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PBS Announces a New, National WTTW Series, 'Prehistoric Road Trip'

Daniel Hautzinger
Emily Graslie, just outside Hanna, WY, Prehistoric Road Trip. Photo credit: Julie Florio and WTTW
'Prehistoric Road Trip' host Emily Graslie, just outside Hanna, WY. Photo credit: Julie Florio and WTTW

PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger officially announced today at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in California that Prehistoric Road Trip, WTTW’s new three-part natural history series exploring prehistoric life in the Western U.S., will premiere on PBS stations nationwide in summer 2020. The show is hosted by Emily Graslie, Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum and the creator of the popular YouTube series "The Brain Scoop."

Filming is taking place this summer, as Graslie and a WTTW crew road trip around Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, where Graslie grew up. They're exploring 2.5 billion years of Earth's history through paleontology and fossil-hunting, from North American dinosaurs to ancient fishes, mammoths, and early mammals. Each of the three episodes will examine different eras in time, focusing on geology, ecology, and the environment, to understand what the United States looked like millions and even billions of years ago. 

Beyond the three broadcast episodes, WTTW will provide extra opportunities for audiences to dive into Prehistoric Road Trip via a companion website featuring original digital content, behind-the-scenes travel journals, an interactive road trip map, and more. 

It has taken billions of years for the Earth and the species on it to get to where they are today—waiting a year for Prehistoric Road Trip, until summer 2020, is nothing!