of evolving geology and climate, past, present and future, to explore some of the earth’s most dramatic regions, including: the African Rift Valley, the Mediterranean and the islands of Hawaii - to uncover their age-old secrets.
It travels across time to tell the science and history of each locale, revealing connections between the landscape, natural history and indigenous peoples.
Previously unknown connections include: how the spread of Islam sparked the Italian Renaissance, how an ancient ice age provided Polynesian settlers in Hawaii with a breakthrough technology and how the formation of the Rift Valley forced a crucial evolutionary step for humankind.
Greatest Tank BattlesPremieres: September 2010
On: Discovery World
A 20-part series that brings to life some of the most monumental tank battles
ever fought. Filmed on battlefields across the world and using realistic CGI animation and eyewitness accounts, the series puts viewers in the heart of these famous battles.
The series includes the mighty 88-mm cannon of the Second World War German Tiger, the thermal-imaging target system of the Gulf War M-1 Abrams
and examines the significant technical details that have shaped a century of battle.
DaredevilsPremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery World
A series of films that follows some of the world’s most extreme individuals who risk their lives as they push themselves to the physical and mental limits of human capability.
People introduced in the series include ‘the human bird’ Jeb Corliss who has “found life” through leaping off the world’s tallest buildings and mountain peaks. The show follows him on his quest to fly down the Matterhorn in Switzerland, within five feet of the jagged cliff face.
Also: Wim ‘the ice man’ Hof, who attempts to run 26 miles clad only in shorts and a pair of sandals in sub-zero temperatures, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Toughest Race On Earth With James CracknellPremieres: October 2010
On: Discovery World
Olympian athlete and adventurer James Cracknell surrenders his body to science, becoming a living, breathing, competing experiment.
Through the series a team of experts condition his body to scientific perfection as he takes on a race dubbed the toughest in the world: the Marathon des Sables.
For a quarter of a century athletes have been converging on the hottest place on Earth to take on a race across the Moroccan desert. This notorious race pushes the toughest athletes to their limits and beyond.
Each year 800 runners, from more than 30 nations, compete in the 250km run over sand dunes, salt flats and mountains. During its history two competitors have died and many more have been injured.
James isn’t contemplating failure, but in this unique experiment, the scientists will be in the driving seat, controlling the varied factors that determine James’ ultimate performance.
The series explores: will he be able to put his competitive urges to one side and allow the scientists to control his calorie and water intake, his pace and in effect, map out his success or failure?
On Discovery HD: the line-up of shows are chosen from HD titles across all Discovery channels. In September three new titles debut on the channel exclusively: City Chic, Chasing Classic Cars and American Icon.
For a look at the new shows this July, see:
New on Discovery in July 2010New on Animal Planet in July 2010New on Discovery World in July 2010