This February, science, history, and adventure reveal truths untold about the fight for freedom and the future of endangered species when two MADE®-in-Canada docu-series, UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE SECRET HISTORY (Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. ET) and LAST OF THE GIANTS (Monday, Feb. 14 at 9 p.m. ET), air exclusively on Discovery. Each new episode is also available to stream on CTV.ca and the CTV app.
Narrated by actor-director Clark Johnson (The Wire, Your Honor, Percy), the four-part mini-series UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE SECRET HISTORY uses archaeology, cutting edge technology, and generations of insight to unlock some of the biggest mysteries surrounding this secret network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.
Then, the eight-episode series LAST OF THE GIANTS follows acclaimed adventurer Cyril Chauquet (CHASING MONSTERS) and his crew on a high-adrenaline, action-packed mission from the forbidding Rocky Mountains of Northern B.C. to the Amazon jungle. The team risks life and limb to search for, and save the last of the planet’s legendary goliath fish.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE SECRET HISTORY
Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, beginning Feb. 8 (4 x :60)
From the little-known Southern routes to freedom in Florida; secret routes to Mexico and Canada; and Free Black strongholds in Kansas that were almost erased from history, new technology sheds light on hidden tunnels, remote caves, and maroon communities used by Freedom Seekers escaping enslavement. The series also highlights numerous unsung heroes of the Underground Railroad with leading experts chronicling this critical chapter in American history.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE SECRET HISTORY also features the descendants of Freedom Seekers who add incredible insight with their family histories, passed down from generation to generation. As well, archaeologists share their expertise, research, and discoveries, providing valuable context to these stories, and helping to solidify the legacies of those who sought freedom on the Underground Railroad.
In the premiere episode, “Seeking Southern Sanctuary,” archaeologists explore the former grounds of a little-known Black fort in Florida that was destroyed by the U.S. Government, while descendants of Freedom Seekers use thermal drone technology to seek out evidence of secret caves in Grapevine, Texas, used to hide enslaved people on the run. Historians use high-tech mapping equipment to find evidence of a lost ferry system that transported Black Americans to freedom in Mexico.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE SECRET HISTORY is Directed by Phillip Daniels, Series Producer is Margot Daley. Producer is Nicole Hamilton, Executive Producers are Joey Case and Richard Speer for Attraction.
LAST OF THE GIANTS
Mondays at 9 p.m. ET, beginning Feb. 14 (8 x :60)
As the human impact on these incredible environments endangers the habitats of these massive fish, Last of the Giants tracks the race against time to collect specimen samples vital for conservationists trying to prevent some of the most astonishing leviathans from becoming extinct. To collect the samples needed to help save these giants, Cyril and his team must survive in some of the most remote and hostile environments known to humanity. From the raging rivers and deadly canyons on the last frontier between northern Canada and Alaska; to the fearsome jungles and piranha-infested rivers of the Amazon rainforest; the series goes behind the scenes as the team doggedly pursues their mission while facing jaguars, grizzly bears, anacondas, caimans, tarantulas, treacherous weather, and armed locals.
Episodes 1-4 – “Cold Mountain Giant”
High in the Rocky Mountains, Cyril and team venture into the majestic inhospitable landscape in search of one of nature’s great survivors: the 12 foot White Sturgeon. With its prey, the battle-hardened Pacific Salmon, endangered, the Sturgeon’s fate is uncertain after more than 150 million years ruling the waterways. In this harshest of environments, the team’s physical and emotional limits are tested as they battle breakneck rapids, overturned rafts, hypothermia, falling rocks, deadly canyons and catastrophic landslides on the rivers and roving grizzly bears, and hungry wolves on land.
Episodes 5-8 – “Jungle Goliaths: The Amazon”
Airlifted into the dense jungle of the planet’s largest rainforest, the team must wade through river rapids and mudslides, dodge bullets, and endure floods and storms as they search for two of the Amazon’s last giant fish species: the prehistoric Pirarucu as well as one of the biggest, most endangered freshwater giants on the planet, the Piraiba, a behemonth that can reach over 400 lbs. Their mission is to find out if, after years of habitat destruction and fishing pressure, there are still real monsters in this habitat. The hunt takes the team into the heart of the perilous wilderness, and as well as battling extreme weather and flash floods, the team lose camera equipment to thrashing rapids, encounter hostile, pirates, and have to fight off deadly piranhas, caimans, and anacondas. They also have to gain the trust of an enigmatic local tribe who can help them find the jungle’s hidden treasures.
