• Variety, Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:20 PM

Discovery Communications is planning a five-year programming initiative spearheaded by Discovery founder and chairman John Hendricks. The campaign, "Curiosity," will center around a 60-episode TV series that launches in January 2011.

"Curiosity" will air 12 episodes each year. Every episode will address questions in fields such as space, biology, geology, medicine, physics, technology, nature, the human mind and history. The Experius Academy, which Hendricks also founded, is jointly producing the programming with Discovery.

Supplemental programming will be produced for Discovery Channel and sister nets such as the Science Channel, Planet Green and HD Theater. Among the schools lined up to participate in the program are Princeton U., Syracuse U., Georgetown U. and the Weill Medical College at Cornell. The program will also deliver classroom tools for educators.

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