History Channel - Life after People: Season One (2009)

LIFE AFTER PEOPLE: the Series begins in the moments after people disappear. As each day, month, and year passes, the fate of a particular environment, city or theme is disclosed. Special effects, combined with interviews from top experts in the fields of engineering, botany, biology, geology, and archaeology provide an unforgettable visual journey through the ultimately hypothetical.
As modern metropolises like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington DC are ravaged by nature; the series exposes the surprising insights about how they function today. Basing this futuristic world on the surprising history of real locations, already abandoned by man, like a century-old shack in the arctic and an abandoned island that was once the most densely populated place on earth are featured in the series.
In every episode, viewers will witness the epic destruction of iconic structures and buildings, from the Sears Tower, Astrodome, and Chrysler Building to the Sistine Chapel - - allowing viewers to learn how they were built and why they were so significant. Big Ben will stop ticking within days; the International Space Station will plummet to earth within a few short years, while historic objects, like the Declaration of Independence and the mummified remains of King Tutankhamen will remain for decades.
The series will also explore the creatures that might take our place. With humans gone, animals will inherit the places where we once lived. Elephants that escape from the LA zoo will thrive in a region once dominated by their ancestors, the wooly mammoth. Alligators will move into sub-tropical cities like Houston - feeding off household pets. Tens of thousands of hogs, domesticated for food, will flourish. In a world without people, new stories of predators, survival and evolution will emerge.
Humans won't be around forever, and now we can see in detail, for the very first time, the world that will be left behind in Life after People: Season one

Part 1: The Bodies Left Behind
What if every human being on earth disappeared? This isn't the story of how we might vanish–it is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind. In this episode, we'll see what happens to some of the bodies left behind. Most embalmed and buried, some mummified, others cryogenically frozen. Will any of them truly achieve immortality? Or will they be outlived by other memorials to mankind, like the Statue of Liberty or the Sistine Chapel. This is just part of a journey that will take us to the future of cities of Boston and Houston–as well as haunting sites already devoid of man.


Part 2: Outbreak
Pigs break loose, rabies spreads, and the Chicago river reverses. Also, the fate of Big Ben, the Queen's pet corgis, and Chicago's tallest buildings. This episode is a journey that will take us to the future of Chicago, Atlanta and London–as well as haunting locations already devoid of man. This isn't the story of how we might vanish–it's the story of what happens to the world we leave behind.


Part 3: The Capital Threat
Nature attacks Washington DC and Los Angeles. The fate of the Constitution and other monuments. Wilted palm trees help spread a massive inferno, while another capital emerges in the Pacific Ocean.


Part 4: Heavy Metal
Once people disappear, New York City experiences its next great crash. In this episode, we reveal the breaking point of precious metals: skyscrapers face collapse, bridges hang by a steel thread; and the fate of our nation's secret stash of gold. Meanwhile, a fatal weakness is exposed in the Gateway Arch, breweries reveal untapped potential for disaster, and horses make a surprising bid to stay alive in a life after people.


Part 5: The Invaders
In a life after people, invasive animals and vines spread: pythons battle alligators, plants strip oxygen from lakes, and sandstorms invade Phoenix. Also, Shanghai sinks and Miami is submerged.


Part 6: Bound and Buried
The fate of the treasures left entombed, like the mysterious Doomsday Vault, the Mona Lisa, and the Declaration of Independence. Also, Philadelphia's Liberty Bell cracks for good and San Francisco's cable cars and bridges snap.


Part 7: Sin City Meltdown
The apocalyptic future of our gambling meccas. In Las Vegas, a new rat pack takes over, wax figures of celebrities melt, and iconic hotels crumble. In Atlantic City, the ocean tears apart casinos, but the boardwalk refuses to be destroyed.


Part 8: Armed and Defenceless
The fate of mankind's machinery of war: a sunken nuclear missile explodes, Pearl Harbor comes under renewed attacks, snow causes urban avalanches, and dairy cows are threatened. Featuring Denver, Hawaii, and a mysterious abandoned island near New York City.


Part 9: The Road to Nowhere
The post-apocalyptic fate of our cars, planes and roads. Oil refineries turn into time bombs. In the Motor City, harsh northern winters dismantles auto headquarters. While in Texas, the Alamo succumbs to a new invader. Also, animals adapt: armadillos spread, some dogs rekindle their hunting instincts, and long-horn cattle flourish once again.


Part 10: Waters of Death
Destructive waters overtake the world we leave behind. Rain floods New Orleans again, and when power goes out in the city's aquarium, it spells doom for thousands of animals. Corrosion from rain brings down Seattle's Space Needle, while humidity in the Middle East wrecks Dubai's space-age structures.