Bigger than Planet Earth? The Americas just might be.
That is the verdict from the creative team behind NBC‘s Tom Hanks-narrated landmark, which comes from the storied BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU). NBCUniversal has already called The Americas – which counts Hans Zimmer as composer – the most expensive unscripted project in its history.
These natural history epics were once the preserve of the BBC, which commissioned the likes of Blue Planet and Planet Earth, but the streamers and American nets have gotten into the game in a big way. Rather than greenlighting The Americas, the BBC has instead acquired the show, demonstrating how the landscape has changed. When BBC Studios Creative Director Mike Gunton first met with NBC to pitch the show years back, he says the American net wanted to “get into the big unscripted space… they were saying, ‘Let’s do a statement’.”
“We wanted to follow up from Planet Earth with something that wasn’t Planet Earth but had the same scale,” The Americas EP Gunton told Deadline. “At first I couldn’t think of anything that could do that and then I thought, ‘Has anyone done the extraordinary collection between North and South America. It’s one enormous land mass and yet no one had done it. This was the only thing I could think of that had the Planet Earth scale to match.”
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Toby Gorman, who runs The Americas co-producer Universal Television Alternative Studio (UTAS), said he would “argue [The Americas] is bigger than Planet Earth.” “I don’t know if there has been a bigger swing with the BBC NHU in this space,” added Gorman, who described it as a “once in a career show.” “No one sat down and said, ‘Let’s spend the most money,’ that was never the ambition, but the ambition was that if we take a risk in this space then let’s go big and be proud of it.”
Airing across 10 episodes and involving more than 180 expeditions, The Americas explores animals from blue whales to insects across locations throughout the continent, including the Atlantic Coast, Mexico, the Wild West, the Amazon, Frozen North, Gulf Coast, Andes, Caribbean, West Coast and Patagonia.
The show has been in the making for six years and was announced at the TCAs just before the pandemic. Shelby Shaftel, NBC Entertainment’s SVP, Alternative Programming & Development, has had two children during this time and described bringing The Americas to screen as a “huge milestone both personally and professionally.”
Tom Hanks: voice of America
It was handed a huge boon when two-time Oscar winner and soothing voice connoisseur Hanks clambered aboard. “When we first met we said, ‘Who is the right person to carry this, who is the voice of America?’ and we came up with a list of one,” said Gorman.
The team felt it was crucial to land a narrator with “unique personality,” Gunton added, someone who came from outside the natural history world and yet would be super passionate and engaged. At the same time, other A-listers were dipping into the natural history space such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Paul Rudd.
“Tom puts his arm around you,” added Gunton. “The ethos is, ‘Guys have you just seen this? You won’t believe this.’ It is almost like he is breaking the fourth wall at times. He was so interested in what we were trying to do with the narrative.”
According to Shaftel, Hanks said one Americas scene in which a group of male birds are dallying is “like Temptation Island,” the hit format that has been attracting all the viral headlines over the past couple of weeks. He often ad-libbed the voiceover depending on the drama of what he was watching, Shaftel said.
Shaftel highlighted the “foresight” of commissioning The Americas with a streaming service in mind. The Americas was greenlit long before the launch of NBC’s Peacock but each ep will drop next day on the streamer after linear premiere and a special Making of the Americas episode has also been forged for Peacock. Globally, 170 territories have acquired The Americas and NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution will likely continue conversations at next week’s London TV Screenings.
These territories will be treated for the first time to a lengthy showcase of wildlife and the environment of the North and South American continents. For Shaftel, who is from Florida, some of her joy behind making The Americas has been the opportunity to “focus a lot on our own backyard” via the medium of natural history.
“As an American coming to the project it was cool to see the places where I grew up,” she added, pointing to a Gold Coast episode that spotlights manatees and a New York ep about raccoons. “I learned things about Florida that I had no idea about before.”
As a native Brit, Gunton said he was surprised at some Americans’ lack of connection with their local landscapes and wildlife. The show does not directly tackle the impact of climate change but spotlights “a fragility, a preciousness, about so much of this world,” he added.
“Without saying it overtly you get this sense of feeling like, ‘This is important, I should look after this’,” he said. “And that is Tom [Hanks’] perspective, it’s the idea of treasuring this precious thing.”
The Americas launches on Sunday February 23 and will simulcast on sister networks. Each episode will be available to stream next day on Peacock.