CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD
Season Three Premiere on Sunday, October 26 at 9pm ET/PT on History ™
Don Wildman Returns as Host
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008— Every city has its secrets. And, you’d be surprised to learn what lies below the surface of some. Turning history upside-down, CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD, debuts its third season Sunday, October 26 at 9pm ET/PT on History ™.
Don Wildman is back, and he’s tearing through the streets of the world’s most famous cities to uncover secrets hundreds of feet beneath the pavement. Part history buff, part urban explorer— Don tells the story that you don’t get above ground. This season, he takes viewers into meandering combat tunnels, mafia escape routes, underground vaults, secret surveillance nerve centers, and forgotten underworlds that have been lost to the hands of time.
Whether it’s underneath London, Sicily, or Las Vegas— these are vibrant cities teeming with life, not roped off excavation sites. Join Don as he explores and investigates sites mostly unknown to all but archaeologists and locals of the land. Walk in the footsteps of history as state-of-the-art computer graphics bring to life and detail how a modern city miraculously doesn’t collapse onto the past hidden safely below.
The first four episodes of CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD include:
CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD: CITY OF BLOOD (London)
(Sunday, October 26 at 9:00pm ET/PT) — Hundreds of ghost stories lurk in the shadows of London, England, but behind every myth and legend is the terrifying truth that sheds light on one of the darkest periods of this city’s history. In Victorian times, violent crimes, extreme poverty and lawlessness forced Londoners to band together to survive. In a time when science and medicine challenged the Church, and disease and overpopulation drove the poor to do jobs only the Devil himself could imagine, London set the stage for chaos. From body snatchers and serial killers to occult clubs and pagan rituals, Victorian Londoners lived by their own rules…both above and below ground. Don Wildman explores London from the bottom up and tells the stories most would rather remain buried.
CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD: TUNNELS OF HELL (Okinawa)
(Sunday, November 2 at 9:00pm ET/PT) — When the biggest naval armada in US history descended on the Japanese island of Okinawa in April of 1945, the result was called a “Typhoon of Steel.” It was supposed to be a swift victory for the Americans. Instead, it became the bloodiest battle of the Pacific, drawn out for over three months, with thousands more dead on both sides than in both post-atomic Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. But the battle wasn’t just on land, it was underneath it – from the beehive of combat tunnels where American forces faced down the entrenched Japanese Army, to the caves where thousands of civilians hid and hundreds perished. In this episode, Don Wildman discovers what it was like to live through the Battle of Okinawa. He heads underground to the subterranean tunnels, caves, and bunkers, where few have gone, and dives to explore the lost naval destroyer sunken deep in the waters off Okinawa’s coast.
CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD: THE REAL MAFIA UNDERGROUND (Sicily)
(Sunday, November 9 at 9:00pm ET/PT) — The mafia instills fear around the world, and in Sicily, its presence can’t be ignored. With the help of the underground, this is where the mob got its start. Don Wildman travels to Sicily to trace the mafia’s roots back to a vigilante secret society in an underground network that was created to hold trials against corrupt city officials and execute the accused. Don tracks the escape route of a most-wanted mob boss through ancient subterranean waterways, and discovers a bone-crypt that holds the key to Sicily’s violent past. He’ll even expose how the mafia teamed up with the Allies during WWII, undermining the Axis’ line of bunkers deep within the hillside… and embedding themselves into Sicilian society for good.
CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD: LAS VEGAS
(Sunday, November 16 at 9:00pm ET/PT) — Welcome to Las Vegas, America’s Sin City, where billions of dollars are lost and made every year on our national vices. In order to protect their cash, casinos have made security the highest priority. From underground vaults to secret surveillance nerve centers, Don Wildman uncovers how the latest technology beats the cheaters. But Vegas wasn’t always this high-tech. Don shows how a massive engineering feat transformed the city from a barren desert into a mobster metropolis where thieves ran the show from underground tunnels dating back to Prohibition. And just when it looked like all the thugs were behind bars and the city would fall off the map for good, Vegas became the comeback kid. It’s the only city in the world where you can be in Egypt one moment and Italy the next, thanks to a secret underground that allows the show to get bigger and better every time.
On History.com, CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD‘s website will feature exclusive video blogs from Don Wildman on the road, an interactive map of some of Don’s favorite cities and highlights for each place, an online interactive scrapbook with souvenirs from Don’s travels, as well as full episodes from previous seasons.
Don Wildman, who is in his third season as host of CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD, is a true adventurer. Raised on the outskirts of Southern New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, Don paddled canoes and camped in those fabled woods from an early age. Passionately drawn to travel and outdoor adventure, he was inspired in part by what he watched on television—in particular, the documentary adventures of Jacques Cousteau and his legendary vessel, Calypso.
