Discovery’s Destination America will air the real-time journey of an Alaska Railroad train traversing the frozen white landscape of the U.S.’ largest state on Thanksgiving — a five-hour trip. The train will be equipped with cameras as it rolls on from Talkeetna to Healy and through Denali National Park.
“Most networks compete to produce the most exciting show, which we already accomplished with our first, ever, live televised exorcism last month,” says Henry Schleiff, group president at Discovery. “We also want to own the other end of the spectrum, providing viewers with the single most boring program ever to appear on television during Thanksgiving… even more boring than the Detroit Lions football game.”
Though billed by Discovery as a snoozefest, Trains editors and railfans will be sure to tune in.
The real-time journey will air Thanksgiving Day from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern time and will repeat after it. The trip is a promotion for the channel’s “Railroad Alaska” show that depicts both life along the line and the railroaders who keep it running.
This isn’t the first time in the world that a complete train journey has been shown on national television. The Week reported that in 2009, the Norwegian public broadcasting company televised the complete seven hour and 16-minute trip of a train traveling from Bergen to Oslo. The documentary was a hit to Norwegians with 1.2 million viewers and 172,000 watching the entire trip.
More information is available on the cable channel’s website.
