here<\/a>. \u201cWhat makes us distinct is the prism for which we look at everything: Do those ideas deepen one\u2019s understanding of the world or enhance our appreciation of the world?\u201d<\/p>\nMcDonald is keen to find content that \u201cspeaks to your head and to your heart. Ideas that may be edge-of-your-seat and thrill you and entertain you but that inspire you to think about the world in a different way. I think producers find that a really helpful filter. We\u2019re quite a broad church, but that guiding mantra helps narrow down how we select.\u201d<\/p>\n
On adjusting to the new economics of the business and the volume of content consumers have access to, \u201cwe\u2019ve taken a fewer, bigger, better approach over the last couple of years. Rather than try and maintain a certain number of hours, which feels like a linear mindset, we\u2019re focusing on having a set of tentpoles that feel like they\u2019re going to stand out on Disney+. We\u2019re taking a streaming-first approach. It\u2019s still great that we\u2019ve got the linear channels around the world, but fundamentally I\u2019m thinking about it\u2019s forever home, which is Disney+, and about ideas that we think are going to pop on Disney+, where you\u2019re next to Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and those other incredible brands. We\u2019re taking a less-is-more approach while maintaining big ambition. It would be dangerous to go the other way, which is make lots and lots of hours of television. This is less about making lots and lots of hours and more about getting behind a smaller number of titles than we were making five or ten years ago. Fewer shows but higher impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-pros are rare under McDonald\u2019s remit. \u201cWhat I\u2019m principally looking for is all rights on streaming\u2014in perpetuity is maybe up for negotiation. National Geographic International will commission local programming for particular countries. On my slate, it\u2019s global, no co-production, but there are pockets within Nat Geo where there\u2019s opportunity for local programming where the rights position would be different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation then moved to the importance of name recognition in premium factual today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question of discoverability is probably the thing that keeps everyone who works in unscripted awake at night. There are different ways of drawing an audience to your show that is not just talent. Name recognition more broadly is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
He referenced Nat Geo\u2019s 9\/11: One Day in America<\/em>, made in 2021 to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack and one of the platform\u2019s most successful originals of the last few years. \u201cIt does not have an A-list talent attached to it, but that\u2019s an anniversary that is globally well-known, it was a landmark approach to that series, multiple episodes, bigger than has ever been done before\u2014it felt like the definitive take, and that garnered an enormous audience. We\u2019ve recently had a special called Titanic: The Digital Resurrection<\/em>. This genuinely shows you visually the Titanic in a new way.\u201d<\/p>\nThere are lots of A-list talent series in the mix too, with National Geographic aligning with the likes of Stanley Tucci, David Blaine and Chris Hemsworth. \u201cThere\u2019s a built-in recognition of the star.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nat Geo also had success with \u201classoing of Pixar and Disney IP\u201d in projects like A Real Bug\u2019s Life<\/em>, McDonald said.<\/p>\n\u201cIt needs to have a degree of name recognition in order for the audience to feel, Oh, that\u2019s something I want to watch, or, I\u2019m willing to give it my time. But then the show needs to offer a surprise, a new take, a different iteration, feel fresh and original. I\u2019m unafraid of going back to stories where it feels like they may have been told before on television as long as it\u2019s a new way of telling them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, he said, the use of A-list talent has to feel authentic. \u201cWe don\u2019t work with talent for the sake of it. It\u2019s not as easy as saying, This person\u2019s very famous and they\u2019d like to do this show with Nat Geo. We look for the perfect mix of talent, what the talent\u2019s known for and then the talent\u2019s passions and knowledge. The audience senses an authentic connection between the talent and the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald then talked about the evolution of natural history since the boom time of 2019 and the early pandemic era amid the intensification of the streaming wars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a universal quality to natural history; it goes beyond language barriers, it doesn\u2019t feel culturally specific. In every country around the world, there\u2019s a passion for the natural world. Circa 2020\/2021, it felt like every single streamer and broadcaster was in the natural history game. Inevitably, it now feels the waves are retreating. It\u2019s a genre that we\u2019ve always been pioneering in. We are not following trends. It feels core to our brand and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of that pioneering spirit, \u201cWe are trying to do natural history that feels much more playful, mischievous, has a lighter tone and sensibility that doesn\u2019t need to feel like it\u2019s the voice of God serious. Giving the mantle of natural history to Awkwafina and Ryan Reynolds feels interesting. They aren\u2019t necessarily the David Attenborough, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks\u2019 voices\u2014the trusted voices of serious program-making.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, The Americas<\/em> on NBC with Hanks, which McDonald had a hand in from his previous role at the BBC, was done \u201cwithout loads of whistles and bells, but just using the best cinematographers, the most amazing technology, so you\u2019re seeing it in new ways. I love its simplicity. It isn\u2019t trying to be high concept, it\u2019s not trying to be clever. There was an era where people were like, How do you mash up X and Y and Z to create something completely different? What\u2019s great about The Americas<\/em> is it trusts in the simplicity of great storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\nContemporary history is also key to Nat Geo. \u201cWe\u2019re a brand where people trust us to tell their stories,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built a body of series that give a voice to ordinary people\u2019s incredible testimony. In a world which can feel quite riven and partisan, we provide a platform for whatever your political stripes, whatever your world view, you feel like National Geographic will do your story justice. That feels like an incredible privilege. I want to continue doing more of those,\u201d referencing docs on 9\/11 and the deadly 2004 tsunami that impacted 14 countries.<\/p>\n
McDonald is also keen to find subjects that aren\u2019t necessarily \u201cevents of tragedy. Are there stories that are more uplifting or about cultural movements or moments that don\u2019t involve tragic death? Something with a lighter tone but still capturing a moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald has also seen keen interest in new evidence and discoveries. \u201cIf we go back to original source material and documentary evidence, how can we genuinely shed new light on history rather than just retelling it using actors or CGI? That feels quite exciting in terms of history.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there is the impact of AI, with Nat Geo\u2019s theatrical doc Endurance<\/em> using \u201cAI lightly to bring back some of the voices of the people on the Endurance ship, using their real words but AI to enhance their voices. There\u2019s a world in which you can use AI as a tool to bring people back to life in a way that feels respectful, that isn\u2019t making up things they said, that is still incredibly journalistic, but is bringing their voice back to life.\u201d<\/p>\nTrue crime and investigative, meanwhile, has moved into the spheres of \u201cscams and deceit that don\u2019t always involve murder,\u201d McDonald said. The Theranos story is the type of subject matter that could work well for Nat Geo, he noted. \u201cStories about science, but also wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald then weighed in on how NatGeo is using its extensive social media presence. We remain the number one brand on Instagram. That means you can leverage the power of social in different ways. You can use it simply as a marketing tool\u2014we put our trailers, clips, we do all of the things you would expect from a brand like ours to pop things on social. But more interesting to me is when we\u2019ve been brave in terms of putting out content early from a forthcoming show to see how it performs on social.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of note, a clip from Secrets of the Penguins<\/em> featuring \u201cextraordinary behavior that\u2019s never been filmed before\u201d was released on social a year before the show premiered. \u201cThat footage was viewed over 160 million times. It\u2019s our best-performing piece of footage ever on social. It didn\u2019t matter that it wasn\u2019t instantly driving audiences to Secrets of the Penguins<\/em>. It was driving audiences to our social feeds, where I want the young generation to be experiencing extraordinary content from Nat Geo and hopefully building an affiliation with the brand.\u201d<\/p>\nSimilarly, a clip from Limitless with Chris Hemsworth<\/em> \u201cdid incredible numbers on social, generated news headlines, gave us lots of press\u2014that felt like a real win.\u201d<\/p>\nSocial is also being used to trial new talent, such as the YouTube series Superskilled with Eva zu Beck<\/em>. \u201cShe has built a really strong following via National Geographic YouTube and social. That doesn\u2019t instantly mean that we\u2019re going to make a Disney+ series with Eva, but it does mean that we are building a next generation of talent via our social channels. There are opportunities in social to reach different types of audiences, younger audiences. It\u2019s a great place for experimentation, building your audience, and it makes the world that we\u2019re operating in feel bigger, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\nThe slate across platforms, \u201cunderpinned by Nat Geo principles and values about appreciating the planet and deepening our understanding of the world, proves that that doesn\u2019t limit us in form or tone. We\u2019re probably at our most expansive right now. You go from a landmark documentary film with David Attenborough, launched in the same month as Underdogs<\/em> with Ryan Reynolds, the Deadpool <\/em>of natural history. The fact that we can operate at both ends of that spectrum while still retaining National Geographic values feels great.\u201d<\/p>\nAnd there are more big swings coming, including a Pompeii doc with Tom Hiddleston and Meet the Planets<\/em> with Maximum Effort and the BBC Studios Science unit. \u201cIn a landscape that sometimes feels like it in retreat or that people are playing it safe, it\u2019s great that we\u2019re still able, as a brand, to take big risks and swings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The second edition of the TV Real Festival kicked off today with a keynote conversation with Tom McDonald, executive VP of global factual and unscripted content at National Geographic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":23162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[1009,4203,11095],"class_list":["post-23161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-national-geographic","tag-tom-mcdonald","tag-tv-real-festival-2025","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
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