Rhys Darby To Narrate Wildlife Series For Peacock & Love Nature From Ample Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Peacock is staging the world’s first wildlife reality competition show.

The streamer has ordered The Hungry Games: Alaska’s Big Bear Challenge, a three-part series narrated by Flight of the Conchords star Rhys Darby.

The series, which is a co-production with global natural history brand Love Nature, follows the bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park as they bulk up for winter hibernation. Over 150 days, the bears battle the elements – and each other – using brains and brawn to consume three million calories and gain up to 200 pounds in Nature’s real-life survival show. Unbeknownst to the bears, their progress is being tracked and ranked for a television audience with narration that combines fascinating facts about bear behavior with color commentary from Darby.

The series is produced by Love Nature and Ample Entertainment. Alison Barrat and James Manfull exec produce for Love Nature, and Ari Mark, Phil Lott and David Brown for Ample Entertainment.

Blue Ant Studios rights division is handling pre-sales internationally.

Darby is best known for playing Murray Hewitt in HBO comedy Flight of the Conchords. He also recently starred in Our Flag Means Death as well as the Jumanji movies. He leant his voice to the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie as well as a slew of animated series including Infinity Train and The Great North.

Ample, which is behind series such as Netflix’s Cold Case Files, opened its own LA-based natural history division in 2020. It produced Netflix natural history series Kangaroo Valley.