Premieres Sunday, August 2, 6:00 p.m. ET—Only on TBS Superstation
Washington, D.C., July 8, 1998
Since his first appearance as host of National Geographic EXPLORER in 1994, Boyd Matson has been bitten by a bull snake, climbed 19,340 feet (5,900 meters) to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, stood at the rim of the Hawaiian Kilauea volcano, and been sized up by alligators in the Everglades. But he still considers this “the dream job.”
“Off the Map with Boyd Matson,” premiering Sunday, August 2 at 6:00 p.m. ET on TBS Superstation, recalls Boyd’s first 100 episodes as host of National Geographic EXPLORER. Flavored with Boyd’s notorious sense of humor, “Off the Map” looks back at the adventures (and misadventures) of his experiences with EXPLORER. With a journalistic curiosity, and a seemingly fearless tendency to put himself into the middle of the action, Boyd is very much a modern-day adventurer. Having logged more than half a million miles (800,000 kilometers), and spending nearly 100 days a year away from his family, Boyd is committed to “covering the part of the world that doesn’t get covered on the evening news.”
One of Boyd’s most extreme EXPLORER expeditions was the Sahara’s Marathon des Sables, one of the worlds most difficult athletic endeavors. A willing participant in the nearly 150-mile (241 kilometers), 7-day endurance foot race, Boyd, unlike a number of the race’s nearly 350 competitors, actually finished the limit-testing journey. Referring to the whole experience as “The Amazing Feet,” Boyd modestly attributes his desert success to perseverance, adrenaline, and tough feet.
When singer/motorcycle man Lyle Lovett joined Boyd on a Patagonia EXPLORER expedition, a “sort of Butch and Sundance Do South America,” as Boyd describes, a crash put the EXPLORER host out of commission—temporarily! But rest assured, close calls are Boyd’s specialty. From his first EXPLORER adventure in Botswana with temperamental wild elephants and hippos to a close encounter with lions, Boyd consistently gets to the heart of our natural world, offering amazing scenes of wildlife, anthropology, and adventure.
National Geographic EXPLORER airs every Sunday at 7:00 p.m. ET on TBS Superstation. Each two-hour program features a mix of adventure, science, natural history, and human interest films. The most popular and longest-running documentary series on cable, EXPLORER has won more than 400 awards, including 32 Emmys and 12 CableACE awards. Premiering Sunday, August 2, at 6:00 p.m. ET on TBS Superstation, National Geographic EXPLORER’s “Off the Map with Boyd Matson” is a fascinating glimpse at one of television’s most intriguing personalities.
TBS Superstation, Turner Broadcasting System’s flagship network, is the most watched network on cable. The Superstation features popular movies, high-profile original programming, outstanding sports, and favorite comedies.
Contact:
Adrienne D’Amato, Dera & Associates
+1 212 966 4600
Ellen Stanley, National Geographic Television
+1 202 775 6717
Lisa Tobias, TBS Superstation
+1 404 885 2051
