Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee in February 2009, has inked an exclusive deal with Peacock Productions to tell her story. And TVNewser has learned former “Today” co-anchor Meredith Vieira could host the documentary series.
Nash underwent successful face transplant surgery at Brigham & Women’s hospital in the last few weeks. The hospital had camera crews on hand documenting the surgery.
“We were so pleased to hear that Ms. Nash’s surgery was a success and are honored to produce this documentary with her,” said Sharon Scott, Executive Vice President and GM of Peacock Productions.
Vieira interviewed Nash last year on “Today” and has followed her progress closely. NBC tells us Vieira “has expressed interest in continuing to build on that relationship with the Peacock Productions project.” And because this is an NBC production, you can expect to see clips of the project on “Today.”
Nash also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey. Her network, OWN, is just one of the networks NBC is having discussions with about buying the series.
Nash’s face transplant is the third such surgery for Brigham & Women’s hospital in Boston. It was the backdrop for last summer’s ABC News series “Boston Med” which documented the second successful face transplant in the U.S.
Launched in 2007, Peacock Productions is NBC News’ in-house documentary unit which produces programs for the NBCU networks as well as for non-NBC networks.