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Nat Geo ropes Leftfield, Nutopia

National Geographic has turned to big-name production companies including Leftfield Pictures and Nutopia as it sharpens its focus on big-hitting specials and character-led returnable series.

The US channel is revamping its content under CEO David Lyle, who joined the company last August, and former Reveille exec Howard T Owens, who became president in November.

The channel’s schedule was previously split 80:20 in favour of one-off docs and specials but the new executive team is keen to reverse that in favour of returnable, character-led series.

To that end it today revealed its upfront slate for the coming months, which includes five new series, seven returning ones and a host of specials and programming events.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings producer Firecracker Films has been commissioned to make Jersey Combat (10×60′), which looks inside a New Jersey military warehouse.

Artefacts have become big business for factual channels owing to the success of Pawn Stars for History and Hardcore Pawn on TruTV.

Nat Geo is hoping that Pawn Stars producer Leftfield Pictures can provide another hit in the shape of Bid and Destroy (12×30′), which follows a company that looks for hidden treasures on sites earmarked for demolition.

Thom Beers’ Original Productions is working on Are You Tougher Then a Boy Scout? (6×60′), where adults complete challenges in competition with Scouts.

Brain Games, originally a three-parter that aired in 2011, will get a 12-episode series produced by National Geographic Television for its global channels.

K Sirrag Productions is producing American Chainsaw, an eight-part series on rock ‘n’ roll star and chainsaw sculptor Jesse Green.

Lyle told C21: “Our mission is to have an exciting new balance of programming that is made up of series mixed in with tentpole specials. In the past, our programming was dependent on specials. Now we are probably 80% series and 20% specials.

“We are looking for a whole stream of shows that are focused on characters in extraordinary worlds. That could be anything from gypsies to the Amish to Hutterites – people that seem extraordinary and different but are relatable to our viewers.”

Major events for the channel include Killing Lincoln, the previously announced special from Scott Free Productions based on the best-selling book, and The 80s: The Decade that Made Us, from Jane Root’s prodco Nutopia.

The channel is sticking by some of its old favourites and will return Alaska State Troopers, Border Wars, Doomsday Preppers and Locked Up Abroad for new series.

Nat Geo’s animal-focused sister channel Nat Geo Wild has commissioned Powwow Productions to make a new 12×60′ series with Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan called Leader of the Pack, and ordered Ultimate Animal Countdown (10×60′) from Natural History New Zealand.

Also commissioned are Animal Intervention and Alpha Dogs, from Bienstock Young Media and Schweet Entertainment respectively.

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