News

Legendary wildlife host Jack “Jungle Jack” Hanna’s TV franchise library, including 400 episodes of “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild” and “Jack Hanna’s Wild Countdown” has been acquired by Hearst Media Production Group.

Hearst is the longtime distributor of Hanna’s series, previously owned by Into The Wild, LLC, and already held ownership of “Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures” and in 2021 launched the Jack Hanna Channel, a Fast channel showcasing hundreds of episodes of Hanna’s adventures in the wild.

Financial terms of the deal to acquire the libraries for “Into the Wild” and “Wild Countdown” were not disclosed.

Nominated for 15 Emmys and winning five, Hanna’s decades-long career in wildlife programming spurred from his background as a conservationist and his position at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. A frequent TV guest of David Letterman, Hanna’s also authored several books, won many awards, and received multiple honorary doctorates.

TV wildlife expert Jack Hanna has ‘advanced’ Alzheimer’s disease and no longer remembers most of his family, his wife Suzi Hanna has revealed. “The Jack people knew isn’t here any more, but pieces of my husband are,” she told The Columbus Dispatch. “And I am going to hang on to them for as long as I can. “My husband is still in there somewhere. There are still those sweet, tender moments. You know, pieces of him that made me and the rest of the world fall in love with him.” She admitted that taking care of him is “real hard some days” but they still take daily two-mile walks and try to hang on to as much normalcy as they can. 1. We welcomed the @DispatchAlerts into our home for a real-world look into living with Alzheimer’s disease. While Dad/Jack is still mobile, his mind fails him,...