National Geographic renews The Hot Zone for a second season; The Hot Zone: Anthrax will cover America's 2001 anthrax attacks and hunt for the suspect.

by Thinus Ferreira

National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220) has renewed The Hot Zone for a second season that was originally meant to be and that was billed as a limited series, with the new season that will cover the anthrax attacks in America in 2001.

The limited series - that now represents its first season, was broadcast in 2019 starring Julianna Margulies and chronicled the discovery of the Ebola virus in Africa.

Several sections of the first season of The Hot Zone set in various African countries were filmed in South Africa with a large and largely unrecognised South African cast, with Moonlighting Films that provided production services and crew in South Africa.

Kelly Sounders and Brian Peterson both return as showrunners and executive producers, with Touchstone Television, a division of Disney Television Studios, and Scott Free Productions producing.

The second season of The Hot Zone will tell the story of how letters of deadly anthrax - white powder - were sent to victims in Florida, Washington DC and in New York in America in which 5 people died and caused panic throughout the United States.

While letters started showing up, FBI agents and the country's justice department started tracking and tracing suspects.

"The gripping, propulsive story of the hunt for the anthrax killer who terrorized the country in the dark days that followed the September 11 attack couldn’t be more timely," says Carolyn Bernstein, National Geographic's executive vice president for global scripted content and documentary films.

"As the world battles Covid-19, another deadly and mysterious virus, The Hot Zone: Anthrax is a scientific thriller for our time."

Kelly Sounders says "While many of us can recall the breaking news headlines and the widespread fear that ensued when anthrax emerged in America, there are still layers to this story that have not yet been told".

"The second season of our anthology series will dive deep into the forensic investigation of a simple envelope that sent the entire Eastern Seaboard into a panic."

David W. Zucker, Scott Free Television president, says "After a terrific collaboration with our friends at National Geographic on The Hot Zone, we couldn’t be more excited to be back in business with the same stellar team for another season".

"All of us well remember the anthrax attacks in 2001, which rocked and terrified the country. We’re eager to tell this extraordinary story of all the drama that unfolded to overcome the attacks and identify the perpetrator."

TV REVIEW. The Hot Zone on National Geographic is a virus hunter thriller series showing that paranoia is just as dangerous as a killer disease.

The Hot Zone is a spine-chilling and scary new 6-episode drama series on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220 / Cell C black 261) about the discovery in 1989 of the arrival of the deadly Ebola virus in the United States and could have been a lot scarier if the factual programming channel strayed from real-live events.

National Geographic's new drama series - based on Richard Preston's similarly titled bestseller about the first discovery of Ebola on American soil - is done in a bit by audience expectation: Having to keep to reality and what really happened in both Africa and America in the 1970s and 1980s, as opposed to what viewers have been seeing and experiencing the past decade through the explosion of fictional zombie series.

The Hot Zone's episodes have plenty of scares and nerve-wracking moments but the producers who probably realised that they couldn't compete in the gore-and-gruesome department, wisely decided to build the suspense, fear and anxiety through oftentimes "not showing".

It makes "choice" shock-moments like a prodded nun inside a quarantined hospital eventually falling on the ground and bleeding out her mouth feel so much scarier, or an African passenger plane scene with a diseased patient carrying the virus while everyone around him is potentially being exposed, feel so much more ominous.

Oh, and watch out for the scary monkeys and an unexpected twist towards the latter episodes.

More than visceral show-and-tell horror, The Hot Zone rather utilises the feeling of growing unease and paranoia - and showing the effects of paranoia and the unknown on humans' behaviour - to tell the story of why a killer virus like Ebola is so dangerous: Besides the disease the fear makes people become less human.

Come for the Ebola, stay for the claustrophobia.

The Hot Zone is more for the science-minded viewers than the zombie-minded viewer - showing the real huddled living dead in the forest than the fictional walking dead in the forest.

It's filled with virus hunters who through their dialogue and exposition actually educate the viewer about the dreaded things they seek to find and understand, and disease control.

The Hot Zone episodes are each divided to tell two parallel stories - a deadly virus making its way to humans in Kenya and then-Zaire in the mid-1970 and the consequences of that, as well as American army veterinarian, Lt. Col. Nancy Jaax (Julianna Margulies) discovering in a laboratory in Washington D.C. in 1989 that Ebola has arrived in the United States and trying to contain the killer virus.

The Hot Zone's "Africa" scenes were filmed in Durban with locations standing in for Kenya and Zaire during the 1970s, while Toronto, Canada was the filming spot for the United States in 1989.

South African viewers might enjoy "actor"-spotting, with South African actors playing several roles, ranging from Neil McCarthy, Joe Vaz, Pumla Ndlazi, Gaosi Raditholo, Sive Mabuya, Richard Lukunku, Siyabonga Xaba, Camilla Wildman, Tessa Danielle, Vusi Mdiniso, Sylvaine Strike, Bohang Moeko to even Warren Masemola popping up at the tail-end of the final episode.

The Hot Zone was produced by Fox 21 Television Studios, Lynda Obst Productions and Scott Free Productions with Moonlighting Films providing production services and crew in South Africa.

The Hot Zone starts on Wednesday, 3 July on National Geographic at 20:00.

National Geographic's new drama series, The Hot Zone, starts on 3 July with a double episode and tells the Ebola origin story featuring several South Africans in the cast.

The 6-episode Ebola drama series, The Hot Zone partly filmed in South Africa is starting on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220 / Cell C black 261) on Wednesday, 3 July at 21:00 and features several South African actors part of the cast.

National Geographic commissioned The Hot Zone in April 2018 that will debut with a double episode broadcast and is based on Richard Preston's bestseller book of the same name.

It tells the terrifying origin story of the deadly Ebola virus and how it went from a central-African rainforest to America.

The Hot Zone was partly filmed in Durban, South Africa with several locations to double as places in Kenya and Zaire during the 1970s, with filming in Toronto, Canada that was used to stand in for the United States in 1989. 

Several South African actors appear including Neil McCarthy, Joe Vaz, Pumla Ndlazi, Gaosi Raditholo, Sive Mabuya, Richard Lukunku, Siyabonga Xaba, Camilla Wildman, Tessa Danielle, Vusi Mdiniso, Sylvaine Strike, Bohang Moeko and Warren Masemola. 

Adamo Denewade is from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The American cast includes Julianna Margulies, Topher Grace and Robert Sean Leonard among others.

In 1989, when the killer virus suddenly appeared in chimpanzees in a laboratory in Washington D.C., there was no known cure. An American army veterinarian, Lt. Col. Nancy Jaax (Julianna Margulies) works with a secret military SWAT team and risks her life as she tries to head off and contain the Ebola virus before it spreads to humans.

Topher Grace is a virologist for the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases who butts heads with Nancy over the best way to contain the virus; while Dr Wade Carter (Liam Cunningham) is Nancy's vital ally in the race to prevent the virus from spreading. 

Noah Emmerich plays Lt. Col. Jerry Jaax.



The Hot Zone was produced by Fox 21 Television Studios, Lynda Obst Productions and Scott Free Productions with Moonlighting Films providing production services and crew in South Africa.

Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson were the showrunners and executive producers, with Jeff Vintar as a co-executive producer.

The Hot Zone begins with a terrifying look back to 1980, when an unsuspecting Dr Musoke in Kenya examines a patient with symptoms unlike anything seen before. 

Flashing forward to 1989, a colony of primates has become sick at a research facility in Virginia, just over 30 kilometres from the United States Capitol, and sample tissues are sent to Nancy.

Her instincts and experience tell her she is seeing something far worse than a run-of-the-mill primate infection and she pushes forward to find the truth.

Through her perseverance, scientific testing reveals the dire truth of the situation, which forces the Army into action to contain an outbreak.

The Hot Zone also flashes back to the late 1970s to show how doctors first tracked, studied and attempted to contain Ebola in Africa.

Below is The Hot Zone episode synopsis and broadcasting dates:

Arrival
3 July, 21:00
Lt. Col. Nancy Jaax arrives at work in 1989 and after testing a sample, fears it may be in the deadliest category of viruses, known as filoviruses.  Even more unnerving is the location it came from: A monkey research facility 30 kilometres from America's capital. When a breach in the lab causes the samples to be lost, it is Jaax' instincts against the world.

Cell H
3 July, 22:00
Nancy takes matters into her own hands and convinces an employee at the Hazleton research facility to hand over more samples from the infected monkeys. Back in the USAMRIID lab, she and her partner, Dr Peter Jahrling, test the new specimens and come face to face with the virus through their microscope. Jaax is determined to figure out the source of the virus. She brings in her mentor, the reclusive Ebola expert Dr Wade Carter.

Charlie Foxtrot
10 July, 21:00
When representatives from varying agencies disagree on how to handle Nancy Jaax’s discovery, she quickly realises there are few protocols in place for containing a deadly virus on American soil. An employee at the monkey research facility falls ill, causing Jaax to fear the virus has spread to the human population. 
Travis Rhodes, from the Center for Disease Control, arrives with a different way of handling matters. As Jaax battles the obstacles on the ground, viewers find out Carter and Rhodes were among the first responders to discover Ebola in Africa decades earlier.

Expendable
17 July, 21:00
Nancy leads a team from USAMRIID to prepare for the most dangerous mission any of them have ever faced. With full access to the research facility, the life-threatening stakes cause great concern in the Jaax family home.
Meanwhile the team of animal care specialists at USAMRIID heads out to eradicate the virus at the facility, while more employees are tested for possible exposure.

Quarantine
24 July, 21:00
Inside the primate research facility, unforeseen dangers arise. Nancy works tirelessly in Biosafety Level 4 to find out why the virus is behaving differently in human victims than expected. Unforeseen dangers arise and Jaax is forced to make an impossible choice between her family and her duty to her country.

Hidden
31 July, 21:00

An already volatile situation inside the infected research facility boils to a head. With Nancy stepping up while those around her fall, exhaustion threatens the precision needed to sterilise the threat. Their efforts to contain panic are threatened when the press arrives and neighbours become aware of the danger next door.
Jaax is forced to confront her mentor when a situation spills out of the monkey facility and puts people on the outside in danger. Jaax ultimately must face the ramifications of trying to balance her dangerous career and her loving family.

National Geographic orders Ebola crisis drama series as well as a Syria refugee war drama; puts 2 more possible shows in development.

National Geographic ((DStv 181 / StarSat 220 / Cell C black 261) has commissioned a scripted drama series, The Hot Zone, revolving around the Ebola crisis, as well as a Syria war drama entitled Ten Borders, with several other possible scripted series ordered to development.

Ordered to development is a scripted drama TV version of the film and book Hidden Figures, as well as a secret service drama entitled The White House Detail.

The Hot Zone is based on the best-seller by Richard Preston and is the true story of how the Ebola virus started in a central African rain forest and found its way to the United States. A precise episode order has not yet been decided on.

The White House Detail will try to give a look at the personal and professional lives of United States Secret Service agents protecting America's White House family, starting with the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy.

It's based on the first-hand account of the service's most iconic agent, Hill, who served under five presidents and is best known for leaping onto the back of JFK's limo during the assassination in Dallas and is based on the book Five Presidents.

Ten Borders from Paramount Television is a 6-episode series that revolves around 5 unrelated people who are pulled into one another's lives through the mass exodus of people from war-torn Syria to safe refuge in Sweden.

"The incredible audience response to our scripted programming, including award nominations for Genius and the overwhelming critical praise-and Critics Choice Award nomination for The Long Road Home, have emboldened our scripted strategy," says Courteney Monroe, CEO of National Geographic Global Networks in a statement.

"We've proven we can make noise in a crowded marketplace by utilizing the premium power of the National Geographic brand and working with the right talent."