Neil deGrasse Tyson To Bring His Star Talk Podcast To TV

When Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson isn’t nitpicking science facts in movies on Twitter or deciding whether or not he wants to host a second season of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (or, you know, being an astrophysicist), he’s running his popular science-themed podcast StarTalk Radio. Starting this April, he’ll bring that show to the National Geographic Channel – and he’ll be part of the competitive late night landscape, to boot.

Cosmos allowed us to share the awesome power of the universe with a global audience in ways that we never thought possible,” Tyson said in the show’s announcement. “To be able to continue to spread wonder and excitement through Star Talk, which is a true passion project for me, is beyond exciting. And National Geographic Channel is the perfect home as we continue to explore the universe.”

Star Talk will be filmed live in front of an audience at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium when Tyson holds his day job. There’s no word as of yet as to whether or not this will be a nightly (or four-nights-a-week like The Daily Show) broadcast or weekly. While Tyson’s hesitation to commit to a second season of Cosmos – he has stated that while he loved doing the show, it kept him away from his family for a considerable amount of time – would lead to conclusions that this would be a weekly series, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. John Oliver’s success with his weekly HBO program Last Week Tonight has shown that fans will wait a week for a new episode of shows in this format.

What can be expected is a wide variety of guests, both from the world of science and the world of entertainment. Don’t be surprised if Cosmos Executive Producer and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane makes an appearance. Or maybe even the Pope.

OK, probably not.

 

 

image credit: Bruce F Press/Wikipedia