Wade lands new Animal Planet series

US nature-focused cablenet Animal Planet has commissioned another original series fronted by River Monsters host Jeremy Wade and produced by UK indie Icon Films.

Jeremy Wade’s Dark Waters will launch on Animal Planet around the world following the success of the presenter’s earlier series for the channel, Mighty Rivers, which was greenlit a year ago and subsequently sold to ITV in the UK.

The biologist has spent 35 years exploring the world’s rivers, lakes and seas and hosted Animal Planet’s River Monsters franchise for nine seasons until 2017.

The new show sees Wade explore reports of the unimaginable and unexplained that lurk beneath the surface of the world’s waterways. Episodes will focus on a legendary monster that supposedly swims in Italy’s Lake Garda, the disappearance of the King Salmon from Alask and an attack on a diver by a large predator in the Australian Outback.

A mid-form sister series, Dark Waters: How To Catch a River Monster, is being produced for online service Animal Planet Go. It will also be released weekly on Facebook and YouTube.

Laura Marshall and Andie Clare are executive producers for Icon with Nicholas Head as showrunner. For Animal Planet, Lisa Lucas is executive producer with Patrick Keegan as supervising producer.