History Channel is adding 15 new original
series
and 10 specials to its roster, President/General Manager Nancy Dubuc
announced Tuesday (May 4). Among the most-anticipated series is the
network's first scripted show, The
Kennedys, which explores one of America 's most
storied political
families and features Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes and Barry
Pepper.
Additional series on the way include Top Shot, a competition series
about
amazing marksmanship; archeology series Chasing Mummies; and a U.S. version of
popular U.K. show Top
Gear.
"We always appreciate and seek out new and
unique
stories because history is not the story of millions-it's a million
stories,"
Dubuc said in a statement detailing the new programming announcements.
"We
challenge ourselves each and every day to push the envelope, to take
History to
places none of us, or our viewers, have ever been."
The network is moving into 2010-11 with the
goal of
cracking the top five in the adults 25-54 demo, according to Dubuc.
History has been making in-roads into those demos, with success stories
this
year including America The Story of Usand Pawn Stars.
Among the newly-announced series History has
greenlit
are transportation competition series Around
the World in 80 Ways (working title, premiering in Q2 2011); Brad Meltzer's Decoded, about the
hidden
codes and symbols we encounter daily life (Q4 2010); human evolution series
Stan Lee's Superhumans (Q3
2010);
Swamp People, which
explores
Cajuns living the nation's largest swamp in Louisiana (Q3 2010); and Vigilante Inspector, about
America's
quickly-decaying infrastructure (Q4 2010).
In addition to those series, History unveiled a
slate of
specials including History of the
World in
Two Hours (wt); Jefferson,
a Thomas
Jefferson special; President's
Book of Secrets, about highly
classified information related to national security; Reagan, about America's 40th
president Ronald Reagan; September 11 special Voices From Within the Towers;
and
Who Really Discovered America.
Of the previously-announced series, Top Shot is slated to debut June 6 at 10
p.m. Top Gear premieres
in
Q4 2010. The Kennedys will
premiere in 2011. Thirteen-episode series Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy
starts in Q4 of 2010.
