Discovery Communications-owned The Science Channel will get a major boost in original programming over the next year as the network seeks to increase its programming appeal both domestically and internationally.
On Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27), the 55 million-subscriber network will premiere Punkin Chunkin, a one-hour special that takes an inside look at a Delaware-based pumpkin-launching contest.
The special, hosted by comedian Brad Sherwood (Whose Line Is it Anyway?) will cover every angle of the intense competition from growing special, aerodynamic pumpkins and determining the perfect pumpkin's mass to the mechanics of the air cannon and the physics of catapults, according to Science Channel officials.
Also in November, the network will also look to extend its science-based original programming overseas with the development a new series, Brink.
The 26-episode series, hosted by Australian personality Josh Zepps, will examine people who are on the brink of changing our lives through cutting-edge breakthroughs in technologies and discoveries. It will also include content generated from scientists, organizations, universities and viewers themselves.
Discovery will look to offer Brink to television outlets across the world — although the company would not reveal specific agreements.
“Brink is the first of many exciting new series in our new development pipeline and something only a dedicated service like Science Channel can create,” according to Deborah Adler Myers, Discovery Emerging Networks' senior vice president of programming. “Brink is a thought-provoking and engaging series that connects viewers with incredible science and technology stories from around the world.”
Other original shows set to launch on the Science Channel in November include The President's Guide to Science, a Science Channel/BBC-developed special which gathers the world's leading scientists, politicians and commentators to alert the next U.S. president to the central science and technology questions he will have to face; and Ecopolis, which will look at the blueprint of a city in 2050 that could serve as a test bed for new technologies that could reshape future environmental circumstances.
