NEW YORK—Promising viewers a glimpse into a shocking alternate reality, the History Channel is set to debut Monday its newest show, Life Without History, which theorizes a world in which the cable channel had never been created. “This exciting program takes viewers back to 1995 as our parent company, A&E, decides to focus its resources on existing projects rather than launch a new network, and then follows the development of an unusual nonfiction television landscape completely different than the one we have come to know,” executive producer Janet Harper said of the six-part primetime event, which includes interviews with historical experts and employs computer simulations to explore what shows viewers might have watched instead. “We’ll delve into fascinating questions, like how would individuals have spent their Thursday nights in a world without Pawn Stars and Pawnography? What, if anything, would entertain war buffs with no Patton 360 or Battlefield Detectives? And whether the compelling stories of men who drive trucks across frozen Arctic lakes would have ever been told to a television audience.” Harper said she didn’t want to give away any of the show’s secrets, but noted that Swamp People would have found a way to exist whether there was a History Channel or not.

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