NGC | Channel Guide Magazine

Travis Taylor talks about Season 2 of “Rocket City Rednecks”

November 27, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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Just in time to offer a refreshing alternative to the slew of Honey Boo Boo type of “redneck” programming that tends to dumb down the American conversation, Rocket City Rednecks and its cast of brilliant — but still fun-loving — Alabama rocket scientists returns. As evidenced in the show’s successful first season last year, while the Rocket City Rednecks — engineer Travis Taylor; his father Charles Taylor (one of NASA’s original machinists); Rog Jones, who has a genius IQ; Michael Taylor, Travis’ brilliant nephew; and Pete Erbach, Travis’ physicist brother-in-law — all embrace their Southern lifestyle and enjoy living the [...]

Two new cable documentaries examine Hurricane Sandy

November 12, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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It was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, and it’s doubtful that anyone who either lived through it, or witnessed images and video of its startling devastation from afar, will ever forget Hurricane Sandy, which was eventually upgraded to a “superstorm” as it progressed through the Caribbean and up into the United States East Coast. Over 100 people were killed in the U.S. alone, and millions were left without power (thousands are still without power in the U.S. two weeks after the storm). The storm will surely be studied and talked about for a long time, including in two documentaries [...]

“Doomsday Preppers” Season 2 begins Nov. 13 on NGC

November 8, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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Don’t bug out! Stock up on those munchies — National Geographic Channel’s highest-rated series is back. Doomsday Preppers, which has become a pop-culture phenomenon and a ratings hit, is back for Season 2 starting Nov. 13. Over the course of 15 episodes we will meet more individuals who are committed to thinking through every contingency plan for what they personally believe will be the inevitable disaster that brings the complete breakdown of society. There’s a diabetic mother stockpiling insulin to survive the F-5 tornado she fears is coming; a 14-year-old prepping for global economic collapse; a millionaire doctor getting ready [...]

“SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” premieres on NGC Nov. 4

November 1, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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There have been a few documentaries chronicling the May 2011 raid by SEAL Team Six that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and now we are coming to a point where feature-length dramatic films are being made on the subject. Next month, the film Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, will be released in theaters. But before that, National Geographic Channel (NGC) will be airing on the small screen SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden, making its world premiere on the network this Sunday, Nov. 4, at 8pm ET/PT. While some Republican supporters believe [...]

NGC special will chronicle Felix Baumgartner’s epic space jump

October 16, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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Updated Oct. 25, 2012, 9:45am CT If you were one of the millions who watched Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking free-fall jump this past Sunday — when he became the first person to free fall while breaking the sound barrier — you know what an impressive accomplishment it was. This feat, and the work leading up to it, will be chronicled in an exclusive two-hour special airing in November on National Geographic Channel (NGC). UPDATE: NGC has announced the air date for the special. It will premiere Nov. 11 at 7pm ET/PT. The special, called Space Dive, will be a co-production between [...]

NGC special offers exclusive animation of historic Curiosity Mars rover landing

August 6, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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Early this morning Eastern Time (Aug. 6), the Mars Science Laboratory (a.k.a. the Curiosity rover) successfully landed on Mars. Built to last years and do things on the Red Planet that have never been done before, Curiosity has been hyped as rocket science on steroids. The $2.5 billion mega rover boasts a nuclear power supply, is equipped with a full laboratory that can test samples for organic building blocks of life and can trek across miles of rugged terrain while beaming back to Earth images in high-definition 3-D. Weighing in at nearly a ton, five times heavier than its predecessors, [...]

In advance of “Chasing UFOs” series, NatGeo releases results of “Aliens Among Us” survey

June 28, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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More than 80 million Americans are certain that UFOs exist. A large majority think aliens might possess superpowers, including time-travel skills. And two-thirds of Americans think that Barack Obama is better suited to handle an alien invasion than Mitt Romney. These are some of the results that came out of NatGeo’s “Aliens Among Us” survey conducted last month, which asked questions about UFOs and the possibility that aliens exist and have visited Earth. The results were announced yesterday, a few days before the premiere of National Geographic Channel’s new series Chasing UFOs, which premieres on the network June 29 at [...]

TV’s “Roma” empire expands with NGC’s “American Gypsies”

June 28, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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American subcultures have become a hot trend in the past year, with TV shows delving into the lives of the Amish, a group called the Hutterites and, perhaps most infamously — and entertainingly, in some instances — Gypsies (some of whom prefer to be called “Roma”). TLC has had hits with My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding (which were not short on gaudy fashions, emotional fireworks and dramatic fisticuffs — and that was just among the women). National Geographic Channel is now starting its own Roma series, American Gypsies, this month. RELATED STORY: GYPSIES [...]

NGC re-airs Henry Hill “Locked Up Abroad” episode tonight

June 13, 2012 | By Jeff Pfeiffer
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Henry Hill, the inspiration for Martin Scorsese’s classic 1990 movie Goodfellas (where he was played by Ray Liotta), and the nonfiction book from which the film was drawn, Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguys, passed away Tuesday at the age of 69. Last summer, National Geographic Channel debuted an episode of its popular Locked Up Abroad series devoted to Hill, called “The Real Goodfella,” which told the complete story of his rise and fall in the New York mob, including details of his life not featured in Scorsese’s film. NGC will be re-airing that episode tonight and next Wednesday. In the episode, Hill, [...]

NGC’s “Untamed Americas” takes a walk on the wild side

June 7, 2012 | By Channel Guide Contributor
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By Jacqueline Cutler People rarely have the chance to see the bigger picture of where they live. We identify with neighborhoods, towns, counties, states and country, but how often do we think of how that geography connects to the greater world? National Geographic Channel gives us that chance in a four-hour, two-night special, Untamed Americas, airing June 10-11. Josh Brolin is just right as the narrator of the four segments, which feature exquisite footage of North, Central and South America. Divided into episodes “Mountains,” “Deserts,” “Coasts” and “Forests,” the HD miniseries — simulcast on Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo [...]