BBC's Frozen Planet Won't Have Climate Change Episode in U.S.

Scheduling decisions mean a ponderous discussion on climate change's effects on the polar regions will be mostly axed from the Discovery Channel.

BBC's latest mind-blowing nature documentary series, Frozen Planet, will be aired in the United States (and thus Canada) without the series' final episode on climate change. The series follows BBC's Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Life, and Human Planet, all of which were narrated by the world's best narrator/ naturalist, David Attenborough. And while Frozen Planet is getting rave reviews for its spectacular footage of the great grey owl, killer whales, and the world underneath Antarctica, the last episode, which features Attenborough speaking to the camera about what effect climate change is having on world's polar regions, has proven to be a tough sell. More than 30 networks from around the world have purchased the rights to Frozen Planet, but a third of those opted not to pick up the final episode. And in the U.S. (and Canada), the Discovery Channel says it will only incorporate parts of the final episode into the sixth, as they only reserved six slots of airtime for the documentary. This, frankly, is as about as disheartening as when the U.S. version of Life replaced Attenborough's narration for Oprah Winfrey's. The Beeb has assured American audiences that once the DVD of the series is released, all episodes will be included, as well as one of those behind-the-scenes featurettes that the BBC does better than anybody else.