Christian Cooper, Black birder falsely accused in Central Park, gets National Geographic TV show
Camille FineThe name of National Geographic's new host for a show about birds may ring a bell: Christian Cooper, a Black man who was flung into the spotlight when a white woman called the police with false accusations against him, will now take viewers “into the wild, wonderful and unpredictable world of birds."
The world came to know Cooper's name after a video he took showed the life-long birdwatcher's public dispute between a white woman with an unleashed dog in New York City’s Central Park.
The woman, Amy Cooper, falsely accused Christian Cooper of threatening her and was shown in a widely-shared video calling police to report him. The two share a last name but are not related. Amy Cooper had faced a misdemeanor charge of falsely reporting the incident to police, which were dismissed in 2021 after she completed a psycho-education and therapy program focused on racial equity, prosecutors said.
“Unfortunately, we live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are seen as targets,” Christian Cooper told CNN at the time. “This woman thought she could exploit that to her advantage, and I wasn’t having it.”
Three years later, he will be seen traveling the world as the host of Extraordinary Birder, a National Geographic release said.
"Whether navigating volcanic terrain in Hawaii for elusive honeycreepers, trekking into rainforests in Puerto Rico for parrots, or scaling a bridge in Manhattan for a peregrine falcon, he does whatever it takes to learn about these extraordinary, feathered creatures and show us the remarkable world in the sky above," a release said.
When will Christian Cooper's show premiere?
The entire season will be released on Disney+ in the United States on Wednesday, June 21, the company said in a May 15 press release.
National Geographic will premiere the first episode, “Puerto Rico," on its channel at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 17, and release episodes weekly.
The series is expected to air on Disney+ internationally at a later date, the company said.
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