Upfronts 2012: Cesar Milan Getting New Nat Geo Wild Series

‘Leader of the Pack' headlines four new shows on two-year old net

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/26/2012 12:01:00 AM

As Nat Geo Wild prepares to mark its two-year anniversary this week, the network announced four new series joining its lineup in 2012-13, including a new show for Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan.

In Leader of the Pack, Milan will rehabilitate abandoned dogs and coach European families competing to adopt them. While the net will have a new season of Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan in the third quarter, after that the host will exclusively focus on Leader of the Pack, though the channel will continue to air the library of past Dog Whisperer episodes.

Dog Whisperer, which moved to Wild from sister net National Geographic Channel last year, has helped improve its female demos, and Milan's new series is part of a strategy meant to "bring in a much broader audience of people who may not have necessarily known that the channel was there or that are looking for a broader entertainment experience from us," says Geoff Daniels, senior VP of Nat Geo Wild.

Other new series are Animal Intervention, where animal advocate/actress Alison Eastwood (daughter of Clint) and wildlife expert Donald Schultz rescue exotic animals from unhealthy living environments; Alpha Dogs, about the training of an elite force of canines to serve the military; and Ultimate Animal Countdown, which looks for the world's best animal athletes.

The net has also renewed three series -- The Incredible Dr. Pol, which was its highest-rated series in 2011, Man v. Monster and Wild Case Files.

Wild's six upcoming specials include a look at sea creatures' skills in Kingdom of the Oceans and the returning Unlikely Animal Friends. It will also bring back Big Cat Week (the net's highest-rated week) for its third year, this year focusing on the rarest wild felines and adding quarterly specials for the first time to make it a year-round event.