Highlights of the networks announcements include the return of the Brain Games series; a new series titled Race to the Centre of the Earth; and Lost Cities with Albert Lin, showcasing up-and-coming National Geographic talent.
Following National Geographics first Oscar win for the two-year-old Documentary Films banner Free Solo and its three cinematography awards the most by any network in a single year at last years Emmys, National Geographic Global Television Networks President Courteney Monroe has unveiled the latest lineup of premium science, adventure and exploration content throughout the 2019-20 upfront season.
Highlights of the networks announcements include the return of the Brain Games series, adding a Hollywood twist to its mind-bending format by challenging some of the worlds biggest celebrities to unleash their special brain power through fun and highly entertaining interactive games, illusions and social experiments; new series Race To The Centre Of The Earth, from the producers of Amazing Race, pitting extreme adventurers on a one-of-a-kind journey to win USD$1 million; and Lost Cities With Albert Lin, showcasing up-and-coming National Geographic talent.
Following the success of the networks landmark natural history series Hostile Planet, which has reached a total of 13.2m US viewers to date in L+7, marking the highest-rated series premiere on the channel since One Strange Rock premiered last March, this upfront sees an new epic special Chinas Hidden Kingdoms, setting the bar even higher with new animal behavior narratives and breathtaking landscapes that will not only entertain but take viewers to places beyond their wildest imaginations.
For the past three years, our focus has been on quality and distinctiveness above all else and on building the most creatively ambitious, most entertaining National Geographic television network in history. This years upfront slate continues that ambition with highly entertaining programming from the best creative talent in the business, said Monroe.
Big, bold premium programming that lives up to the promise and expectations of the National Geographic brand, including the reboot of our highly rated family-friendly series Brain Games; the next season of our multiple-Emmy-winning anthology series Genius, profiling the life of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin; and two inside access series, featuring incredible new talent Mariana van Zeller and Albert Lin.
In the just-published 2019 Beta Research Cable Subscriber Study, National Geographic Channel ranked number one for being informative, valuable, high quality, distinctive and bold.
For two consecutive years, National Geographic earned the second most Emmy award nominations for a basic cable network, putting it in the top 10 of all networks nominated. Additionally, the Oscar-winning Free Solo, which grossed $17.5m at the box office, debuted on the network in March 2019 in the US and April 2019 in the Middle East and North Africa as the most-watched National Geographic Documentary Film, with more than three million US viewers in its linear debut.