Roundups #66: One Piece Reportedly Cancelled After 25 Years, Ghostbusters Animated Film Is In Development And High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Returning For A Fourth Season

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The final instalment of One Piece is coming soon

Eiichiro Oda's magnum opus, One Piece has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997. One Piece follows the story of Monkey D. Luffy, a young pirate who lives during the time of the Great Pirate Era ushered by the Pirate King himself. With the aim of attaining wealth, fame, power, and most importantly, the One Piece, Luffy sets out to sea on a grand adventure the likes of which have never been seen before.

Since 1997, Oda has been consistently drawing Luffy's journey towards becoming the King of the Pirates but even after almost 25 years, the story isn't finished. Luffy's journey continues and, by the looks of it, will continue for the foreseeable future. Yet, the author of One Piece has repeatedly made it known that One Piece is nearing its end and will end within the next few years.

Originally, Eiichiro Oda's One Piece was supposed to end around 2002 and according to the author himself, the story was to last for just five years. Luffy's journey, which is so massive, was originally going to be about the fight against the pirates called the Yonko. However, Oda then introduced the idea of the Shichibukai. According to him, this is a massive part of why One Piece ended up becoming as long as it did. The Shichibukai added a lot of depth to the story and made Oda expand the various themes of the story further. In 2019, Oda mentioned that he will end One Piece in the next five years. In 2020, Oda reaffirmed his plans to end One Piece within five years. But once again, this is likely not going to happen.

 

A new Ghostbusters film is in development

The studio teased in a CimenaCon sizzle reel in April that a fifth live-action film in the franchise was in the works, following the original, 1989’s Ghostbusters II, the female-led 2016 Ghostbusters reboot and last year’s Reitman-directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Sony today confirmed what the end credits of the 2021 pic — which grossed $197.4 million worldwide — had hinted at: The next sequel will return to the original scene of the slime: New York City and the firehouse.

The 1984 Ghostbusters was helmed by Reitman’s father, Ivan Reitman, and starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, along with Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and Annie Potts. It became a sensation, spawning a title song by Ray Parker Jr. that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks.

The stream-crossing gang and filmmaker reunited five years later for Ghostbusters II, and Paul Feig directed the 2016 pic that starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was headlined by Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace. Several of the original stars also showed up.

 

More High School Musical on Disney+

Ahead of its Season 3 premiere, Disney+ has ordered a fourth season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The eight-episode third season will premiere on July 27, with each episode streaming weekly on Wednesdays, exclusively on Disney+.

Created and executive-produced by Tim Federle (Ferdinand, Better Nate Than Ever), Season 3 is set at Camp Shallow Lake, a sleepaway camp in California, as the Wildcats and their fellow campers are primed for an unforgettable summer ripe with romance, curfew-less nights and a taste of the great outdoors. With a high-stakes production of Frozen on the horizon and a drama-filled “docu-series” of the production in the works, the Wildcats will attempt to show who is “best in snow” without leaving anyone out in the cold.

It stars Joshua Bassett, Sofia Wylie, Matt Cornett, Julia Lester, Dara Reneé, Frankie Rodriguez, Saylor Bell Curda and Adrian Lyles. They’ll be joined in Season 3 by recurring cast members Aria Brooks, Liamani Segura and Ben Stillwell and guest stars Corbin Bleu, Meg Donnelly, Jason Earles, Kate Reinders, Olivia Rose Keegan, Olivia Rodrigo, Larry Saperstein and Joe Serafini.

Redraw Your World: Boomerang Africa Investing In More Preschool As Cartoonito Becomes International Success

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In an interview at the TV Kids Summer Festival, Amy Friedman the head of kids and family programming at Warner Bros. highlighted the successful impact of Cartoonito block which saw 15 titles blaze the lineup with more titles like Bugs Bunny Builders, Batwheels and Tom And Jerry Time being added in future.

Despite the outcome of Cartoonito, Warner Bros. Discovery is still creating competition amongst their brands as Boomerang loads its second preschool series for the year, Cocomelon which was picked up particularly for Cartoonito.

 
 

Cocomelon engages families with entertaining and educational content that makes universally-relatable preschool moments fun! All along with music and song for families to watch together.

Since its launch in 2018, it became the most viewed channel in the United States and second globally accumulating 135 million subscribers on YouTube with 129.5 million viewers on YouTube. Aside from YouTube, the content is viewable on several streaming platforms including Netflix, Hulu and Roku.

 
 

Cocomelon is expected to launch on Boomerang outside of Cartoonito by July which coincides with the recent launch of Legends Of Spark which is also preschool.

Taking that into account, is it possible that Warner is slowly phasing out Boomerang for Cartoonito by making the necessary changes to the lineup and with Boomerang being part preschool worked to their advantage.

Roundups #65: First Look At Scooby-Doo Adult Spinoff Velma, Sebastían Carvajal And Laura Londoño Reportedly Star In New Telenovela Hombres And Shraddha Arya Departs Kundali Bhagya For The Time Being

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Jinkies! is the media's reaction to the new Velma series

At the Warner Bros Discovery Upfront presentation, Mindy Kaling took the stage to showcase the upcoming animated series, Velma, with one big change to the lead character.

In the first look at Kaling's adult animation comedy Velma, which is a spinoff of the popular Scooby-Doo cartoons, we got our first glimpse at the reimagined Velma Dinkley. “Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” Kaling told the crowd. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”

While this is the first glimpse we’ve gotten at the upcoming series, it’s not the first we’ve heard of the reimaging for Velma. Last summer, it was announced Velma would be South Asian. Unfortunately, there was a lot of backlash for this from fans of the original cartoon.

The new animated series was announced in early 2021 for HBO Max with Mindy Kaling billed as both executive producer and the voice of the titular character. Velma is part of the streaming service’s push for more adult animation. Velma tells the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the bespeckled, brains of the Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. gang.

The Scent Of Passion and Nurses cross paths

Everything seems to indicate that Laura Londoño and Sebastian Carvajal would be the protagonists of the series 'Manes', which would prepare the RCN channel as producer, for the Amazon platform. so what revealed the presenter and expert in telenovelas

Supposedly Sebastián Carvajal is exclusive to the
channel and how his project of Señora Isabel
would have postponed for the second half of the year, managers gave him a short character in the
series by Leandro Díaz, as confirmed by the actor.

But now he would play Julian, a character he did
Nicolas Montero in the series Hombres de RCN, a
stock market man.

Kundali Bhagya loses an important character...for now

Kundali Bhagya is one of the most loved and long-running daily soaps on TV screens. The show has a massive fan following and people are fans of the lead couple Karan and Preeta. The roles are played by Shraddha Arya and Dheeraj Dhoopar. Amidst the recent rumours of Dheeraj Dhoopar leaving the show, Shraddha Arya shared a montage of pictures on social media, giving proof of their impeccable chemistry.

In the post shared by the actress, she is seen giving some romantic and adorable poses with her on-screen love Dheeraj Dhoopar. They are seen lost in each other’s eyes and in another picture they are seen hugging each other happily. Both of them are seen dressed in black outfits and present on the sets of Kundali Bhagya.

As several outlets reported, Dheeraj Dhoopar is all set to make his silver screen debut with a Punjabi film. The sources informed the portal that Dheeraj is not quitting Kundali Bhagya instead the actor will take a break and later will return to the show. Reportedly, Shakti's track in the show is going to be temporary and he will just add drama to the entire upcoming plot as the show with a leap of five years.

14 Surprising Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'How I Met Your Mother'

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The narrator, who was supposed to be an older Ted Mosby, was voiced by Bob Saget.

There's a reason the voice of future Ted sounds so familiar. Josh Radnor played Ted on the CBS show, but the late Bob Saget was cast to do the "future Ted" voice-overs that narrated the series.

Jim Parsons was almost cast as Barney.

Jim Parsons played Sheldon on CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" instead. Chuck Lorre Productions
Before Neil Patrick Harris landed the role, Jim Parsons auditioned for Barney on the show. But there are no hard feelings from the "The Big Bang Theory" star.

"Look, it all worked out fine … Neil's better for the part, let's be honest," Parsons said on a 2015 episode of "Live With Kelly," according to Yahoo.

 
 

Jennifer Love Hewitt almost played Robin.

Jennifer Love Hewitt opted for a role on "The Ghost Whisperer."  Real-life Canadian Cobie Smulders eventually snagged the part of Robin, but only after Jennifer Love Hewitt turned it down.

According to E! News, cocreator Craig Thomas wrote on Reddit that Love Hewitt decided to do CBS' "The Ghost Whisperer" instead of "HIMYM."

Britney Spears saved the show from low ratings.

Britney Spears helped bring in new viewers. CBS
The pop singer guest-starred as Abby the receptionist on season three, episode 13. According to E! News, cocreator Carter Bays told Reddit that she helped bring in new viewers and saved the show from low ratings.

"By golly she put our show on the map. It can't be overstated," Bays wrote. "Britney Spears rescued us from ever being on the [renewal] bubble again. Thanks Britney!"

The show's creators are in a real-life band, and they wrote and performed the series' theme song.

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are in the band The Solids. The theme song of "HIMYM" is known for its infectiously catchy tune, and it turns out the show's creators had a big hand in creating it.

The song, "Hey Beautiful," is by the band The Solids, which Bays and Carter are both members of. Bays does vocals and guitar, and Thomas plays the drums.

 
 

Harris made it his mission to get Barney and Robin together on the show.

Neil Patrick Harris was in favor of the characters getting together. Ron P. Jaffe/Fox
Smulders was apprehensive when there were initial chats about the characters getting together, but Harris actively tried to make it happen throughout filming.

"I'd try to do little things in our scenes together where I gave her an extra look and an extra glance or would stare only at her during a whole scene just to see if anyone was noticing," Harris told The Fan Carpet of his own personal mission to get Barney and Robin together.

Ted probably made Barney sound worse on purpose to make himself look better in the end.

Ted is telling the story to his kids, so he can stretch the truth a little. CBS screencap
In 2018, Harris agreed with a popular fan theory in an interview with Digital Spy.

The theory speculated that Ted made Barney sound extra sleazy and womanizing in his story for his kids because he didn't want them to judge him for falling for Barney's ex-wife, Robin.

"I think that that's very accurate," Harris told Digital Spy. "Given the story structure, and with [Ted] telling the story to his kids, everything was able to be overdrawn."

"The Bro Code" really exists.

 

You can buy your own copy of "The Bro Code." 20th Century Fox. You can buy the series-approved version of all of Barney's rules, and it's even "written" by Barney Stinson himself.

The characters' favorite bar was named after the cocreator's assistant.

McLaren's name has a special significance. 20th Century Fox. Bays told TV Squad that his assistant, Carl McLaren, lent his name to the bar, McLaren's, and to its bartender, Carl.

The fictional bar is also based on a real establishment in New York City.

McLaren's is modeled after McGee's pub in NYC. Richard Cartwright/CBS.

According to the New York Post, McLaren's is modeled after a pub in New York City called McGee's.

Bays and Thomas reportedly spent a lot of time in the real-life establishment when they were both writing for "The Late Show With David Letterman" earlier in their careers.

Some fans found out who the mother was on Facebook before they had a chance to watch the episode.

The post spoiled the plot for a lot of people. CBS
According to The Obsessive Viewer, the official "HIMYM" Facebook page posted a photo of the mother right after the episode that revealed her identity aired.

However, not every fan was able to watch the episode live, so they had the series-long plot point spoiled for them if they scrolled past the post.

The actors who played Ted's kids knew how the show was going to end for years.

All of the kids' scenes were filmed early on in the series.
According to CBS News, the final scene of Ted's kids learning that Ted still loved Robin was filmed in 2006 to ensure the actors playing the kids still looked the same.

That was only a year after the show premiered and eight years before the finale aired, so several precautions were taken to keep the ending a secret.

 
 

David Henrie and Lyndsy Fonseca, who played the kids, had to sign non-disclosure agreements, and only one camera operator was allowed in the room while they filmed the final scene.

There was almost a spin-off starring Greta Gerwig.

Greta Gerwig is now a successful actor and director. How I Met Your Mother screencap
"How I Met Your Dad" was in the works after the "HIMYM" series finale, but it was ultimately scrapped in 2014 due to creative differences between the writers and CBS, according to Deadline.

The unaired pilot starred Greta Gerwig as Sally, a recent divorcée on the hunt for new love.

 

Over seven years after the "HIMYM" finale, a sequel series starring Hilary Duff premiered on Hulu.

Hilary Duff stars on the series.

After the failed "How I Met Your Dad" spin-off, Deadline reported in 2017 that a "How I Met Your Father" series was in development. But it took a few years to get it off the ground.

The Hulu sequel series stars Hilary Duff as Sophie, the leading Ted-like role, who is telling her son the story of how she met his father.

Roundups #64: House Of Dragons Coming Soon To M-Net, Tiny Homes Returns For A Twenty Second Season On People's Weather And Disney Channel Africa Welcomes The Third Season Of Walk The Prank

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Some details regarding M-Net's much anticipated GOT spinoff

Set two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the beginning of the end of House Targaryen, the events leading up to the Targaryen civil war, known as the "Dance of the Dragons", and the war itself.

It is a prequel to the television series Game of Thrones and is based on Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood. The project is a reworking of the rejected spin-off concept from Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman, on which HBO officially passed.

The series will debut on August 21st in the United States and M-Net will likely air it as an Express From The U.S. title.

People's Weather primetime lineup for June 13th

18:30
Sailing Mokara
Explore the beautiful tropical islands, diving colourful reefs to get dinner, socialising with other cruising families, marvelling at the night sky and having front row seats to the most amazing sunsets.

19:00
Tiny Homes Season 22
Discover the dwellings of those who choose to live in tiny houses, vans, RVs, and boats; and people who are exploring long-term travel, minimalism, zero waste living, renewable energy and living off-grid.

19:30
Ironvan Adventures
Dirk Smit and Alti Fouché are adventure travel filmmakers with a passion for wildlife, conservation, hidden treasures and interesting people...Join them as they travel Southern Africa, capturing their journey in the Ironvan, a formidable overlanding beast proudly powered by Ironman 4x4 Africa.

Some Disney XD faves are back on Disney Channel

2 years ago, The Walt Disney Company ripped away Disney XD from African audiences with very little content available on the Disney Channel.

For several months, Disney Channel had begun to zombify their lineup mostly with past XD shows like Guardians Of The Galaxy, Big City Greens, Lab Rats and DuckTales with newcomer Walk The Prank.

Set to be on its third season from 13 June, the prank show follows Herman, Chance, Bailey, and Dusty, who set up elaborate pranks and find real people to perform the pranks on. Their pranks usually involve supernatural, scary, funny or gross elements.

Pierre Branco Appointed General Manager, France, Benelux And Africa, Warner Bros. Discovery

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Warner Bros. Discovery today announced that Pierre Branco has been appointed General Manager, France, Benelux and Africa, Warner Bros. Discovery. He will continue to report to Priya Dogra, President and Managing Director, EMEA (ex Poland). In this role Pierre Branco will be responsible for Warner Bros. Discovery’s combined businesses working in close coordination with the company’s global functions across Streaming, Sport, US Programming, and the Studio and for each line of business, developing territory-specific strategies to drive growth and efficiencies. These include pay and FTA networks, leading significant efforts in marketing and monetising US content across lines of business including theatrical, licensing, consumer products, games and home entertainment and shared responsibility for the streaming services.

 

Priya Dogra, President and Managing Director, EMEA (ex Poland), said: “Pierre is an accomplished leader with a deep understanding and experience of these markets where he has already played a pivotal role in driving strategic business decisions. I am confident that his strong leadership and strategic acumen will continue to drive our businesses forward and connect our beloved brands and consumers in these important and competitive marketplaces.”

Pierre Branco said: "I am enormously proud to be part of this new chapter of Warner Bros. Discovery. I look forward to building on the legacy and values that have made both companies so successful in these regions, and to contribute to building the world’s most dynamic media company in these important markets. The opportunity to lead these fantastic teams is very exciting and I can’t wait to get started.”

 

Most recently, Branco was Country Manager for France, Benelux, Middle East and Africa and Head of Affiliates and Ad Sales for EMEA at WarnerMedia. During his 15 years at the company, he has held a number of roles across Europe, Middle East and Africa including SVP Northern Europe, MENAT, France & Africa and VP & General Manager France and Africa. In these roles, he significantly grew the company’s business and launched new brands in the region: Boing, Toonami and Warner TV.

McDonald: The Mystery Of Their Theme Song I'm Lovin' It

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Also try:
- McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure

It's been playing on countless McDonald commercials around the world. But who wrote this jingle that has proven to be hard to answer as many thought it was Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake since the slogan was based on one of their songs titled "I'm Lovin It".

In 2016, Pusha T said in an interview that he was the one wrote for the jingle. Then the German agency responsible for the campaign refuted his claim.

Let's take it back to the beginning

In 2003, for the first time in 37 years McDonald's stock was falling so they needed an ad campaign to boost stock.

After holding a campaign with 14 different agencies the German won the bid with the campaign "Ich Liebe Es" (also known as I'm Lovin' It") and were also the ones that crafted the five syllables ba-da-ba-ba-ba but then McDonald realised there was a huge issue.

Music was suppose to be part of their campaign and they had find a way to turn those syllables into music. They got Butch Stewart who made multiple McDonald jingles in the past and over.

 

Butch collaborates with his son on the jingle for McDonald together they start writing and if the McDonald executives could see the musical approach going then the campaign would get the greenlight and if not the campaign would be scrapped.

After weeks of writing the catchy jingle Butch presented the concept to McDonald of which they approved that it was used for their global campaign.

They wanted to bring their slogan into culture so they hired a filmmaker producer who could write a song around the words "I'm Lovin' It", entered Pharrell Williams.

The plan was to disguise the slogan into a catchy pop song and not to reveal the McDonald connection until much later when the song has been released to radio.

In order to make I'm Lovin It a massive success they needed a massive star to sing the manufactured hit enters Justin Timberlake.

They offered him $6 million dollars to record the track and he even used it as a setlist to one of his concerts for Justified and goes on radio as if it was an official single for the pop star.

 

For a song about hamburgers, it managed to top the 100 in the United States and hit #1 in Belgium. A month later, McDonald announced they'll use the song for the ad campaign. They take the hook and mix it with a rap song from Pusha T.

Who managed what?
1. Slogan and Signature Sound was handley by a German Ad Agency
2. Ad campaign was brought to life by Butch Stewart
3. Pharrell Williams wrote Justin Timberlake's single that went to radio.
4. The first global ad campaign was Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Pusha T.

How do they crew feel about it?
Justin has expressed regret for the deal while Pusha has no problems with the deal. McDonald's stock price was valued at $12 before 2003 and now it's over $150 and the slogan has become the longest campaign ever used by them.

The Most Perplexing Mysteries Of All Time Coming Soon To History Channel Africa - July 2022 Highlights

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‘Mystery Month’ this July on the HISTORY Channel Africa delves into the most perplexing mysteries of all time. From the ultimate treasure hunting in the World’s Greatest Treasure Mysteries and Lost Gold of the Aztecs on Fridays, to weird and unexplained events in History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne on Sundays.

Brand New and Exclusive HISTORY’S GREATEST
MYSTERIES WITH LAURENCE FISHBURNE S3
3 July
Sundays 20h15
History’s Greatest Mysteries is a one-hour documentary series that examines the top theories surrounding the world’s most enigmat c unsolved mysteries. This season Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award® winner Laurence Fishburne delves into among others; the infamous Cold War case where nine hikers were found mut lated on the remote Dyatlov mountain pass and how the magnificent Amber Room, valued at half a billion dollars, was dismantled, and disappeared without a trace during World War II. Fishburne will unpack these puzzles with contribut ons from top historians, authors, scient sts, and researchers in search of possible explanat ons to some of the world’s most confounding events.

 

Brand New and Exclusive
LOST GOLD OF THE AZTECS
22 July Fridays 20h15 500 years ago, Spanish Conquistadors raided the gold-filled land of the Aztecs. But according to the legend, Emperor Montezuma had already hidden his treasure across several different locations in what is now the American Southwest and placed a deadly curse on it. Now, three different families each with a distinct connect onto the gold are closing in on what they believe is the locat on of the ‘Lost Gold of the Aztecs’. The series will intercut each family’s epic adventure as they search for the treasure on three different properties in three different states. Who will break the curse and find the Aztec Gold?

 

Brand New and Exclusive WORLD’S GREATEST TREASURE MYSTERIES S2
29 July Fridays 19h25
Rick and Marty Lagina along with their intrepid research partner, Maty Blake, are back on the hunt for treasure “Beyond Oak Island.” This exciting and act on-packed second season of the hit HISTORY Channel series will follow them across the United States and Canada as they meet and work with fellow treasure hunters to search for billions in legendary lost riches. From hidden Spanish gold mines, and outlaw hideouts, to sunken treasure galleons and river boat wrecks, the Laginas and Maty will dig, drill and dive their way into history in an eff ort to recover amazing art facts and astonishing valuables that haven’t been touched by human hands for centuries.

Brand New and Exclusive
INSIDE THE TOWER OF LONDON
19 July Tuesdays 20h15
The Tower of London was at the heart of state life in the UK for almost 1,000 years and now is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Constructed soon af er the Norman conquest of Britain in 1066, it has served as a Royal Palace, fortress, prison, place of execut on for queens, and edifi ce to scare the population, royal zoo, mint and keeper of the Crown Jewels. Yet few know its full story. Aided by historian Stephen Porter of King’s College, University of London who is the author of ‘The Biography of the Tower of London’, and some beautiful re-enactments, we uncover startling stories and terrifying tales.

Digital First: What's Next For BBC Brit, BBC Lifestyle And BBC Earth?

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Last month, BBC Studios Director General Tim Dave unveiled plans to become a digital first service (as seen in Asia) with terminations of BBC World News and BBC Kids on the cards. Questions rise regarding the fate of the remaining stations BBC Lifestyle, BBC Earth and already discussed CBeebies.

BBC Lifestyle (alongside BBC World News to some extent) happen to be one of the longest running channels from BBC Studios. BBC Lifestyle served up food, home & design, fashion, health and personal development.

The channel became one of the top brands in South Africa for shows like Come Dine With Me, MasterChef, First Dates, Blackpool and Great British Bake Off.

 

Even after trading places with BBC Knowledge, Earth continues its road to stardom with natural history and wildlife with award winning documentaries like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Horizon, Uprising and Life.

Unfortunately, not all channels from BBC Studios have something to look back on or feel accomplished by.

BBC Brit has been active in Africa for as long as BBC Earth when it launched as a replacement to BBC Entertainment's reality offering as BBC First handled scripted programming. Shows made available included Top Gear, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and The Graham Norton Show.

 

Over the years, BBC Brit had struggled to surpass its successor BBC Entertainment that even BBC Studios opted to scrap production of original content for the channel and put most of its efforts in sourcing mostly already seen content from other BBC stations.

Compared to the three, there's actually more reasons to boot BBC Brit but from what we've seen with BBC First. There's more reasons to believe BBC Lifestyle or Earth to go overboard.