The History Channel, the preferred network of fathers everywhere, has ordered a handful of new shows from a slew of A-listers. The network is working with Leonardo DiCaprio, Ray Liotta, Pierce Brosnan, Peyton Manning, and Robin Roberts to bring six new shows, both docuseries, and non-scripted shows, to life this year.
Brosnan will be hosting History’s Greatest Heists, an eight-part docuseries about, you guessed it, the most elaborate real-life heists throughout history. Everything from bank robberies to…more bank robberies from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (Our Brian Grubb is VERY excited.)
Meanwhile, Liotta will take on the mob (figuratively) and produce the eight-part series Five Families, based on Selwyn Raab’s book Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. The series will chronicle the New York mafia throughout the 1920s all the way throughout the twentieth century.
Nature-lover DiCaprio will produce the docuseries Sitting Bull, which will tell the tale of the life of the legendary Hunkpapa Lakota chief while detailing key moments in Native American history. DiCaprio will be consulted by the Lakota community, as well as IllumiNative, a Native woman-led non-profit organization focused on increasing Native representation both on and off-camera.
Also announced is a new series History’s Greatest of All-Time with Peyton Manning, and a general history show hosted by Manning titled The Einstein Challenge. Finally, ABC’s Robin Roberts will be executive producing Harlem Hellfighters, a four-part series about the Hellfighters during World War I.
The wide variety of shows were announced ahead of the A+E Networks Upfront Ad event and are expected to air sometime this year.