History Channel has greenlit two new series from NFL great Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, including a show focusing on all-time greats across a number of categories, the network said Wednesday.

The eight-episode, History’s Greatest of All-Time with Peyton Manning countdown show will look at the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) in categories ranging from the greatest General to the greatest inventor or President, according to the network.

Also on the docket is The Einstein Challenge, in which two world-class experts will compete to see who can best explain seriously complicated concepts to a panel of kids, including how an airplane flies or how destructive the Mt. Vesuvius eruption was, the network said. 

“We are thrilled to recruit Peyton to our team at The History Channel,” History executive VP and head of programming Eli Leher said in a statement. “To have one of the greatest in sports history educate us about the most fascinating G.O.A.T’s throughout time, coupled with him producing a smart, witty new show with kids, is unparalleled and we can’t wait to bring these new shows to our audience.”

Manning, whose Omaha Productions also produces ESPN’s Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, added that the History Channel “has long been a leader in original programming that informs and entertains audiences. As a longtime history buff, I couldn’t be more excited for Omaha to team up with great historians and producers to create these two shows that celebrate history and uncover stories in a fun way.” ■  

History and A&E networks were the favorite cable networks for non-fiction producers to work with, according to a new survey from the Nonfiction Producers Association (NPA) released Tuesday.

The survey, which polled both NPA members and non-members from 41 production companies, tallied results from six production indicators, including preferences for pitching, executive creativity, development process, business affairs process, production editorial oversight, and production management, according to the NPA.

History and A&E topped the chart in most of the categories, while Discovery Channel, Lifetime, ID, HGTV or Travel ranked most often in third and fourth place across the categories, according to the organization.  

While the NPA said that factors such as volume of programming offered could have skewed the results more favorably to the top networks in the survey, he added that overall the survey was designed to help better the relationship between producers and networks.

“For many months, the NPA has been meeting with individual networks to further the producer-network dialog and suggest ways to improve processes,” said Ford. “This survey, which is part of that effort, is meant to be a snapshot, from a producer’s point of view, of their current business climate, and we intentionally kept it contained to the six basic areas they say most influence the production experience.