THURSDAY, JULY 13, 2006
DARE TO EXPLORE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL'S UPCOMING SLATE OF SERIES AND SPECIALS
World Premiere Lineup: From the Stunning Struggles of African Leopards to the Earth's 4-D Forces, from the Science Behind Martial Arts to an Insider's View of Multiple Births
(WASHINGTON, D.C. - July 13, 2006) National Geographic Channel (NGC) announced today its upcoming slate of series and specials for 2006.
Some of NGC's most anticipated programming includes The Final Report: Osama's Escape, on the man who has eluded the world's most powerful military machine; Fight Science, a scientific analysis of the world's greatest fighting techniques; In the Womb: Multiples, which uses revolutionary imagery to witness the development of multiples babies; Eye of the Leopard, a stunning look at the extraordinary life of a young leopard; and Amazing Planet, a 4-D examination of Earth's epic forces in action.
The aggressive schedule is intended to build on the tremendous success the network has achieved since launching in 2001. This past January, to celebrate its fifth anniversary, NGC launched an all high-definition channel - NGC HD. NGC also ranked as the number one network for "high quality" and "distinctive" and as one of the top two "favorite," "valuable" and "bold" channels in the prestigious benchmark Beta Brand Identity Survey in April 2006 among all 48 measured cable and broadcast networks. Viewers specifically described NGC.
NGC'S FEATURED PROGRAMMING CALENDAR
July-December 2006
** Please note: Titles and airdates are subject to change.
JULY
Secrets of Revelation
Sunday, July 16 at 9pm ET/PT
It is both a horror story and the promise of eternal paradise - the ultimate tale of good triumphing over evil. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse and the beast numbered "666" unleash war and disease in proportions never seen before, while hail, fire and blood rain down upon the earth - followed by the second coming of Jesus Christ. For millions of believers, John's Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, is a precise blueprint of our future. Some even interpret recent wars, natural disasters and devastation as evidence its prophecies are upon us. But is there more to the Book of Revelation than prophecy? Could it actually be the work of a strategic revolutionary, constructing a coded political manifesto against the oppressive Roman Empire? Secrets of Revelation explores the series of dreamlike visions and nightmarish scenarios contained within this ancient and provocative text.
AUGUST
Dog Whisperer Week
Sunday, July 30-Friday, August 4, at 9 & 10pm ET/PT
He's everyone's favorite dog behavior expert. And starting July 30, fans can watch Cesar Millan demonstrate his calm, assertive guidance - six nights in a row! Kicking off all the remarkable transformations are three brand-new world premiere episodes. First, on Sunday, July 30, Sugar, a 3-month old beagle, chews and pulls on anything in her path. Will Cesar get her off the sugar high? And Cesar works to take the bite out of a fluffy bichon frise. Next, on Monday, July 31, a bull terrier puppy turns into the "Incredible Hulk" and attacks bigger dogs, and a frantic Jack Russell/Italian greyhound won't stop barking. On Tuesday, August 1, Cesar takes viewers into his Dog Psychology Center - home and refuge to nearly 50 "unfixable" dogs - for a revealing episode of "pack power." Witness some of Cesar's most memorable moments rehabilitating dogs and training their owners in the very best of this season's episodes in NGC's Dog Whisperer Week.
Explorer: Python vs. Gator
Wednesday, August 16 at 8pm ET/PT
It's a new battle in the suburbs - pythons vs. gators! Not since the photo of Hogzilla has a picture sparked such debate about its authenticity. On September 26, 2005, a park biologist snapped a photo of a six-foot alligator half inside the belly of a dead 13-foot Burmese python. Did the python attack the gator? What caused the python to die? In the heart of the Everglades, a hidden war between one of Florida's largest and most terrifying native carnivores, the American alligator, and a new exotic alien invader, the Burmese python, has exploded into view. Explorer investigates America's craze for exotic pets and the all-out alien invasion of South Florida by this scary giant snake.
Fight Science
Sunday, August 20 at 9pm ET/PT
(Encore Presentation Monday, September 4 at 9pm ET/PT)
It strikes four times faster than a snake. It kicks with more than 1,000 pounds of force. And it can rival the impact of a 35 mph car crash. It's the most complex weapon ever designed - the human body. Fight Science brings together a dream team of scientists, motion-capture specialists and CGI animators, along with a cross-section of champion martial arts masters, to analyze the world's greatest fight techniques in ways never before possible. For the first time, members of the crash test industry, the sports biomechanics industry and the Hollywood animation industry apply their combined expertise and technology to a diverse range of martial arts techniques, including karate, kung fu, jiu jitsu, tae kwon do, muay Thai and wushu, among others. Fight Science tests and films world-renowned martial artists in a custom-built dojo (a school for training in the various arts of self-defense), high-tech lab and film studio complete with 32 infrared motion capture cameras, three high-definition cameras and three ultra-high-speed cameras that took over a year to design and build. The results reveal the comparative strengths, advantages and limitations of the various martial arts styles, and in a breakthrough combination of technologies, allow scientists to peer inside a fighter's body in real time.
Most Amazing Moments II
Monday, August 21 at 9pm ET/PT
NGC's popular franchise is back for a new installment of thrilling moments from National Geographic's film and video archives. NGC's Most Amazing Moments takes you to every corner of the globe with new startling footage, breathtaking scenes and the rarely glimpsed events. From feasting predators to remarkable rescues and dramatic displays of Mother Nature's deadly power - strap yourself in for a wild ride.
Inside 9/11 - World Premiere of 2006 Updated Version
Sunday, August 27 at 7pm ET/ 8pm PT
(Encore Presentation Monday, September 11, 6 - 10pm ET)
The Wall Street Journal called Inside 9/11 "exceptionally powerful," and Newsday said, "The scale of Inside 9/11 really does rate that much-abused superlative 'awesome.'" This four-hour miniseries event of unprecedented scope goes beyond what's been widely reported to reveal a clearer picture of events. With meticulous attention to detail and firsthand storytelling, this series presents a comprehensive and compelling perspective on September 11, 2001, the day that forever altered history and our place in the world. Now, in anticipation of the fifth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on our nation, the National Geographic Channel updates its highest rated special to reflect the historic moments in the war on terror in the past year. New information and details that have emerged over the year are now included on the program, including Saddam Hussein's trial, the escape of the USS Cole bombing "mastermind" from a Yemeni prison, the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui, the Canadian terror plot arre
sts and the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Triple Cross: Bin Laden's Spy in America (wt)
Monday, August 28 at 9pm ET/PT
It is a real-life epic that plays out like a Tom Clancy thriller. Ali A. Mohamed is a radical ex-Egyptian Army office who becomes a CIA asset, joined the US Army, volunteered to be an FBI informant, but all the while was really Osama bin Laden's chief intelligence agent, playing a key role in al Qaeda terror plots and "triple crossing" U.S. officials on the road to 9/11. Based on an upcoming book by investigative journalist Peter Lance, this ground-breaking documentary shows how Mohamed survived more than 14 years as al Qaeda's chief "mole" inside the U.S., revealing chilling details of his conspiracy to kill Americans at home and around the world. And finally, how he cut a deal with the U.S. government that has never been explained to the public... and soon after, just plain disappeared. To this day, Mohamed's whereabouts are a complete mystery.
The Final Report: Osama's Escape
Tuesday, August 29 at 10pm ET
Always a step ahead of his would-be captors, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden seems one part smoke and one part shadow. Yet he was never more elusive than during the battle at Tora Bora in late 2001, where he walked away from a brutal barrage of bombs and gunfire by U.S. and allied forces, and disappeared. How did the man President George W. Bush wanted "dead or alive" escape the world's most powerful military machine? The Final Report: Osama's Escape delivers a penetrating look at how this infamous terrorist got away and continues to bedevil the United States and its allies. The show sheds new light on the strategic U.S. manhunt in Afghanistan beginning after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Viewers will hear from those on the ground, those coordinating the efforts back home during the critical moments of the hunt and those reporting on the action and receiving the information firsthand. They describe the missed opportunities, faulty intelligence, insufficient forces and allied betrayal that left the U.S. military empty-handed - again and again - in the hunt for bin Laden. The Final Report is a new series that goes beyond the bold news headlines and widely reported stories to reveal a clearer picture of events. From the hunt for bin Laden to the Waco tragedy, from the D.C. sniper to the L.A. riots, the series presents a comprehensive and compelling perspective of events that shook the nation.
SEPTEMBER
Naked Science: Forensics Under Fire
Wednesday, September 6 at 10pm ET/PT
We all know forensics makes good TV - it is the subject of nearly half of the top 20 programs on prime-time TV. But does it make good science? And, more urgently, does it make good justice? Even as shows like CSI have portrayed the field as nearly infallible, the real-life science of forensics has been challenged as never before. Stricter legal standards, combined with the advent of DNA analysis, have exposed the shaky scientific foundations of a number of forensic techniques. Naked Science: Forensics Under Fire takes a hard look at two of the most venerable - and vulnerable -forensic disciplines, fire investigation and firearms analysis, and asks whether the methods that make such good TV also make good science, and in turn, good justice.
Hollywood Science: Spy Gadgets
Friday, September 22 at 10pm ET/PT
From deadly weapons to hidden cameras and microphones, movie spy gadgets have seized the imaginations of moviegoers. But how much scientific truth is there to these gadgets of espionage? Do they really exist? Or could they? Viewers will zoom in on these supercool spy toys to see just how far Hollywood pushes the limits of reality and how many of the technologies are already at work.
OCTOBER
The Final Report: Jonestown Suicides
The Final Report: LA Riots
Premiere in October 2006
In November 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones became infamous for leading 913 people to their deaths. In April 1992, riots were sparked in Los Angeles when four police officers were acquitted of beating black motorist Rodney King. How and why did it happen? The Final Report goes beyond the news headlines to reveal a clearer picture of these two momentous events. Jonestown Suicides examines whether something was wrong with Jim Jones, why members of the People's Temple stayed in Jonestown and why more than 900 people died. In LA Riots, new light is shed on some of the most pressing questions: Did the videotape of the beating tell the whole story? Did television coverage fuel the riots? With the help of experts who were on the scene, both shows present the answers.
Eye of the Leopard
Sunday, October 8 at 9pm ET/PT
The acclaimed husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Dereck and Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence and producers of NGC's highest rated natural history special Relentless Enemies, takes us to a remote part of Africa to witness the extraordinary lives of a young developing leopard and her mother. Found by the Jouberts when she was eight days old, "Legadema" was the first surviving cub of a female who had lost five cubs in a row. For three years, they follow mother and cub as they fight off marauding baboons and elude scavenging hyenas in a constant struggle for survival. Through tragedy and triumph, the Jouberts capture it all. Eye of the Leopard is a stunning high-definition journey of birth, life and death, detailing the realities of wild, unspoiled Africa.
Explorer: World's Most Dangerous Drug
Wednesday, October 18 at 8pm ET/PT
Methamphetamine abuse is becoming a global problem. It does not discriminate. Once known as "poor man's cocaine," it has now infiltrated communities from Middle America to the Far East. A quick batch can be cooked up in a backyard shed, but it is also big business that's crossing international borders. Even as meth continues to shatter lives, troubling scientific evidence is emerging about long term physical and psychological damage. What makes this drug so powerful, so addictive and so destructive? NGC correspondent Lisa Ling travels the globe, from rural America to Bangkok, Thailand, hanging with meth addicts, undercover cops, and neuroscientists to learn the truth about the World's Most Dangerous Drug.
Is it Real?: Vampires
Monday, October 23 at 8pm ET/PT
Everyone knows Count Dracula is the product of Bram Stoker's imagination, but is this enduring pop-culture icon based in reality? Just in time for Halloween, NGC travels to the Transylvania region of Romania, into the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, to find the answer. Historians, folklorists, forensic science and modern medicine add insight to the enduring vampire myths, separating fact from fiction. Viewers will meet a real-life, self-professed blood-drinking vampire! And he doesn't live across the Atlantic, he lives in Las Vegas. Dare to feel the chills down your back!
Saddam's Reign
Sunday, October 29 at 9pm ET/PT
For 24 years, Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party executed political rivals, Shias, Kurds and anyone else who dared disagree - or even tell a joke abo
ut the dictator. A chorus of testimonials, unearthed mass graves and discovered documents now reveal the extent to which Saddam and his Baath Party tortured, maimed, raped and murdered Iraqi citizens. But history will remember him as more than just a dictator who controlled the lives of 25 million people in Iraq. He was a calculating tyrant, who for 24 years kept the world guessing what he would do next. As he faces trial for his crimes, NGC goes inside his reign of terror - with rare videotape that shows Baath Party members carrying out Saddam's brutal laws. Also hear what Saddam's top lieutenants are telling U.S. officials about the dictator's weapons programs, his war capabilities and his reign of terror against his own people.
The Dog Whisperer: Season 3
Mondays at 8pm ET/PT - New Season Premieres late October on New Day and Time
NGC's number one rated series returns for a third season in October. This time, Cesar Millan is taking his philosophy of rehabilitating dogs' quirky behavior and training owners to be "pack leaders" on the road. Episodes will include dogs from New York, N.Y.; Atlanta, Ga.; Chicago, Ill.; Dallas, Texas; Omaha, Neb.; and Cleveland, Ohio.
DECEMBER
Amazing Planet
Sunday, December 3 at 8pm ET/ 7pm PT
(Encore Presentation Thursday, December 7 at 9pm ET/PT)
NGC in consultation with NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey brings you in stunning high-definition a geologic time machine unlike any other. Eye-popping CGI makes it possible to see in seconds what took billons of years to create. This is 4-D Earth - as entertaining as it is magnificent. Watch the bumper-car antics of continents, ice ages pulsing out of the poles and back again, the Himalayas surging upward, and the mysterious singing of sand dunes - all punctuated by high-definition images of our planet's epic forces in action today.
In the Womb: Multiples
Sunday, December 10 at 9pm ET/PT
(Encore Presentation Wednesday, December 13 at 9pm ET/PT)
Building on the success of last year's critically acclaimed special In the Womb, NGC explores the mysterious world of multiple births, examining, in minute detail, how twins, triplets and quads are conceived, nurtured and delivered. Amazing 4-D ultrasound images and revolutionary new fetal imaging techniques reveal how multiples actually grow in the fragile and mysterious world of the womb. Viewers will learn when multiples come into contact with each other for the very first time and will to see how multiples can position themselves cheek to cheek and "play" with each other. Other questions the show sheds light on include "How do conjoined twins form?" "Can triplets really 'kiss' in utero?" "Do they really hold hands?" And "When one pushes or touches, how does the other react?"
Based at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Channel (NGC) is a joint venture between National Geographic Television & Film (NGT&F) and Fox Cable Networks. Since launching in January 2001, NGC initially earned some of the fastest distribution growth in the history of cable and more recently the fastest ratings growth in television. The network celebrated its fifth anniversary January 2006 with the launch of NGC HD, which provides the spectacular imagery that National Geographic is known for in stunning high definition. NGC has carriage with all of the nation's major cable and satellite television providers, making it currently available to 59 million homes. For more information, please visit www.nationalgeographic.com/channel.
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