Nat Geo Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Welsh network S4C’s new Chief Content Officer has issued a call for collaboration to “global streamers and respected U.S. heavyweight broadcasters.”

EXCLUSIVE: XTR, the non-fiction studio behind projects such as Oscar nominated doc Ascension and Apple’s They Call Me Magic, has hired its first Chief Operating Officer.

EXCLUSIVE: Ashley Hoppin, who oversaw animal-based programming across Nat Geo and Disney+, has joined Red Rock Films, the company behind Signourney Weaver-narrated Secrets of the Whales.

Sasha Urban editorJay Ellis (“Insecure,” “Top Gun: Maverick,”) will host the inaugural Anthem Awards.The virtual awards, to be held Feb. 28, were created to honor individuals and organizations for their social impact work.“It’s a tremendous honor to host the first annual Anthem Awards,” Ellis said.

EXCLUSIVE: XTR, the non-fiction studio behind projects such as Darren Aronofsky co-produced doc The Territory and Apple’s They Call Me Magic, is bolstering its C-suite.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNational Geographic announced a slate of more than a dozen upcoming original programs Monday, all of which are produced by the brand but will debut exclusively on Disney Plus — not on the Nat Geo cable channel. But despite the shift, Nat Geo content president Courteney Monroe promised that it’s not a sign that the Disney-owned brand has completely moved away from linear content.“I realize that all of my announcements today were for Disney Plus originals, but that in no way diminishes our focus and investment in National Geographic programming for the linear channel,” Monroe told reporters Monday during Nat Geo’s virtual presentation at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

Big-budget non-fiction series from Will Smith, Darren Aronofsky, Jon Favreau, James Cameron and David Blaine make up Nat Geo’s latest slate for Disney+.

J. Kim Murphy National Geographic is sending Will Smith to both ends of the Earth.

Showtime is coming off the ratings success of two drama series – Yellowjackets and a Dexter sequel series.

EXCLUSIVE: Hostile Planet and Tiny World producer Plimsoll Productions is taking its Channel 4 carpentry format Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker to the U.S. as Channel 4 issues a rare double season order.

National Geographic Documentary Films acquired rights to the docu The Territory for low seven-figures. It’s their second deal, following a big one for Fire of Love. Nat Geo announced The Territory deal this morning.

EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic Documentary Films is closing a mid-seven-figure worldwide rights deal for Fire of Love, the Sara Dosa-directed documentary that opened the festival and created a stampede of bidders in what is the first deal on the virtual ground here.

Nat Geo is not planning any more races to the center of the Earth: The Disney-owned broadcaster has canceled Race To The Center of the Earth after one season.

Fremantle Media distribution exec Caroline Kusser has joined Mediawan and Leonine Studios as Executive Vice President, International Co-Production.

The Producers Guild of America on Friday unveiled nominees in the Outstanding Documentary Motion Picture category for the 33rd annual PGA Awards. It’s the first batch of noms for the guild, which honors excellence in motion picture and television productions.

“And the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature goes to… My Octopus Teacher… to American Factory… to Icarus.”

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson star Courtney B. Vance in all areas.

Notably leading the pack of nominees revealed Monday for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards are a pair of films from directors making their debut as documentarians. Ascension’s Jessica Kingdon and Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)’s Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson pulled off the impressive feat, with both films receiving six nods apiece.

EXCLUSIVE: Plimsoll Productions, the company behind series such as Apple’s Tiny World and Fox’s Malika the Lion Queen, has promoted its U.S. chief Saul Goldberg.

Queer Eye took home its fourth straight Emmy win for Outstanding Structured Reality Program and tied annual rival Shark Tank’s category record.

The multiple generations who grew up mesmerized by the underwater cinematic adventures of Jacques-Yves Cousteau will be able to learn a good deal more about the man’s life and work in Becoming Cousteau. Among the many gifts of Liz Garbus’ filled-to-the-gills documentary is the way it positions the French explorer as an initially unwitting pioneer of the environmentalist movement, which took shape in his literal wake.

National Geographic Documentary Films and Greenwich Entertainment said Friday that they will release Nat Geo’s Thai cave rescue documentary The Rescue in theaters in October. That’s the same month as the theatrical bow of one of Nat Geo’s other feature docs, Becoming Cousteau, which earlier this week set an October 22 release date.

EXCLUSIVE: The World According to Jeff Goldblum producer Nutopia is bolstering its executive team in the U.S. with the hire of former Nat Geo executive Geoff Daniels.

Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios is expanding its relationship with National Geographic with a five-year first-look deal for unscripted content. The pact comes ahead of Smith’s new adventure series Welcome to Earth for Disney+, which is slated to premiere on the streaming platform later this year.

Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios has signed a five-year first-look TV deal for unscripted content with Nat Geo.The deal comes ahead of Smith’s Nat Geo-produced docuseries “Welcome to Earth,” which debuts later this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Free Solo, which earned Nat Geo its first Oscar, was one of the channel’s signature programs selected to launch Disney+, with Free Solo’s Alex Honnold featured in the streamer’s first trailer alongside Marvel superheroes and classic Disney/ Pixar animated characters. Now Disney+ has greenlighted a three-part original docuseries from National Geographic headlined by Honnold.

National Geographic is expanding its unscripted slate with greenlights for three new series — Life Below Zero: First Alaskans, a spinoff of the Emmy-winning Life Below Zero franchise, Appetite for Adventure with BBQ pitmaster Big Moe Cason, and The 7 Toughest Days on Earth with adventurer and explorer Dwayne Fields from One Strange Rock producers Nutopia. Additionally, Nat Geo has given an early Season 3 renewal to Emmy-nominated docuseries Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller.

EXCLUSIVE: Disney+ and Nat Geo have greenlit their latest UK-produced natural history series in the shape of Supernatural Planet, which hails from Hostile Planet and Yellowstone Live outfit Plimsoll Productions.

Shark Week, now in its 33rd year, is adding 45 hours of new unscripted shark-oriented programming on its cable network beginning July 11 — 25 more hours than last year — with some also streaming on its seven-month-old Discovery Plus service.

Black Widow (finally), the Gossip Girl reboot on HBO Max, and the return of Love Island U.S. Read on for details. Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular: Prepare to be dazzled.

Antonio Banderas is to play an Italian crime reporter in his latest TV role.

America’s National Parks – from Yosemite to the Grand Canyony – will be the subject of a ten-part documentary series narrated by Garth Brooks for Nat Geo.

Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner Cynthia Erivo steps into the shoes of the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin in the Nat Geo anthology series Genius: Aretha. “It was an honor and I had this overwhelming sense of responsibility to try and tell the story through her as truthfully as I possibly could with this much grace as I possibly could,” said Erivo, joined by her co-star Courtney B. Vance at Deadline’s Contenders Television awards-season event.

EXCLUSIVE: After getting great response from Television Academy members last Emmy season, Disney is returning to the Rose Bowl for a series of evenings promoting top contenders from their various brands including 20th Television, FX, Hulu, Nat Geo, Disney+ , and ABC. Titled FYC From Your Car: Disney Drive-In Series, 11 different nights will be devoted to spotlighting the studio’s wares between May 25 to June 16 with screenings, panels, and dinner at each of them.

EXCLUSIVE: Loch Down Abbey, the debut novel by Beth Cowan-Erskine, is headed for the small screen. Madison Wells, Gigi Pritzker’s company behind Nat Geo’s Genius and 21 Bridges, is developing the book as a series after optioning the rights.

NEW YORK -- The pandemic can't stop Ziggy Marley from celebrating the Earth.The son of reggae icon Bob Marley and Rita Marley will be one of the highlights of Nat Geo’s Earth Day Eve 2021 streaming concert on Wednesday."Any time they call me, I’m there for this. Any time they want me,” he said from Los Angeles.