Following the hit Emmy®-winning series, Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, the much-anticipated documentary series Seven Worlds, One Planet marks the first time BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit explores earth’s seven spectacular continents in a single series. Seven Worlds, One Planet captures how each continent plays a role in shaping animal behaviour and how humankind has negative and positive impacts on the health of our planet. Filmed across 41 countries, with a crew of 1,500 and over 2,000 hours of footage shot, the series uncovers new species and filming firsts with polar bears, sharks, and the last northern white rhinos on earth, to name a few. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and featuring a score co-composed by Hans Zimmer and his team Bleeding Fingers Music, the Canadian broadcast premiere of Seven Worlds, One Planet begins Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 9 pm ET/PT with the North America episode and rolls out every Saturday at 9 pm, exclusively on BBC Earth.
“For our Canadian fans who love the BBC’s iconic nature series’, Seven Worlds, One Planet has become a must-see television event that’s already generated a great reception from viewers and media around the world,” said Jamie Schouela, President, Canadian Media. “Seven Worlds, One Planet is BBC Studios’ biggest series on biodiversity ever produced and we’re thrilled to bring the new series to our Canadian audiences for the first time ever this January.”
“North America will be a continent that a lot of people feel like they’re familiar with,” said Chadden Hunter, Producer of the North America episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet. “The challenge was to really surprise them. We wanted to make you, the viewer, realize that there’s a whole side to North America you haven’t seen. Animals in North America are like pioneers because the conditions can be so brutal.”
The seven-part series features filming firsts including polar bears jumping from rocks to hunt adult beluga whales, a firefly spectacle in North America (captured with a motion-control tracking time-lapse camera), puma successfully hunting adult guanaco in South America, a spidaboo mating dance in Australia, grave-robbing hamsters in Europe, the largest aggregation of great whales ever filmed in Antarctica, and Sir David Attenborough with the last two northern white rhinos on Earth in Africa.
Seven Worlds, One Planet (Canadian Premiere) airs Saturdays at 9 pm ET/PT starting January 18, 2020, exclusively on BBC Earth. The channel will be available in free preview from Feb. 3 to Apr. 5, 2020 across Canada and the full series will re-air during that period. BBC Earth is also now available on Amazon Channels with Seven Worlds, One Planet airing simultaneously on this platform. Weekly episodes will also be available to channel subscribers on-demand via cable and satellite platforms after each episode airs.
About Seven Worlds, One Planet:
- Seven-part series marks the first time BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit has explored all the planet’s continents in a single series.
- The filmmakers have employed new technology, including 8K cameras and boundary-defining drone techniques, to capture unique perspectives, new species, and animal behaviour filming firsts.
- 41 countries visited · 92 shoots · 1,794 filming days · 499 days spent traveling by crew · 2,260.5 hours of footage shot · more than 1,500 people worked on the project worldwide.
Episodes
North America
Saturday, January 18 at 9 pm ET/PT
In winter, lynx prowl the Yukon for snowshoe hares and manatees seek hot springs to escape the freeze. In summer, Tennessee fish build spectacular underwater pyramids, fireflies light up the forest’s nights, and polar bears leap from rocks as they hunt beluga whales.
- Filming First: Using low light technology and cable dollies with a motion control tracking time-lapse camera, the film crew glided cameras through the forests of Mississippi and Ohio to shoot firefly spectacles.
South America
Saturday, January 25 at 9 pm ET/PT
The most species-rich continent on Earth. In the Andes, pumas hunt guanaco while rarely seen bears search for mini avocados. In the Amazon, poison dart frogs care for their babies, colourful macaws eat clay and birds make death-defying flights through a gigantic waterfall.
- Filming First: During the filming of South America, camera crews for the first time captured multiple Andean bears feeding in a single tree 90 feet high in the cloud forest.
Asia
Saturday, February 1 at 9 pm ET/PT
The largest of all continents. In the frozen north, walrus congregate in extraordinary numbers, bears gather inside volcanoes and yeti-like monkeys fight in the remote forests of China. In the tropical south – the last few Sumatran rhino roam and the world’s most bizarre predator lurks in Iran.
- Filming First: The highest mountain ranges in central China are remote, and to date, have been largely inaccessible to film crews. Yet for hundreds of years stories of the “Yeti,” a golden snub-nosed monkey, have emanated from this region. BBC captured footage for the first time of these incredible creatures with bright blue faces and golden coats who spend a lot of their time walking upright just like humans. These monkeys are the “holy grail” for Sir David Attenborough who first learned about them in the 1960s.
Australia
Saturday, February 8 at 9 pm ET/PT
A land cast adrift at the time of the dinosaurs. Here, kangaroos and wombats brave snowstorms and gum tree forests are filled with never-before-seen predators.
- Filming First: In the Australia episode, BBC filmed a shark aggregation which only happens every 15 years, using the magic of drone technology to film the shark’s unique tactics, which could not be captured from the sea via a boat as the viewer would only see splashing and fins.
Europe
Saturday, February 15 at 9 pm ET/PT
Where wildlife survives alongside people. In Gibraltar, a baby monkey is kidnapped, while in the cemeteries of Vienna grave robbing wild hamsters fight. In this fairy tale continent wolves roam the forests; dragons lurk in caves and baby bears wander the woods.
- Filming First: In the Europe episode, camera crews take audiences into the 12,000 limestone caves in Slovenia to capture a rare creature called the olm, which is a blind salamander that inhabits the area and can go without food for nearly a decade. Using drone technology, the film crew was able to get footage from inside the caves, which required expertise in freestyle drone flying, to navigate the cave’s strong air currents and when location accuracy tools don’t work underground.
Antarctica
Saturday, February 22 at 9 pm ET/PT
The coldest, windiest, most hostile continent. Penguin chicks run the gauntlet of orca and leopard seals, colourful starfish and gigantic worms carpet the seabed whilst on the surface – one of the world’s greatest feeding spectacles.
- Filming First: In Antarctica, BBC narrowly captured footage of the largest great whale aggregation ever shot, searching for seven weeks to find the sequence, nearly missing the opportunity when production’s helicopter broke and drone malfunctioned.
Africa
Saturday, February 29 at 9 pm ET/PT
Home to the greatest wildlife show on Earth where chimps make tools, cheetah hunt prey twice their size and, in crystal clear freshwater lakes, devious imposters trick caring fish mothers.
- Filming First: In the final epic episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet, film crews capture Sir David Attenborough in Kenya with the last two northern white rhinos on earth.
Seven Worlds, One Planet is a BBC Studios Natural History Unit production, co-produced with BBC AMERICA, Tencent Penguin Pictures, ZDF, France Télévisions, and China Media Group CCTV9.