Engineering Catastrophes and Impossible Engineering return on Science Channel June 9. Both series showcase extraordinary engineering, and some cases where the engineering came up short. 

“When it comes to engineering, the devil is in the details, and while humans have conceived some of the most remarkable and mind-blowing objects, concepts, and structures over the centuries, we have yet to perfect the craft,” said Science Channel. 

In the new season of Engineering Catastrophes, experts investigate the most extraordinary engineering disasters around the world. Stateside, those include a freeway bridge collapsing in Minneapolis, a demolition gone wrong in Dallas and a sinkhole that swallowed eight Corvettes in Kentucky. The show analyzes how the errors went undiscovered and how engineers are ensuring they don’t happen again. 

The new season of Impossible Engineering looks into stunning builds around the world, including the transformation of Battersea Power Station in London and the European Space Agency building a machine to look for life beyond Earth. 

Engineering Catastrophes is produced by BriteSpark Films in association with Beyond Rights. For BriteSpark, Nick Godwin and Tom Gorham are the executive producers. For Science Channel, Lindsey Foster Blumberg is executive producer. 

Impossible Engineering is produced by Twofour Broadcast. Neil Edwards executive produces for Twofour while Neil Laird does so for Science. 

Science Channel is part of Discovery, Inc. 

Altice USA said it is making live and on demand content from several networks available to its Optimum and Suddenlink customers through April 22 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Beginning March 27, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Science Channel, and Discovery Family will be available to its customers through April 22nd at no additional cost.

“We are pleased to provide our customers with an expanded selection of engaging family-friendly content during this unprecedented time,” Altice USA chief operating officer Hakim Boubazine said in a press release. “We hope our customers enjoy the wide variety of original programming as well as the live and on-demand content offered by these great networks.” 

In response to COVID-19, Altice USA has been active to ensure people within the communities it serves have reliable access to high-speed broadband connectivity and is providing its Altice Advantage offering to new households with students that don’t have internet access for free for 60 days. The company also signed the FCC’s ‘Keep Americans Connected’ pledge to provide relief to customers impacted by this pandemic.

Cable networks and streaming services will launch several specials and documentaries over the next few weeks highlighting the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which industry executives say is still as relevant -- and debated -- as it was in 1969.

“Considering that after 50 years we’ve never been back to the moon is significant and deserves further questioning and exploration,” said Lucilla D’Agostino, chief creative officer for production company Big Fish Entertainment, which produced Science Channel’s limited documentary series Truth Behind the Moon Landing. “No one can argue that this was an amazing time in American history, but the considerable hurdles NASA needed to overcome to get man there by Kennedy’s deadline have fueled lunar conspiracies for decades.”

The six-part Truth Behind the Moon Landing series, which debuted this past Sunday (June 2), tackles the most popular conspiracy claims surrounding the iconic moon landing. The series seeks to apply scientific reasoning to the most popular conspiracies with commentary from former NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin, Iraq War veteran and former FBI agent Chad Jenkins and best-selling author, Mike Bara, according to network officials.

Other special programming commemorating the event include streaming service CuriosityStream’s June 13 premiere of Return to the Moon, an original documentary film which chronicles today’s global sprint to take man back to the moon and the innovative technology needed to colonize and explore beyond it, according to network officials.

On June 17, Curiosity Stream will also launch a summer block of moon landing-themed specials and documentaries on Monday nights, including Hack the Moon:Unsung Heroes of Apollo, which debuts June 24.

CNN on June 23 will debut director/producer Todd Douglas Miller‘s documentary Apollo 11, which captures the days and hours of the moon landing from newly-discovered 70mm footage and more than 11,000 hours of audio recordings, according to the network.

Smithsonian Channel will explore the moon landing through unique and rare access to Apollo artifacts from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum as part of a six-part series, Apollo’s Moon Shot, premiering June 16.

In addition on July 7, the network will air a one-hour documentary The Day We Walked On The Moon, which relieves the 24 hours surrounding the mission through revelations of the men and women who witnessed the historical event, said the network. 

MythBusters is back, only this time it’s MythBusters Jr., which features six super-smart “makers” under the age of 16 who help host Adam Savage break down common myths. Savage was a host of MythBusters on Discovery Channel for 14 seasons. Besides hosting, he’s executive producer of the new series, which premieres on Science Channel Wednesday, Jan. 2. Science is on board for 10 episodes.

Savage spoke with Multichannel News about the new show, his phone call with Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav and how his behavior changed with kids on the set.

MCN: The old axiom in Hollywood about not working with kids or animals — I guess you just didn’t pay that much attention.
Adam Savage: This season, we worked with both kids and animals! I was thinking of a slightly different Hollywood myth about kids when we started production on Jr., which was that the entertainment industry isn’t well-known for how it treats kids. We were really, really clear that we wanted to build a set that was loving, so the kids would feel like they were really being themselves on camera. It’s not an easy thing to do.

MCN: Any worry that kids just don’t watch much TV as we know it?
AS: Your question has an assumption that we’ve made a kids’ show, and we really tried to not make a kids’ show. We’re not aiming for a specific audience. This is a narrative about people trying to satisfy their curiosity with some rigor and funny methodologies. Yes, the television audience is decreasing every day. That’s a total reality. As a storyteller, I’m spread out on both the web and on television. But we’re not really thinking about that when we put the show together. We’re making stuff for the Science Channel and hoping that people love it as much as we loved making it.

MCN: Where did the idea come from?
AS: I was pretty convinced that I was done making MythBusters. We wrapped in early 2016 after 13 years. We didn’t have an offseason when making the show — we shot full-time for 13 solid years. It felt like it would be nice to hang up the spurs. And then David Zaslav called me in the middle of 2017. David and I are friendly, but we don’t talk frequently. He says, “I want you think about this spinoff that just came across my desk — I’m excited about it.” I was totally ready to say no. I had turned down participating in MythBusters: The Search and the MythBusters reboot. But when he said MythBusters Jr., I instantly saw the possibility.

There are two shows that kind of changed my life the past few years: The Great British Bake Off and MasterChef Junior. Both are so deeply outside the normal mold of reality television. They celebrate skill and collaboration. When David said MythBusters Jr., I saw that possibility. Then I saw the demo reels, and … I thought all six of those kids came across really great. They looked like America, they looked like the world to me.

MCN: Tell me about the duct tape parachute you guys make.
AS: So many aspects of Jr. encompass things I didn’t think I’d see again. Jamie [MythBusters co-host Hyneman] and I labored to find a duct tape episode for our final season, and that ended up being duct tape trebuchet, which was really fun. We really considered that we’d done everything possible with duct tape. And then my producer, Jax Marker, came up one day and said, what about duct tape parachute? I was so annoyed — I couldn’t believe we hadn’t considered this before! The moment she said that, we were going to make a duct tape parachute episode.

MCN: How is the dynamic different on the set of MythBusters Jr.?
AS: When cameras aren’t on me, I curse like a sailor. Often as I’m warming up for camera, I’ll tell the filthiest stories to the crew to get everyone relaxed. I couldn’t do any of that! I thought I was doing really good, but the kids told me I was not very good at not cursing.

Science Channel will unveil a new documentary series later this year that will profile figures who have fundamentally altered the way we live, the network announced Monday.

The series, Innovators, will debut in fourth quarter 2018 and will pair historical and contemporary innovators from similar fields to examine truths of how innovation happens and tell the story of how our modern world was created.

The three, hour-long episodes will include pairings of Richard Warren Sears, the businessman who founded Sears, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; Alexander Graham-Bell and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg; and John and Horace Dodge -- who challenged the Ford Motor Company’s automobile industry dominance – with Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors and Space X.

Innovators, with be produced by Ross Greenburg Productions, said network officials.

“These are inspiring stories of some of the most brilliant minds of the last couple of centuries, people who have shaken things up to the point where there really is no looking back,” said Nancy Daniels, Chief Brand Officer, Discovery and Factual in a statement. “Ross Greenburg is an expert storyteller and we are thrilled to have him partner with us on this innovative series.”

Science Channel has secured off-network rights to ABC’s robot-fighting series BattleBots, the network announced Wednesday.

Science will air 16 episodes of the series, which ran on ABC from 2015-16, beginning July 12, according to network officials. BattleBots pits homemade, next-generation robots against each other in a fast-paced, single elimination tournament.

The series also ran on Comedy Central for five seasons from 2000-2002. Science Channel has no plans to create new episodes of BattleBots, according to network sources. 

Discovery Channel will launch a scripted anthology series focused on the infamous Unabomber, the network said during its upfront presentation Tuesday morning.

The series, Manhunt: Unabomber, follows the FBI’s hunt for Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the deadliest serial bomber in history, according to Rich Ross, group president of Discovery, Animal Planet, Science Channel and Velocity. Produced by John Goldwyn, Lionsgate and Trigger Street Productions, the series stars Sam Worthington (Avatar, Hacksaw Ridge) and Paul Bettany (Gangster No. 1, Captain America: Civil War).

On the unscripted side, the network will bring back its classic series Cash Cab after a five-year hiatus, according network officials. The network is also planning a documentary on the 60th anniversary of NASA, and will add several series to its "Motor Monday" lineup, including House of Cars, Garage Rehab and Motorheads.

In other Discovery group upfront news:

--Animal Planet will launch later this year My Fat Pet, which focuses on overweight pets; Rescue Dog to Super Dog, in which shelter dogs are given a chance to become a companion to someone in need; and Animal House, in which designers convert drab spaces into dream living arrangements for homeowners and their pets. 

-- Science Channel has tapped The Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki to host and executively produce new series SCIJINKS, a prank show that uses cutting-edge science as the foundation for outrageous stunts and practical jokes, said network officials. The network will also bring back its popular unscripted series Mythbusters with new hosts Brian Louden and Jonathan Lung.

Johnny Galecki will appear in and executive produce the series SciJinks on Science Channel, which is slated to premiere in the fourth quarter.

SciJinks will use cutting-edge science as the foundation for stunts and practical jokes, creating what the network is calling “the smartest prank show on television.”

Galecki, best known for his work on The Big Bang Theory, will orchestrate a team of scientists from chemistry, physics, technology, engineering and more, with pranks designed to introduce audiences to unusual scientific discoveries.

"One of the most rewarding elements of being on The Big Bang Theory has been being approached by younger people who claim they never before had considered a life in the sciences until watching the show,” Galecki said. “Our goal on Big Bang is to make people laugh. These kids are molding our culture, building our future and even curing diseases. SciJinks is a way to celebrate them and hopefully inspire more young people to follow in their footsteps — while having an absurdly good and mischievous time.”

Eight 30-minute episodes are planned. Galecki’s Alcide Bava Productions and A. Smith & Co. Productions will produce the series.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Science Channel is celebrating its 20th anniversary by enjoying its strongest ratings year among its core adult 25-54 audience in its history. With science-themed programming in the entertainment zeitgeist with such hit shows as CBS’s Big Bang Theory and HBO’s Westworld, Science is feeding its core viewers with creative and informative, star-powered shows like Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman, as well as longtime network favorites like Punkin Chunkin, which will make its return to the network this Thanksgiving.

Science Channel general manager Marc Etkind recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the network’s anniversary as well as the network’s future programming and distribution endeavors.

MCN:So, at the 20-year mark, how would you define the Science Channel brand?

Marc Etkind: I think the brand is to be firmly about science, but also to be broad and popular. We are the place where you can get the latest information on space, technology, engineering and for mind-blowing science questions. We do it with tremendous talent, whether it’s people like Morgan Freeman, who hosts Through the Wormhole on our on our network. One of the things that we’re really proud of is that we’re very timely. We have science news on every night and we cover the latest NASA missions, like the recent mission to Jupiter and Comet mission. We have live cut-ins of launches … It’s a timely and relevant network.

MCN:How has the network’s programming evolved over the past 20 years?

ME: I think what’s been the same over the 20 years is this commitment to quality and to depth of information; that you can come to the Science Channel and you can be entertained, but you can learn something as well. And I think that’s something that we’ve been doing from the very beginning.

This is the No. 1 network for space information, and it’s something that this network has been doing with Through The Wormhole series and other series like Wonders of The Solar System, How The Universe Works, Space’s Deepest Secrets and Punkin Chunkin, which remains the highest-rated show in the network’s history — it’s coming back this year, and we’re super- excited to have that on over Thanksgiving weekend.

And then we have a brand new miniseries that we’re launching on Mars coming up this month. I know other networks are doing some space programming and then they do a pretty decent job of it, but if you want space on a regular basis, we are the network for that.

MCN:You mentioned other networks moving into the science genre. Once upon a time, science-themed programming was considered geeky and boring, but now science content is very prevalent on a number of entertainment-based networks. Why has science now become mainstream programming?

ME: I think what’s happening is that we are living in the midst of a science and technology revolution, and things like artificial intelligence are here in some form or another, and driverless cars are going to be here any day. You carry in your pocket a cellphone that’s more powerful than computers 20 years ago. So we are surrounded by science and technology, and so I think there’s a craving to understand it, to know how it works and also to know what’s coming next. And I think we as a network have been able to satisfy that curiosity and that need for more information. So I think we’ve just been growing along with the scientific achievements that have been happening around [us] and establishing ourselves as the place to learn more about that.

MCN:Given that, how does the Science Channel stay competitive in a very crowded and competitive marketplace?

ME: We’ve had a fantastic year so far because we’ve been able to engage and entertain and educate our audience by giving them mind-blowing information on the latest in space.

On the digital side, we’re offering content in VR and our SciGo TV Everywhere app allows people who subscribe to Science to watch their favorite shows whenever they want.

We’re always looking at ways of expanding the brand to make sure that that brand continues on whatever platform the viewers want it to be on. We have a tremendous engagement on Facebook with our superfans, and they come for additional information and the latest science news. So we’re going to continue to engage with our fans across the various platforms.

MCN:How do you see the network evolving over the next 20 years?

ME: When you look at the next 20 years of TV, there’s going to be a huge number of changes that we can’t predict.

It’s like science — it’s a revolution that we can’t predict, but we know when you have a strong brand like Science Channel we’re going to be out there giving our fans the kind of relevant information that they want.

There were lots of important-sounding initiatives mentioned at the Discovery Communications upfront. Documentaries about planetary missions. Specials about audio pollution in the oceans, water use and wildlife conservation.

What caught my attention? Science Channel is bringing back Punkin Chunkin after a three-year hiatus.

Marc Etkind became general manager of the channel in October 2015. He says he’s always felt the autumn special – covering a Delaware event that’s all about propelling pumpkins a long way using homemade contraptions – epitomizes backyard and everyday science. Engineering teams compete in a variety of technology (cannon, catapult, trebuchet, etc.) and age categories. The overall distance record, by adults using air (cannon), is 4,964.68 feet, set in 2013.

“When I took over the network, one of the first things I said was, ‘I want Punkin Chunkin back,’” Etkind told me. He said he wasn’t sure why the special came off the channel’s fall calendar after airing between 2008 and 2013. It certainly wasn’t a problem regaining the rights to cover the event, he said.

Science Channel will return to the field with more coverage than before: three hours instead of two, with more pre- and post-event close-up coverage of the participating teams. 

Expect more drone views of the field, Etkind said. Since 2013, camera technology has improved, too. “We’ll be able to put cameras on the pumpkins in ways we haven’t done before,” the GM added.

Other than that tidbit, Etkind said production details still need working out.

Science had its best primetime year in 2015 and says its first quarter of 2016 was its best quarter ever in terms of L3 viewing in a variety of key demographics. Etkind also is trying to draw a younger audience, the channel notes.

Etkind also recommended the Punkin Chunkin championships as a live in-person event. (Science Channel airs its coverage as a special soon after the event takes place.)

“How often do you get to go and cheer on engineers?”

Coming off a record-breaking January ratings performance, the Science Channel is running on all cylinders as more viewers engage in science-themed programming.

The network posted a 20% increase in primetime viewers during the month and garnered double-digit increases in all major demos during the month. Network general manager Rita Mullin said in a recent MCN One-On-One In 2 interview that there’s an increased interest among viewers in science and in how the technology of everyday gadgets and appliances we use works.

That bodes well for the science/entertainment based content on the network, including such shows as What Could Possibly Go Wrong and Outrageous Acts Of Science.

“People are realizing that they are so far removed from how things work that I believe they’re beginning to feel that loss and they want to understand,” Mullin said.  I like to have shows that people really feel better about themselves when they watch them because they learn something.”

The full video interview with Rita Mullin can be seen at  http://www.multichannel.com/video/33/387792.

Discovery Networks International is launching a new series worldwide beginning next month featuring user-generated content from weather catastrophes to man-made disasters and beyond.

“Chaos: Caught on Camera” is being produced by Barcroft Productins and will make be shown on DNI’s factual channels in more than 220 countries and territories beginning in February. The show, which compiles user-generated content from around the globe, makes its U.S. debut on the Science Channel on April 18.

Each episode explores viral videos featuring chaos of all kinds, from catastrophic weather to man-made disasters; tales of human endurance and survival to disastrous engineering failures; and incredible real-time footage of near-fatal accidents to astonishing animal attacks. The clips play for viewers as originally captured – often in life-threatening situations – and are then deconstructed using facts and statistics illustrated with graphics that reveal the truth behind each moment.

“More than ever, we are seeing the world through our personal digital devices shooting our own stories,” said DNI’s vice president, Production & Development, Factual Entertainment & Lifestyle Jon Sechrist in a statement. “Chaos: Caught on Camera dissects the dramatic images we are capturing and focuses on the emotion and unbelievable science behind these images. The show provides a fun blend of science and shock that is sure to keep viewers glued to their seats.”

Chaos: Caught on Camera is produced by Barcroft Media for Discovery Networks International. The series is commissioned by Elizabeth McIntyre and executive produced by Jon Sechrist for Discovery Networks International, and executive produced by Sam Barcroft and Julian Thomas for Barcroft Productions.