The Wall Street Journal

By Michelle Klug

During his introduction for the New York premiere of “Challenges of Life,” the first episode of the Discovery Channel’s 11-part series “Life,” at Alice Tully Hall last night, Discovery Communications CEO David M. Zaslav promised the audience that they were going to be bowled over by a series of “wow moments.” And after a number of self-congratulatory remarks, they were.

Narrated by Oprah Winfrey — whom Zaslav said asked to do the series’ voice-overs (presumably, no one says no to Oprah) — the series is essentially a follow-up to the high-def, and highly acclaimed, nature series “Planet Earth.” A documentary project four years in the making, and shot over 3,000 days by 80+ cameramen, the episodes expose viewers to not only startling close-ups of familiar sights, such as Venus flytraps at work or cheetahs stalking ostriches, but also less known critters, such as the  stalk-eyed fly, which literally has the ability to gulp down air upon birth and redirect it towards it’s long, elongated eyes. (Suffice to say, the fly’s eye-stalk length is directly correlated to the number of mates he has access to.)

Audience members — which included Discovery reality stars such as Buddy Valastro of “Cake Boss” and Kate Gosselin of the now seriously defunct “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ — also cooed at motherly signs of affection between frogs and gasped when mother nature was allowed to run its course. Paired with a performance by the New York Pops, who played the episode’s score live on stage, the evening served as an appropriately sized introduction for the series’ launch on March 21.