Again within the early days of the printed networks, pure historical past reveals have been part of the programming eating regimen: NBC ran “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” for a lot of the Nineteen Sixties, and round that point ABC introduced “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” to U.S. audiences. Over the previous a number of many years, nonetheless, these sorts of applications principally grew to become the area of PBS (“Nature”) and cablers like Discovery (“Planet Earth”). Extra lately, streamers like Netflix (“Our Planet”) entered the area.
With just a few exceptions (Fox’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”), the printed nets have shied away from documentary-style nature occasions — which makes NBC’s present stab at one, “The Americas,” all of the extra notable. “It’s an experiment,” says Toby Gorman, the president of Common Tv Different Studio. “We are going to study loads. However after I take into consideration the hits of broadcast, it’s acquired to be 4 quadrant,” he provides, referring to the necessity to hit each demographic. “We discuss that loads in our world, and I can’t consider one thing that defines ‘four-quadrant’ higher than an enormous, blue-chip pure historical past venture.”
Narrated by Tom Hanks and boasting a rating by Hans Zimmer, the 10-episode “The Americas” debuted Feb. 23 and continues weekly by April 13. Produced by BBC Studios Pure Historical past Unit — the shingle behind epic occasions like “Planet Earth” — the sequence is break up into completely different areas of curiosity, together with the Amazon, Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Patagonia and the West Coast. The bold shoot befell over 5 years and 180 expeditions. Gorman believes it’s the most costly unscripted enterprise in NBC historical past. To date, by way of its runs on NBC and Peacock, the sequence has reached greater than 20 million viewers and is the most-watched new various present of the season thus far.
“It was an enormous play for them,” says government producer Mike Gunton, the inventive director at BBC’s Pure Historical past Unit, whose latest credit embrace Apple TV+’s “Prehistoric Planet.” “From our perspective, it was a possibility to talk to an viewers on a scale that we’ve by no means actually been capable of do earlier than. The streamers and the cable networks, they’re not area of interest, however once you’re on a factual channel, it reaches a sure subset of viewers. It is a full, cross-genre broadcast.”
The thought for “The Americas” got here as Gorman first joined NBCUniversal in 2019. Conversations have been going down about creating an enormous pure historical past occasion on the firm — the type that would then stay on a streamer (which at that time hadn’t even been introduced but as Peacock). Coincidentally, Gunton was simply beginning to pitch a venture concerning the North and South American continents, from high to backside.
“I used to be pondering, is there something that has the identical ambition as ‘Planet Earth’ I may do,” he says. That’s when specializing in the Americas got here to thoughts. “I began pondering, maintain on, it’s acquired every little thing. It’s acquired all of the superlatives. It’s acquired the longest river, the oldest, greatest timber, the most important this, the quickest that.”
Gorman says they have been impressed by the scope of Gunton’s pitch. “The technique was very clear from the outset that if NBCUniversal was going to enter into this area, it wanted to do it greater and higher than had been executed earlier than,” he says. “And Mike would let you know, that is the most important factor he’s executed, and he’s executed a whole lot of massive stuff. So it was simply to swing for the fences, make investments and hope that we not simply entertain America concerning the Americas, but in addition entertain the world.”
NBC has since additionally ordered the eight-episode “Surviving Earth,” which makes use of digital expertise to re-create the prehistoric period — though that sequence, first introduced in 2022, has not but been given an airdate (however execs affirm it’s nonetheless on the docket). Gorman hopes that “The Americas” will spawn related tasks on NBC.
“I don’t know that we’ll go as massive as we’ve gone, as a result of we actually wished to come back out the gates robust,” he says. “A five-year manufacturing interval is clearly simply an unbelievable period of time for any venture. However we definitely are beginning to discuss how would we comply with this up. We’d love the chance to do extra, however it’s a big dialog due to the dedication required.”
