Netflix Orders Talk Show ‘Bill Nye Saves The World’
Netflix has ordered Bill Nye Saves the World, a late-night-style talk show hosted by Bill Nye that will explore science and how it intersects with politics, pop culture and society.
Set to launch in the spring, each episode will tackle a topic from a scientific point of view, debunking myths and dinging anti-scientific claims espoused by politicians, religious leaders and/or titans of industry.
Writer and stand-up comedian Mike Drucker serves as head comedy writer, and astronomer, author and award-winning science communicator Phil Plait is head science writer. Michael Naidus, who executive produced CBS’ The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, will serve as showrunner and executive producer.
Bill Nye Saves The World is produced for Netflix by Bunim/Murray Productions. Gil Goldschein and Julie Pizzi serve as executive producers for Bunim/Murray.
Topics to be tacked include vaccinations, genetically modified foods and climate change. “With the right science and good writing, we’ll do our best to enlighten and entertain our audience — and perhaps we’ll change the world a little,” Nye said of today’s news.
Bill Nye Saves the World will bring in guests, conduct experiments and demonstrations and, Netflix promised, “ultimately let the facts lead the argument.”
Nye has been outspoken on the subject of politics and science during the current election cycle. In April, on the eve of Earth Day, he blasted Republican presidential candidates and the fossil-fuel industry for their denial of the deleterious effects of climate change.
“There’s still a very strong contingent of people who are in denial about climate change,” Nye said. “And if you don’t believe me, look at the the three people currently running for president of the world’s most influential country who are … climate change deniers,” Nye said on CNN, referring to Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
Trump, he noted, has been outspoken on the issue on Twitter, once claiming that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Bill Nye Saves The World marks Nye’s return to series TV . He emerged as a household name in the 1990s as the creator and star of syndicated Bill Nye The Science Guy, which ran for five seasons on PBS.
In addition to being an environmental advocate and TV host, Nye is a licensed mechanical engineer. In addition to taking on climate change deniers, he’s taken on creationists and other opponents of “evidence-based education and policy,” Netflix noted. Nye has 3.4 million Twitter followers and is CEO of the Planetary Society. He is author of Undeniable: Evolution And The Science Of Creation and Unstoppable: Harnessing Science To Change The World.
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