With a nod to the nautical – and building on the home-grown success of MIGHTY SHIPS – Discovery Channel presents a new series, two new specials, and a returning series featuring captivating stories at sea. June highlights include a new Canadian five-part series, SALVAGE: CODE RED which goes inside the urgent international race by salvagers to rescue stricken ships, crews and cargo. Survivors of the 2008 sinking of the Alaska Ranger share their stories in the one-hour special MAYDAY! BERING SEA. And back for a third season, meet the captains, crew and engineers behind the world’s most incredible vessels with the return of Canadian series MIGHTY SHIPS. Also in June, indulge in one of the most talked about events on television this season when Discovery Channel presents an all-day Marathon of the Oprah Winfrey-narrated series LIFE – capped with an all-new “The Making of LIFE” special episode.
NEW SERIES:
SALVAGE: CODE RED (5×60)
Wednesday, June 23 at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT
In this dynamic high-stakes series, real-life action heroes race against time to rescue stricken ships, their cargo and crew in some of the world’s most dangerous waters. There are 500 serious ship wreck incidents reported annually, from explosions and fires on oil tankers, to ships wrecked by storms and head-on collisions. Marine salvaging is one of the world’s most dangerous jobs and lives are lost each year. This five-part series follows the action across the globe as salvage teams battle to save stricken ships just moments away from environmental disaster. These complex engineering operations require equal amounts of skill and courage. Whether battling to right a capsized ferry, running headlong into a typhoon to rescue a coal carrier, or salvaging a beached freighter, SALVAGE: CODE RED offers an exclusive inside look at one of the most treacherous jobs in the world.
NEW SPECIALS:
MAYDAY! BERING SEA (1×60)
Sunday, June 20 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT
On March 23, 2008, the Alaska Ranger sank leaving 47 fishermen helpless in the frigid Bering Sea – a worst-case scenario on the world’s deadliest seas. MAYDAY! BERING SEA presents the true story of the 42 crew rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the words of the survivors, and the heroic account of the five who perished at sea.
BERMUDA TRIANGE EXPOSED (1×60)
Sunday, June 20 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
Examine the Bermuda Triangle layer by layer to discover what’s beneath its 710,000 square kilometres of ocean – freak waves, magnetic anomalies, giant whirlpools and more have been blamed for mysterious disappearances in the area.
RETURNING SERIES:
MIGHTY SHIPS 3 (6X60)
Wednesday, June 2 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
Offering exclusive behind-the-scenes access, MIGHTY SHIPS returns for a third season to explore every part of today’s most extraordinary vessels – from high-tech ocean dredgers and pipelayers to marine research vessels and even a floating state-of-the-art hospital. MIGHTY SHIPS peers into engine rooms, bridges and bilges and meets captains, engineers and able seamen, as it reveals everything from the mechanics of modern sea-going to the human drama seafarers face. From the biggest luxury cruise ship ever built, to the stealth – and top-secret – power of the world’s most advanced ballistic nuclear missile submarine, Season 3 of MIGHTY SHIPS offers a rare look at today’s most fascinating vessels and the people who work on them.
AMERICAN LOGGERS 2 (10X60)
Monday, June 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Meet the men of Pelletier Inc., a family with timber in its blood for three generations. Each day they lead their crews into the woods to harvest timber with fearsome machines and drag monstrous bundles of wood to trucks, which hurtle down unpaved, ice-covered roads to mills throughout North America. With dedication, courage and ingenuity this crew tackles the Northern Maine wilderness to keep their family business alive.
SPECIAL MARATHON PRESENTATION:
LIFE Marathon (10X60)
Sunday, June 6 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET/8 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT
This groundbreaking series explores the glorious variety of life on Earth and the spectacular and extraordinary tactics animals and plants have developed to stay alive. Throughout this 10-part BBC series, witness evolution in action – individual creatures under extreme pressure to overcome challenges from adversaries and their environment. More than four years in the making, filmed over 3,000 days, across every continent and in every habitat, this is LIFE – as you’ve never seen it before. Of the 130 animal stories featured, 54 have never been filmed in this way before – if ever. Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, cutting-edge High Definition cinematic techniques capture unprecedented, astonishingly beautiful sequences – birds running and dancing on the water’s surface in dazzlingly intricate displays of courtship and fidelity, fish outwitting predators by using their fins to take flight, flies competing in a mesmerizing eyeball inflation contest…
LIFE: “The Making of LIFE” (1X60)
Sunday, June 6 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
After 10 mesmerizing hours of giant starfish devouring Pacific octopi and hummingbird courtship, you wonder exactly “how did they do that?” In an all-new special, go inside the wonders of LIFE to discover the exhaustive and remarkable efforts by the filmmaking team to bring the breathtaking images of intimate animal and plant behavior to the screen without disturbing the natural wonder of the moment.