Space nerds, rejoice! The late night talk show circuit just got a little more interesting, thanks to the National Geographic Channel, which is giving a show to our favorite astrophysicist and cosmologist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. called Star Talk.
Star Talk will be based on Tyson's podcast of the same name and the astrophysicist promises that it will be "a mixture of comedy science and pop culture." Tyson also promises that each episode will feature Bill Nye, aka The Science Guy, in a one-minute rant.
Star Talk will record its episodes in front of a live studio audience at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium, where Tyson is based. The first episode of the series, scheduled for this spring, will also air with a program celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope's 25th anniversary, also hosted by Tyson.
This isn't Tyson's first foray into the world of television. He recently hosted a new version of Cosmos, a series originally hosted by Carl Sagan. Cosmos was a huge success, so it makes sense that producers want to bring Tyson back to television.
"Cosmos allowed us to share the awesome power of the universe with a global audience in ways that we never thought possible," says Tyson. "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."
Tyson recently found himself caught up in a controversy this most recent holiday season after several of his tweets offended some Christians. Although the tweets were mostly innocuous, Tyson received backlash from conservatives.
Tyson remains popular, though, in spite of controversy. He is a trusted and reliable authority on scientific issues, and has more than 1 million Twitter followers, as well as nearly 250,000 Facebook fans. His work on Cosmos resulted in an Emmy nomination.
Both National Geographic and Tyson see Star Talk as "low risk," because the series is already successful as a podcast. However, there will probably be some controversy when Tyson hosts one of his scheduled guests, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who is also an outspoken atheist.
If you haven't yet checked out the Star Talk podcast, you can listen to it online now.
There's also a chance Tyson might return for another season of Cosmos, at least according to a tweet from the show's producer, Seth MacFarlane.
[Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls]
