AMC Networks said Planet Earth: Blue Planet II, the latest installment to the David Attenborough-hosted Planet Earth series, will premiere on Saturday, Jan. 20 (9/8c), on BBC America, AMC, IFC, WE tv and SundanceTV before settling into Saturday nights on BBCA. The simulcast plan was previously announced.
RELATED:The 'Planet Earth: Blue Planet II' Trailer
The nature saga, which has already aired to mass audiences in the United Kingdom, China and other countries, also will premiere day-and-date in Canada on the BBC Earth Channel. This installment of the series will consist of seven episodes plus a making-of episode.
RELATED: 'Planet Earth II' brings in 2.7 million viewers
Says BBCA: Planet Earth: Blue Planet II takes viewers on a revelatory and magical journey into the mesmerizing world of our oceans – the most undiscovered place on our planet. Our oceans are by turn tempestuous and serene, exquisitely beautiful and bleakly forbidding. They cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and hold 97% of all the water in the world. There is more life in the deep sea than anywhere else on Earth. It is said we know more about the surface of Mars than the depths of our own planet. Our final frontier is the deep ocean – Earth's ‘inner space.’
AMC Networks COO Ed Carroll said in a release: “Planet Earth: Blue Planet II is rare, event television, an extraordinary series we are so proud to launch as a premiere simulcast across all five of our national networks. AMC Networks prides itself on being a premiere destination for extraordinary storytelling in all of its forms, and this remarkable exploration of our natural world from the BBC is storytelling at its finest.”
RELATED: Dish to offer live broadcast of 'Planet Earth II' in 4K
BBC America president Sarah Barnett said in the release: “This next chapter in BBC America’s nature programming franchise is more incredible than anything yet seen, complete with heart-pounding exploration and incredible cinematography. The experience is a magical and transcendent trip into unexplored worlds.”
More than four years in production, the Planet Earth: Blue Planet II teams mounted 125 expeditions, visited 39 countries, and filmed on every continent and across every ocean. They spent over 6,000 hours diving underwater, filming everywhere from familiar shores to the deepest seas, per BBCA. Presented by Attenborough, the series is made by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC America, Tencent, WDR, France Télévisions and CCTV9 in partnership with The Open University.
