National Geographic’s 2023 fall and winter programming kicks off with JFK: One Day in America, the second installment of the network’s One Day in America series. Nat Geo’s slate also includes documentaries narrated by Angela Bassett, Jeremy Renner, and Awkwafina, as well as Photographer – a series spotlighting the work of iconic photographers.
Additional winter programming includes the premieres of Science Fair: The Series and Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold. Returning series include Explorer: Lake of Fire, Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, and Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog.
JFK: ONE DAY IN AMERICA – Premieres Nov. 5 on National Geographic; Nov. 6 on Disney+ and Hulu
To commemorate six decades since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, the Emmy Award-winning, critically acclaimed franchise One Day in America returns with its second installment, JFK: One Day in America. The three-part series produces a comprehensive account of that tragic moment in American history and the ripples that followed.
With exclusive permission to colorize The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza’s archives for the first time, the landmark docuseries weaves archival footage, with key testimony from the last surviving witnesses to create an immersive, minute-by-minute examination of that pivotal day that forever changed American history.
INCREDIBLE ANIMAL JOURNEYS – Narrated by Jeremy Renner, Premieres Nov. 19 on National Geographic
We might think we are the world’s greatest explorers, but we’re not. Every day, millions of animals migrate across the planet using routes passed down by generations. Incredible Animal Journeys puts viewers in the action as they soar, fly, and swim from the Antarctic to the African Savanna and the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Join the protective humpback mom shepherding her newborn calf, tiny dung beetle, monarch butterfly, determined barn swallow who never gives up, and many more species.
Using the Earth’s magnetic field, stars, moon and ocean currents in the sea and their innate senses on land, these travelers find food, mates and their way across thousands of miles during their lifetime. Come along for the ride as Jeremy Renner narrates the wildest adventure on earth.
SCIENCE FAIR: THE SERIES – Premieres Dec. 10 on National Geographic
Inspired by the Sundance Festival favorite and SXSW Audience Award-winning documentary directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, Science Fair: The Series showcases students working to solve the world’s most complex and pressing issues using science while competing for a coveted spot at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the most competitive science fair on the planet. The series follows competing students in their relentless pursuit of excellence as they tackle contemporary topics in various areas of science – teen suicide prevention, wound care monitoring systems, high-efficiency alternatives to induction motors, and more.
The series also follows the families and teachers, including Science Fair fan-favorite Dr. Serena McCalla, as they support and push their students along the way. It’s an inspiring, character-driven coming-of-age story playing out on a global stage where students push themselves to the limit but never miss an opportunity to uplift one another.
A REAL BUG’S LIFE – Narrated by Awkwafina, Disney+ Original Premieres Jan. 24 on Disney+
Inspired by the World of Disney and Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, the new Disney+ Original Series from National Geographic, A Real Bug’s Life, is an incredible adventure into nine different micro bug worlds around the globe, where the forces of nature play out on a miniature scale and where tiny creatures rely on amazing powers and extraordinary alliances to make it through each day. The stakes are high … even if the critters are extraordinarily small.
With new developments in filming technology and narrated by fun and witty guide Awkwafina, follow the incredible stories of the tiny heroes living in worlds beyond the imagination — from a jumping spider looking for a home on the streets of New York to a Costa Rican orchid bee’s first day on the job making perfume! Full of mind-blowing new behaviors and larger-than-life characters, this family-friendly series shows that A Real Bug’s Life can be every bit as fantastical as any animated film.
ARCTIC ASCENT WITH ALEX HONNOLD – Premieres Feb. 4 on National Geographic
Alex Honnold (Free Solo) embarks on an epic quest of unclimbed walls in one of the most remote corners of Greenland, a country on the frontline of the climate crisis. Honnold has always dreamed of exploring Greenland and its unclimbed peaks. Now he and world-class climbers Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schaefer attempt to summit Ingmikortilaq, an unclimbed Arctic seacliff that rises out of the frozen wilderness and is nearly 1,000 feet higher than Free Solo’s El Capitan.
For Honnold, a long-time climate activist, this expedition is about more than just climbing, it is an opportunity to witness firsthand the impact of climate change on a wilderness that is vitally important to the future of the planet. With the help of Dr. Heïdi Sevestre, a glaciologist working with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, Greenlandic guide Adam Kjeldsen and renowned adventurer Aldo Kane, the team use a special radar to take real-time depth and density measurements of a rarely studied section of Greenland’s ice cap.
Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold is a three-part scientific expedition led by one of the world’s greatest climbers in pursuit of a lifelong dream.
PHOTOGRAPHER – Premieres March 18 on National Geographic
From Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Photographer flips the lens on some of the world’s most extraordinary visual storytellers to see what makes them click. Each hour-long episode follows the life of an iconic photographer – Cristina Mittermeier & Paul Nicklen, Dan Winters, Campbell Addy, Krystle Wright, Muhammed Muheisen and Anand Varma – from their childhood and career beginnings to their present-day life and endeavors. From the frontlines of war to the covers of fashion magazines and the depths of the oceans, audiences will be taken on a journey alongside these renowned photographers who have spent a lifetime in the endless pursuit of perfecting their craft to learn their incredible stories.
Through verité footage of their current mission interwoven with backstory, archival materials and interviews, viewers will gain a deeper understanding of each photographer’s process, how they found themselves behind the camera, and discover how they see and experience the world.
QUEENS – Narrated by Angela Bassett, Premieres March 4 on National Geographic
The wildest places on the planet have always been home to powerful leaders, but this a story of a new hero – fierce, smart, resilient and … female. Queens features matriarchies and female leaders around the world to tell a story of sacrifice and resilience but also of friendship and love. These Queens aren’t always kind or gentle, letting nothing come between them and the success and safety of their families.
Guided by award-winning actress Angela Bassett’s powerful narration, Queens brings the natural world into focus through the female lens for the very first time. Four years in the making and helmed by a female-led production team from around the world – groundbreaking in the natural history space – the seven-part series leverages cutting-edge technology to reveal surprising insights into how females in the natural world rise to power, often relying on cooperation and wisdom over brute strength to get ahead.
The final episode of the series celebrates the women who have gone to the ends of the Earth and dedicated their lives to documenting and protecting animal queens. We don’t call her Mother Nature for nothing. All hail … the QUEENS.
RETURNING SERIES
EXPLORER: LAKE OF FIRE – Premieres Oct. 26 on National Geographic
In 2001, satellite imagery captured a mysterious “thermal anomaly” on an unexplored volcano at the ends of the Earth. The hour-long special Explorer: Lake of Fire, follows volcanologist and National Geographic Explorer Emma Nicholson and a team of climbers and scientists on an expedition to make the first-ever ascent of Mt. Michael on the remote Saunders Island. The hope is to discover a rare phenomenon known as a “lava lake,” a perpetually boiling cauldron of lava that could help unlock the mystery of predicting volcanic eruptions around the world.
Conditions at Mt. Michael are so extreme — including gale force winds, treacherous seas, white outs and toxic volcanic gas — that no one has been able to reach the top and investigate what’s inside … until now. The audacious expedition is also covered in a feature story in the November issue of National Geographic Magazine.
LOST CITIES REVEALED WITH ALBERT LIN – Premieres Nov. 23 on National Geographic
Our ancient history is full of incredible untold stories of ancient civilizations. National Geographic Explorer Albert Lin is on an extraordinary mission to unlock the secrets of these lost cities and the mysterious people who built them. Armed with technology to strip back the layers of time, Lin experiences personal physical and mental extremes while trekking to some of the most inaccessible and hostile environments on earth – the Mexican Jungle, the deserts of Sudan, mountains of Peru, the forgotten fortresses of Scotland and the remote cave systems of Oman.
Whether it’s the iconic civilization of the ancient Mayans, the Canaanites or the Lords of Magan, each site in this six-part series is uncovered using the latest drone-scanning and ground-penetrating technology to bring these cities back to life in real-time 3D to reveal their untold stories.
TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER – Premieres Jan. 17 on National Geographic
The Emmy Award-nominated series Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller takes viewers on an investigative journey, exposing the inner workings of the most dangerous shadow markets, criminal organizations and trafficking networks around the world. This season, award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller investigates new emerging underworlds – the trade in body parts, hired assassins, sextortion, and the smuggling of people across the U.S.-Mexico border – to meet the players and learn the business. Gaining access that only National Geographic can provide, fearless guide Mariana puts her life at risk to better understand these multitrillion-dollar shadow economies and the people behind them.
CESAR MILLAN: BETTER HUMAN BETTER DOG – Premieres Apr. 12 on National Geographic
Cesar Millan is back! Continuing his mission to create Better Humans and Better Dogs, Cesar is giving pet parents the tools they need to teach good habits and shed bad behavior. And for the first time on TV, Cesar is preventing bad habits from ever forming by playing MATCHMAKER to adoptive pet parents – because sometimes the dog you want is not the dog you need!
