‘Life has always managed to crawl through’: docuseries takes us back to mass extinction events

Co-creator of Walking with Dinosaurs returns with Surviving Earth, a blockbuster new series that shows ‘how life bounced back’ from deadly events throughout history

Almost three decades have passed since producer Tim Haines reimagined natural history with Walking with Dinosaurs, using CGI and animatronics to bring to life the beasts that roamed these lands millions of years ago.

With his latest project, Haines is applying that same visual magic to look even further into the past. Surviving Earth, a docuseries premiering on Thursday on NBC, explores eight mass extinction events going back 450m years through the lives – and eventual annihilation – of the creatures that preceded or existed alongside the dinosaurs.