Science Channel's 2010-11 Upfront Slate Stirs Audiences' Imaginations with Provocative Special and Series

April 8, 2010

(New York, N.Y.) Science Channel's 2010-11 upfront programming slate ignites viewers' imaginations, provoking them to consider the world and what lies beyond in different, mind blowing ways. The robust slate of original and returning programming pursues knowledge through significant questions of the massive ideas about the unknown universe and our future to Earth's minuscule components.

It's a unique journey dominated by unconventional thinkers-people with an unbridled passion for wanting to know more and who believe nothing is as it seems. Science Channel will introduce viewers to the personalities pushing the boundaries of science including those whose ideas may seem more like fiction, but may one day be fact with two original series PROPHETS OF SCIENCE FICTION and FRINGE SCIENCE. And later this year, the network will debut the provocative new series WORLD WITHOUT, hosted by biologist and celebrated television presenter Liz Bonin, which asks: what if one key element we take for granted every day was removed was removed from Earth? How would Earth transform and what would it mean for mankind?

Returning to the network is celebrated author and theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku in an all-new season of SCI FI SCIENCE: PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE. The METEORITE MEN, Steven Arnold and Geoff Notkin, return for a new season of searching for invaluable records of the universe, and it's all about rockets and backyard innovation in Science Channel's coverage of the annual L.D.R.S. competition.

"Science Channel believes science is more than a word," said Debbie Myers, Science Channel General Manager. "It's a world audiences find endlessly fascinating. We strive to provide them with a window into the creativity, imagination and innovation that exists around every corner, and to showcase how it touches every part of their lives, every day."

NEW SERIES

PROPHETS OF SCIENCE FICTION

In this all-new series, Science Channel investigates the lives, ideas, convictions, philosophies and genius of visionaries from the science fiction field. Each episode explores one pillar of the genre who symbolizes the most groundbreaking conceptual viewpoints of their era. Viewers will see many of these thinkers for the first time as Science Channel leaves no stone unturned from their upbringing and its impact on his or her future worldview to what we can learn from their ideas of what mankind can achieve.

THE WORLD WITHOUT

The premise is simple: what would the world be like if one key element we take for granted every day was removed? In this new series viewers will find out how the planet would respond if cockroaches, death, snakes, sunlight, earth's natural rotation, wind and more were suddenly taken from daily life. How would the earth change over a period of one year, 100 years and 10,000 years if it were suddenly void of one ingredient?

MUTANT PLANET

A bewildering diversity of mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, insects and plants fills our planet with life. But how did Earth come to support such a range of strange and eccentric animals and insects? Did natural selection allow for their patterns of behavior to flourish? Science Channel is focusing its lens on six special regions of the planet to bring viewers a better understanding of the powerful forces that create the mysteries of evolution.

FRINGE SCIENCE

Before the term science existed mankind has sought to learn more about the physical world. The inspired minds of Aristotle, Newton, Galileo, Fognacci, Hawking and Heinlin pushed the boundaries of knowledge with new and innovative scientific methods, deviated from the accepted norm, and created theories so outrageous for their time the concepts most certainly would have been considered unconventional. FRINGE SCIENCE takes viewers into the next century of science where the freshest ideas seem eccentric, but may one day be accepted as central to our reality and the science community.

WHAT IF?

What if one critical moment in history had gone the other way? What would our world look like? "What If?" challenges the brainpower of the world's brightest scientists to paint a startling and completely credible picture of a world that almost was: Humans and Neanderthals living side-by-side, the United States paralyzed by a larger Three Mile Island incident, and a terrorist attack that brings the world economy to a halt.

NEW SPECIALS

THE LAST SHUTTLE MISSION (wt)

As NASA retires the historic space shuttle program, Science Channel brings viewers the definitive story of the shuttle through the men and women who worked tirelessly to build it. From preparations for the momentous final mission to live coverage of the Shuttle Discovery launch from Kennedy Space Center, THE LAST SHUTTLE MISSION will celebrate the orbiter's achievements, present the shuttle's untold stories and look towards mankind's limitless future in space.

SUPER HUMANS

From god-like strength and synesthesia to magnetism and telekinesis, this groundbreaking series reveals the amazing stories of real people with extraordinary super powers. These super human abilities completely confound our understanding of what it is to be human, how we use our senses and what the limits to our natural abilities are.

RETURNING SERIES

HOW IT'S MADE

Science Channel's fan favorite returns for an eighth season of revealing how many of the everyday objects - hammers, golf clubs, radar guns, kitchen scissors, leather shoes, olive oil, headphones, fishing poles and more - we seldom stop to think about become the things they are. In each episode of this series, you'll be amazed to see how many common items are manufactured in high-tech factories around the world.

BUILD IT BIGGER

Professional architect Danny Forster returns for a fifth season of BUILD IT BIGGER. Danny continues his global trek to break down the ultimate, cutting-edge construction projects. From public works and private buildings to warships and cruise ships, Danny's experience as a professional architect, as well as his enthusiasm for structural design and the building process, brings viewers inside engineering marvels that will improve quality of life and dot city skylines.

THROUGH THE WORMHOLE WITH MORGAN FREEMAN

Academy Award-winning actor and space enthusiast Morgan Freeman executive produces, hosts and narrates this exploration of the greatest mysteries of the universe. In season two, Freeman reaches deeper into the biggest mysteries of mankind. From the latest work at NASA and private enterprise facilities to the latest theories from futurists and physicists, this series looks at black holes, colonizing the planets, string theory and more. Science Channel invites viewers on the journey as Morgan Freeman picks up where Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" left off and explores the new frontiers of what is beyond earth.

SCI FI SCIENCE: PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

Based on the New York Times best-selling book, "Physics of the Impossible," Dr. Michio Kaku takes viewers to the frontiers of science with an authoritative exploration of the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation, time travel and more science fiction subjects. He investigates the physics behind some of science fiction's wildest offerings and concludes that many of the technologies once thought impossible may actually be inevitable.

METEORITE MEN

This thrilling series brings viewers closer to space than ever before. Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold share a passion for adventure, traveling to wild places, and hunting for extraterrestrial visitors from outer space that have found a way to Earth. With three 4WD trucks, ATVs, state-of-the-art metal detectors and an array of other hunting gadgets, the Meteorite Men cover hundreds of acres of ground. No area goes uncharted as they search in plowed fields, dense forests, rolling hillsides, abandoned farms, and unmarked dirt roads in the hunt for valuable and mysterious rocks from space.

RETURNING SPECIALS

PUNKIN CHUNKIN 2010

Science Channel's coverage of World Championship Punkin Chunkin returns as homemade catapults, trebuchets and air cannons send pumpkins soaring through the Delaware skies. For the 25th consecutive year competitors use these contraptions to send a pumpkin one-mile off into the distance. Once again Science Channel honors the backyard engineers who turn pumpkins into projectiles with all of high flying, far-flung action from the 2010 championships with PUNKIN CHUNKIN 2010. The special television event covers every angle of the intense competition from growing special, aerodynamic pumpkins and determining the perfect pumpkin's mass to the mechanics of the air cannon and the physics of catapults.

LARGE AND DANGEROUS ROCKET SHIPS (L.D.R.S.)

Every year the premiere event in high-power rocketry gathers more than 500 of the most fearless and hardcore of all amateur rocket builders from every corner of the country. Science Channel offers viewers a window into the competition where competitors launch the biggest, the baddest and most creative homemade and hand-designed rockets anywhere on Earth.

About Science Channel

Science Channel, a division of Discovery Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), is broadcast 24 hours a day and seven days a week to 66 million U.S. homes and simulcast on Science Channel HD. We immerse viewers in the incredible possibilities of science, from string theory and futuristic cities to accidental discoveries and outrageous inventions. We take things apart, peer inside and put things together in new and unexpected ways. We celebrate the trials, errors and brinking moments that change our lives forever. To find out more go to sciencechannel.com.