National Geographic has set a March 21 date for the debut of its Genius: Aretha mini-series profiling the life of legendary R&B singer Aretha Franklin.

The eight-episode series stars Cynthia Erivo as the Queen of Soul. Nat Geo will air two episodes each week over four consecutive nights beginning March 21, with episodes appearing on Hulu the day after airing. All episodes will be available for streaming on March 25, Franklin’s birthday. 

The network also announced four new unscripted projects from Free Solo producers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

The deal includes two feature documentaries, a 10-part series and a one-hour pilot. The projects includes the feature documentary Thai Cave Rescue that chronicles the 2018 rescue of a boys’ soccer team trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand. Another project profiles conservationist Kristine Tompkins, while Into the Unknown focuses on elite athletes, and Photographer profiles Nat Geo photographers. 

“Chai and Jimmy are masterful storytellers who bring unparalleled artistry and distinctive vision to everything they do,” said Carolyn Bernstein, EVP of scripted content and documentary films for National Geographic in a statement. “We are proud to continue our partnership with them to tell these profound stories in an authentic yet innovative way.”

While perennial standouts HBO and Netflix had their usual strong showings at the 71st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, Amazon Prime Video surprisingly scored seven wins during Fox’s live telecast — second only to HBO — and 15 Emmys overall, finishing third behind HBO and Netflix.

Another surprise: National Geographic finished fourth among all cable, broadcast and streaming services with eight Emmy statuettes, and first among all basic cable networks, outperforming the likes of FX and VH1 (adding in Primetime and Creative Arts awards).

Leading Nat Geo’s Emmy run was documentary film Free Solo, about climber Alex Honnold’s attempted ascent of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan. It won seven Creative Arts Emmys, including Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/ Nonfiction Program for show directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. (Nat Geo’s wildlife documentary series Life Below Zero won the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program.)

National Geographic Global Television Networks president Courteney Monroe talked with Multichannel News about the programmer’s big Emmy night, as well as how it plans to build on those the wins. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation.

MCN: Were you surprised at Nat Geo’s Emmy performance?
Courteney Monroe: I’d be lying if I said we weren’t. Teams across many divisions worked extremely hard to be sure we were getting our programming in front of TV Academy members in innovative and creative ways. Ultimately, the quality of the programs that were recognized speaks for itself. For Free Solo to go seven for seven and win every category for which it was nominated — making it the most Emmy-winning documentary of all time — is a testament to the incredible craft that went into making that film.

MCN: How do Nat Geo’s eight Emmy Awards enhance the network’s brand?
CM: We want to be one of the first ports of call for best-in-class storytellers in the entertainment business. The current TV landscape gives creators a lot of options when it comes to finding homes for their programs. Emmy Awards are a great statement to the creative community that we are in the business of making premium, compelling and important programs and that we support those programs with innovative marketing and awards campaigns.

MCN: Why did Free Solo resonate both with viewers and Emmy voters?
CM:Free Solo is a beautifully made, well-crafted film, made by some of the best editors, cinematographers, sound editors and mixers and directors in the business. It also has a gripping — pun intended — story at its center. I think Alex’s journey to chase his dreams, as absolutely wild as they may be, is something that resonates with everyone.

MCN: Nat Geo recently signed Free Solo’s Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin to a first-look deal. What are your expectations for projects from the duo?
CM: We’re excited to expand our partnership with them to create not only more documentary films, but documentary series for the network. Chai and Jimmy are visionary filmmakers who share our same passion for storytelling, striving unfailingly for the high standards that we look for in our premium content. In fact, we just green-lit their next feature documentary and hope to share details soon.

MCN: How does Nat Geo build on its strong Emmy performance?
CM: We’ve got an exciting year ahead. We’re hard at work on the next season of our Emmy-winning franchise series Genius, which will center on Aretha Franklin; the next season of the Emmy-winning epic science series Cosmos; the relaunch of our Emmy-nominated legacy series Brain Games, hosted by Keegan-Michael Key; and an incredibly fun and informative new series we’ve created for Disney+, The World According to Jeff Goldblum.

HBO, led by its powerhouse series Game of Thrones, was the big winner at this weekend's Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies, according to the Television Academy.

HBO garnered 25 Creative Arts Emmys combined across two ceremonies recognizing excellence in technical categories. Netflix finished second with 23 wins.

RELATED: Netflix Tops First Night Of Creative Emmy Awards

National Geographic and Amazon Prime Video tied for third with eight wins, while CNN and NBC finished fourth with five awards. CBS, Fox and YouTube rounded out the top five with four wins each, according to the TV Academy.

HBO’s Game of Thrones won 10 Emmy awards, topping all shows. The network’s Chernobyl tied with National Geographic’s Free Solo for second with seven wins, followed by Amazon Prime’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with six statuettes. Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots and Queer Eye garnered five and four Emmys, respectively.

A complete list of 2019 Creative Arts Emmy winners for Sunday's ceremony can be found here. The 71st Emmy Awards will air on Fox Sept. 22.

Netflix garnered more Creative Arts Emmy Awards wins than any other content distributor during a ceremony last night, according to the Television Academy.

The streaming service won 15 Creative Arts Emmy Awards Saturday night in the first of two ceremonies celebrating technical, guest acting roles and other categories. The second Creative Emmy Awards ceremony will take place tonight (Sept. 15).

National Geographic finished second with eight wins -- seven for its documentary series Free Solo, which topped all shows, according the Television Academy. CNN, NBC, Fox, HBO, YouTube, CBS and VH1 also won multiple awards.

Other programs with multiple wins included Love, Death & Robots, Our Planet and Queer Eye (Netflix); Age of Sail (YouTube), RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1), Saturday Night Live (NBC), Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell (CNN); Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), and Rent (Fox).

Also last night, 97-year old legendary producer Norman Lear became the oldest winner in Emmy history, taking home the statuette for Outstanding Live Variety Special for ABC's  Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons, a re-staging of two of Lear's iconic 1970's comedies with contemporary casts.

A complete list of 2019 Creative Arts Emmy winners can be found here. The 71st Emmy Awards will air on Fox Sept. 22.

National Geographic's Academy Award-winning documentary series Free Solo is currently streaming on Hulu, the streaming service said Wednesday.

Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for best documentary feature, follows soloist climber Alex Honnold who climbed El Capitan --the 3,200-foot peak in Yosemite National Park -- without a rope.

 The documentary brought in nearly 1.5 million viewers domestically during its commercial-free broadcast debut on March 3, according to Nielsen Live+3 ratings.

“Free Solo is a true masterpiece that combines awe-inspiring camerawork with the kind of authentic storytelling that Hulu viewers love,” said Lisa Holme, vice president of Content Acquisition at Hulu in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with our friends at National Geographic Documentary Films to add this extraordinary film to the growing slate of award-winning documentaries available on Hulu.”

National Geographic Channel will air Oscar-winning documentary film Free Solo on Sunday, March 3, at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. central time) commercial free, followed by a global rollout across 172 countries and 43 languages, the programmer said.

Directed by documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin (who directed the Oscar-shortlisted film Meru), Free Solo is "a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock ... the 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park ... without a rope," per Nat Geo.

Both a thriller and an inspiring story about an athlete's quest to triumph over the impossible, Free Solo posted the highest per screen average of any documentary during its opening weekend (Sept. 28, 2018) and the highest box office for a documentary in its 19th weekend in release, according to the programmer. Now, as it enters its 20th week in release, the National Geographic Documentary Films offering also won a BAFTA award for best documentary in addition to Critics Choice and Cinema Eye awards, among several other industry recognitions.

“When we were making this film, we could not have imagined the response we have received,” directors Vasarhelyi and Chin said in a release. “While most of us wouldn’t dream of free-soloing 3,000 feet, Alex’s story of courage, dedication and determination is very relatable. We’re grateful to be working with National Geographic and Fox Home Entertainment, and thrilled that Alex’s journey will continue to inspire others to dare to dream.” National Geographic Documentary Films and Nat Geo Channel are in the National Geographic Partners joint venture of National Geographic and 21st Century Fox.

Pictured: Alex Honnold climbs through the enduro corner on El Capitan's Freerider. (National Geographic/Jimmy Chin).

Pasadena, Calif. — National Geographic will premiere its Academy Award-nominated film Free Solo on March 3 on a commercial free basis, the network announced during its Friday Television Critics Association winter press tour session.

The movie, which follows rock climber star Alex Honnold as he successfully climbed the more than 3,000 ft El Capitan rock cliff in Yosemite National Park without a rope, was nominated for an 2019 Academy Award for best documentary feature and is the second highest grossing docu film of 2018 with more than $17 million, according to the network.

"The plan was always to air it on the channel in [first quarter 2019), but certainly the movie's juggernaut [box office] performance pushed it back toward the end of the first quarter,” said Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president of scripted content and documentary films said during the panel.

Nat Geo also announced a partnership with Procter & Gamble for Activate, a six-part documentary series focusing on extreme poverty, inequality and sustainability issues to help mobilize global citizens to drive meaningful and lasting change, said network officials. 

The series, which will feature Uzo Aduba, Rachel Brosnahan, Hugh Jackman, Gayle King, Usher and Pharrell Williams and will showcase firsthand the work that is being done to combat extreme poverty and inspire a global movement, will debut globally in fall 2019, according to Nat Geo.