NBC gearing up to arrive at Destination X and The Americas in 2025
Geronimo’s original Belgian version of Destination X comes to NBC
LA SCREENINGS: NBC in the US has confirmed its adaptation of Belgian travel adventure competition format Destination X will air in 2025 as part of a midseason schedule that also includes Tom Hanks-fronted BBC Studios Natural History Unit series The Americas.
It comes after NBC last month handed a full series order to the remake, which is being produced by ITV Studios-backed UK production company Twofour and Universal Television Alternative Studio.
Created by Geronimo and distributed globally by Be Entertainment, the format sees contestants embark on a road trip with no idea of their starting location or destination.
Once they’re on the Destination X bus, reality is tweaked to mislead them, and they must use clues to work out where they are. At the end of each episode, the contestant who places their X on a map furthest away from the bus’s actual location has to leave the game, losing their shot at winning a cash prize.
It will air in NBC’s midseason schedule alongside fellow new launches such as the 10-part tentpole event series The Americas, which will be narrated by actor, producer and writer Tom Hanks with music by two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer.
Premiering on February 23 next year, the natural history series is five years in the making and looks at wildlife from North and South America.
Also set to air next year are procedural drama The Hunting Party, starring Melissa Roxburgh (“Manifest”), which will see a team of investigators attempt to capture the country’s most dangerous killers, plus the second season of Deal or No Deal Island.
Elsewhere, Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year with a live three-hour special on February 16.
NBC confirmed the details as it announced its fall schedule for later this year, when it will premiere hospital-set mockumentary St. Denis Medical, multi-camera sitcom Happy’s Place and Zachary Quinto-starring drama Brilliant Minds, inspired by the true story of revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist Oliver Wolf.
From co-creators Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin, St. Denis Medical stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, Allison Tolman and David Alan Grier as staff at an underfunded, understaffed Oregon hospital where the dedicated doctors and nurses try their best to treat patients while maintaining their own sanity.
Reba McEntire fronts Happy’s Place, in which her character inherits her father’s bar and is less than thrilled to discover that she has a new business partner in the half-sister she never knew she had.
Meanwhile, as part of NBC’s rolling development cycle, Suits spin-off Suits: LA and Grosse Pointe Garden Society have been picked up to pilot with decisions yet to be made on series pickup.
With NBC’s 52-week scheduling strategy, these pilots – if picked up to series – could air later in the 2024-25 season or roll over to the 2025-26 season.
