Outside Television Adds “The Final Cut: Outside’s Adventure Film School” and “EpicQuest” to Rapidly Expanding Original Programming Slate

WESTPORT, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Outside Television, America’s only network for active outside enthusiasts, today detailed two new exclusive original series “The Final Cut: Outside’s Adventure Film School” and “EpicQuest” to bolster another aggressive expansion of Outside Television’s original programming slate through the end of this year.

“The Final Cut: Outside’s Adventure Film School.”

“The Final Cut: Outside’s Adventure Film School,” will premiere early this spring, while new weekly hour adventure “EpicQuest,” featuring Alaska’s international expedition operators of the same name, anchors a late fall and early winter surge of still more new series. Those originals include the return of renowned producer Warren Miller Entertainment’s “Season Pass,” which has received a second-season renewal, plus at least two more original series from Red Bull Media House, which entered into a sweeping original programming alliance with Outside Television last June.

“Outside Television attracts some of the most passionate and active people on the planet who are constantly challenging themselves against the most exotic locales and dangerous natural elements,” says Rob Faris, senior vice president of programming and production. “They demand a sense of immersion in all that we do, and while lush visuals and action are hallmarks of our network, we are equally as interested in creating compelling characters and multifaceted stories.”

Outside Television was created in June 2010 to serve America’s premiere ski and beach resort communities, but after initial success there, began rolling out nationally in June 2012 on Comcast Xfinity and other cable systems. Over the past seven months, the nation’s largest cable and broadband programming provider Comcast has been adding Outside Television to all of its local systems, beginning with Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain communities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Denver and Salt Lake City; then through the Southwest and Tucson, Albuquerque and Santa Fe; around the Gulf Coast and Florida in Houston, Tampa and Miami; back up the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and New England seaboards; and everywhere surrounding the Great Lakes including Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and the Twin Cities. Outside is currently available in more than eight million U.S. TV homes.

Outside Television has been expanding its original programming slate at nearly as rapid a pace. With the recent January 23 premiere of new mountain adventure and rock climbing series “REEL ROCK,” Outside Television completed an eight-week expansion of its original series, introducing “Jeremy Jones Further,” the second installment of a planned snowboarding trilogy, and surf and adventure travelogue “Surfing 28 States: India,” along with second-season anchors “Dispatches” and “Outside Today.”

Outside crews just completed on-site production amid the Rocky Mountains on six new episodes of producer RGTV’s upcoming original series “The Final Cut: Outside’s Adventure Film School.” The half-hour series features students, athletes and professional mentors who take part in the actual mountainside school, created by three-time Emmy-award winner and world class mountaineer Michael Brown to teach students on-site requirements for directing, producing and editing their own adventure films.

Film school founder Brown, together with world-class big mountain skier Chris Davenport and Carrie Regan, a longtime producer and development executive with National Geographic Television, act as onsite mentors to the six students, who are cast adrift in the Rocky Mountain backcountry to create their first-ever films. Each confronts the harsh realities of creating in the wild – limited time, unpredictable weather and physical elements that render even the simplest scene into a potential production disaster.

As every adventure filmmaker soon learns, with budgets already spent and only one chance at obtaining “the shot,” decisions must be made on the fly that can make or break an entire film. “The Final Cut: Outside’s Adventure Film School” chronicles both the challenges and the triumphs of each filmmaker attempting to translate their on-site internship into a career-making break as an adventure documentarian and future series collaborator with Outside Television.

Meanwhile, One Eyed Bird Productions is currently producing the new hour series “EpicQuest” – a story-driven original docudrama surrounding the guides, athletes and operations of the globe-trotting adventure travel company of the same name, created 25 years ago by a handful of elite outdoorsmen to provide thrill-seekers incomparable trips into the most remote and untamable places on Earth. Anchored by heli-ski companies, Chugach Powder Guides and Sun Valley Heli Ski Guides, EpicQuest works to fulfill lifelong dreams of clients hoping to ski virgin Alaskan peaks, track and tag lions on the African savannah, explore the deepest reaches of the Amazon via paddleboard, cross the mountains that made for Mordor in “The Lord of the Rings,” or pretty much any other life-inspiring pursuit one can imagine.

Originating from EpicQuest’s Alaskan headquarters, the six new hour episodes link the many simultaneous expeditions currently underway, and introduce a host of often larger than life characters that literally hold the lives of their clients in their hands each time out. Offering both expedition participants and Outside Television viewers a backstage pass into the world’s most awe-inspiring locations demands logistics that would make UPS think twice, and while One Eyed Bird and the EpicQuest hosts push the expeditions to the extreme, every client (and guide) must also return home safely.

Returning for its second season to join “EpicQuest” among Outside Television’s other original series for fall is Warren Miller Entertainment’s ski and snowboard compilation “Season Pass.” Narrated by U.S. gold medal skier Jonny Moseley, the 13 new half-hours will profile the world’s most outstanding female boarders and skiers; detail the world’s top heli-ski operations; and delve into the historical formation and current actions of the Army’s prestigious 10^th Mountain Division Light Infantry. Begun during World War I and World War II, the 10^th Mountain Division recruits top skiers and mountaineers and trains them in mountain combat. The 10^th has provided meritorious service in every war since, including recent deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

About Outside Television: Outside Television is the only national programming network dedicated to the active outside lifestyle and the more than 141 million Americans who regularly participate. Based on Outside Magazine and its critically acclaimed brand, Outside Television embraces running, biking, skiing, hiking, sailing, surfing, kayaking and any other adventures involving wind, water, snow and terrain; as well as the full spectrum of the people’s lives who engage in them. Offering exclusively high-definition programs, Outside Television is fast becoming a fixture among leading cable, satellite, telco and broadband providers’ sports and entertainment offerings. To learn more about Outside Television, visit www.outsidetelevision.com.

Outside Television is currently available to more than 8 million TV homes including the following cities and respective local providers: New York (Brooklyn and the Bronx – Verizon FiOS); Chicago (Comcast); Dallas-Fort Worth (Comcast); San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (Comcast); Boston (Comcast); Atlanta-Savannah (Comcast); Houston (Comcast); Detroit (Comcast); Seattle-Tacoma (Comcast); Tampa-St. Petersburg-Jacksonville (Comcast); Minneapolis-St. Paul (Comcast); Miami-Fort Lauderdale; (Comcast); Denver (Comcast); Cleveland-Akron (Comcast); Orlando-Daytona Beach (Comcast); Sacramento (Comcast); Portland (Comcast); Indianapolis (Comcast); Salt Lake City (Comcast); Tucson (Comcast); Albuquerque-Santa Fe (Comcast); Hartford-Vermont-New Hampshire (Comcast).