ITV Cheetah Kingdom

This brand new series, filmed by ITV in the UK, gives viewers a unique insight into both the conservation and behaviour of one of the fastest mammals on earth - the cheetah.

Cheetah Kingdom focuses on the rescue, rehabilitation and release of this African big cat and follows the largest cheetah release programme attempted in Namibia, a country that is home to roughly a quarter of the world's cheetah population, where they're routinely trapped by farmers protecting their land.

Click a link on the left-hand menu to read all the reviews.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/19/children-in-need-2010

CHEETAH KINGDOM rap-up:

2,5 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
2,9 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE SECOND EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
2,9 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE THIRD EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
2,8 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE FOURTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
2,8 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE FIFTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
3 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE SIXTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
2,8 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE SEVENTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
3,3 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE EIGHTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
3,2 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE NINTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
2,7 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE TENTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!
3,3 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE ELEVENTH EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!

3,1 MILLION UK VIEWERS WATCHED THE FINAL EPISODE OF CHEETAH KINGDOM!

EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON THE 30TH OF A VERY COLD, DECEMBER EVENING! THANK YOU – ITV & THE UNITED KINGDOM, FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!

NOTE FROM ITV:
ITV anticipates a ‘soft’ launch of ITV-Wild next week! Do not forget to watch the many clips that were not screened in the Cheetah Kingdom Series on ITV WILD. Brilliant interviews with the vets and many good sequences will be screened on ITV WILD!

Episode 11 achieved 3.3million and a 14% share of the audience. This is 300,000 viewers above the average for the series. We also got pick of the week in The Guardianand here’s a bonus – there’s a link to Africat embedded in the piece. We’ve attached it for you – see below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/19/children-in-need-2010

UK visitors: view all the Cheetah Kingdom episodes on ITV Player

AfriCat Namibia ITV Studios

It’s a new year full of new ideas.

Here are some comments that we received about the documentary CHEETAH KINGDOM. Let us know what your thoughts were on our Guestbook page or on Face Book . . . .

Q: WAS IT 'DETAILED' OR 'HIGH BROW/FAR REACHING ENOUGH'?
AfriCat Friends: Well, at the moment getting slots and budgets is damn near impossible . There is just no money about, no commissions happening and certainly not for new and untested ideas . Its all pretty horrible and very tough out there in the world of TV documentaries, especially if it has to compete with “Reality shows”. .

A Friday night, mid-evening slot on ITV 1 is bloody TV gold!!! So thank you – ITV! BUT it is also what it is; That is not a Blue Chip or serious nature documentary, or broadcaster, or producer slot. We need to try for that slot once the Cheetahs move off Okonjima to their new homes . . .

We asked some of our VIP AfriCat friends in the field of TV - to watch the programmes. Some felt they thought they were a bit 'SAMEY' at times, a bit 'DART, EXAMINE , RELEASE' and a bit SHORT ON DIRECTED BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION. (some of those facts were rather found on the ITV-WILD website, for they were cut out of the original edit)

But BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION was there, there were a lot of facts in the mix, they were just divided up amongst the action and featured where they were pertinent in conversation. At no point did we feel that the nadir of 'dumbing down' was at hand . Thus we think the content was sound for what it was and needed to be . It was a nice enjoyable series which ticked the boxes for its intended audience.

AND – very important, it would have been a massive hit with that audience and a massive benefit to their awareness of AfriCat and its objectives . You are probably too close to it all and too far away from here to see this.

Q: ANY GRIPES THAT YOU WOULD BRING UP?
AfriCat Friends: If we had a gripe it would be technically. We don't care how low the budget is, we just can’t see, given your skills and resources, WHY IT WOULD EVER BE NECESSARY TO REPEAT A SHOT IN A PROGRAMME, LET ALONE SEVERAL TIMES IN A SERIES. That smacks of laziness and nothing more . . . and some of the quality was mixed, exaggerated by the HD requirement we know, but again pretty inexcusable given the low cost/high quality equipment available to buy or hire.

Anyway, Well done , it was great!!

Please all remember that The 'difficult second album' scenario is equally applicable to TV series and you will need some very different and strong narratives to carry it off and make it significantly different enough from the first one .

Many a production company have failed here big time (due to complacency and greed).

Production Companies, need foundations like AFRICAT as much as you need them – so make sure your next topic grabs the audience and takes them through a different journey about the work AfriCat does in Namibia!

Happy 2011 and Good Luck! Friends of AfriCat