PLANET EARTH III
BBC America, 10:55 p.m. ET
SNEAK PREVIEW: When the producers of the just-completed Planet Earth II were considering what to do next, the first thing they considered was to collectively commit to a third entry in this fabulous series about life on Earth. The original Planet Earth was televised in 2006, and the sequel premiered in the United Kingdom ten years later, in 2016. To try to drum up enthusiasm and backers for the project, one of the producers, using CGI special effects, generated a “teaser special” purporting to show some of the images likely to be presented in 2026, after a decade of our newly revised environmental policy spreads across the planet. The producers had planned for a one-hour special – but after crunching the numbers, and following the trends of global warming, it only took a five-minute special, which BBC America televises tonight, to do the trick – and make the point. (Today's Best Bets were brought to you by Fake News. Our proud slogan: "Misinforming the public, one lie at a time.")