BBC & PBS Team Up for Wild Alaska Live

Wild Alaska Live is a brand-new major three-part live television event for BBC One, produced by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit and co-produced by PBS.

The three-part series will be broadcast live across a week in July. It comes from the makers of 2015’s BAFTA-award winning Big Blue Live. Each show will see Steve Backshall undertake a daring live expedition to a new remote location. Also, Matt Baker will be presenting live from the world’s largest temperate rainforest, the Tongass National Forest, where black bears and bald eagles await the end point of the epic salmon migration. Liz Bonnin, meanwhile, will be living in one of the remotest areas of Alaskan wilderness, Katmai National Park, among some of the largest brown bears in the world.

Backshall said: “Alaska is the last frontier of the continent, with forgotten forests the size of nations, cut through with glaciers, mountains and raging rivers. In July an unparalleled explosion of life transforms the wilderness, creating one of the greatest wildlife events on the planet, and we’re going to be there…live.”

Baker added: “Two years ago we set off for Monterey Bay with a wealth of expertise and the technology to show all of you back home one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth as it happened. Big Blue Live was live family television at its best. Now we’re all heading back into the wilds, this time to Alaska with one simple aim: to show you what bears, wolves, whales and many others get up to in one of the most remote parts of the world, while you go about your everyday life in the U.K.

“Alaska is, of course, one of those dream places of wonder; from glaciers to rainforests, now we can experience it together as it happens.”

Bonnin commented: “Getting the chance to observe the natural behaviors of brown bears and wolves in one of the last remaining true wildernesses on Earth is going to be a thrilling experience.

“I’ll be based at Katmai National Park—pretty much as remote and pristine a place as you can get—exploring the challenges of conserving these precious species and their habitats, telling the stories of individual animals and capturing all the live action as the salmon run plays out. I’m so excited to be part of the adventure, and to bring all of this to our BBC One audience as the week unfolds.”

Charlotte Moore, the director of BBC Content, said: “Filming live from Alaska, one of the most remote corners of the planet, this ambitious series will bring audiences as close as possible to the action so they can experience the adrenaline rush of witnessing one of the most spectacular wildlife gatherings in the world.”

Tom McDonald, BBC’s head of commissioning, added: “Big Blue Live was a summer smash in 2015 and I’m delighted that the team behind our BAFTA-winning series is reuniting for Wild Alaska Live. The series will be the most ambitious live Natural History project we’ve ever commissioned—broadcasting from one of the last truly wild places on Earth for what promises to be an unforgettable week of animal encounters.”