Warner Bros. Discovery’s Kathleen Finch broke a lot of science producers’ hearts in Austin, Texas last week when she said that Science Channel was “not very high on our priority list”.Chairman and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S. Networks Group Finch told Deadline at the Realscreen event that it was largely pulling out of original content for the niche cable network.“I will be honest, we are not investing a lot of money in Science Channel,” she said. “We have a really good library of things that we’re able to use there. It’s a small, beautiful network, but it’s not on a very high on our priority list.”Instead, Finch said producers should focus on finding “something in the science world that can be spun into something a little bit bigger and more testosterone filled” that would work for the Discovery Channel.Having said that, the network revealed today that it was airing a new documentary on Science Channel, as well as Discovery+ and HBO Max, about space exploration from Trevor Noah.The former host of The Daily Show is producing For All Humankind, which takes a deep dive into what space exploration means for society by comparing the parallel events of 1969 and 2020.In 1969, the country celebrated the landing on the moon. At the same time, the nation was mourning the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, with civil rights protesters facing violence in the streets.Inspired by overlapping events in 2020 when the first crewed NASA/SpaceX mission took flight while outrage was erupting around the brutal murder of George Floyd, the doc, which launches on February 5, looks back to compare the contradictions of success and failure in the arenas of human space flight and human rights.It is narrated by Christopher Jackson and features commentary from a wide range of experts and human rights leaders including NASA astronaut Victor Glover, journalist and political activist Gloria Steinem, Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green and former NASA Astronaut Joan Higginbotham.For All Humankind is produced by Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, APG Pictures, Storied Media Group and Mainstay Entertainment. Noah will exec produce alongside Aaron Fishman.“This project means so much to me as I can see the parallels between 1969 and 2020. Both marked such seminal moments in innovation and scientific wonder along with extremes in the human condition. The issues presented in this documentary are just as pivotal now as they were during these flashpoints. I can’t think of a better partnership to tell this story,” said Noah.“We are deeply honored to partner with Trevor Noah, Day Zero Productions and Mainstay Entertainment to create such a profound documentary. The unique link between humanity’s success in space and society’s struggles are two sides of the same coin. We have come so far, yet have so much further to go. These are crucial moments in both our history and future that we must endeavor forward together, for all humankind,” added Aaron Fishman.
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