At last year’s MIPCOM in France, Gryphon Productions’ Peter von Puttkamer managed to change the future of his wildlife series Biggest and Baddest in just one meeting.

At the annual marketplace, von Puttkamer received the final word from Discovery Europe that the broadcaster would not support a second season of Gryphon’s hosted wildlife adventure series Biggest and Baddest, which aired this year on Bell Media’s Animal Planet channel in Canada.

The loss of the international partner made moving forward with the second season impossible, von Puttkamer said. But Gryphon was still confident the series had legs: wildlife series’ travel well, the series has an international premise and the asset of a charismatic academic-adventurer named Niall McCann.

The Discovery news put Gryphon into sales mode, eventually securing a meeting with the U.K.’s ITV Studios, who expressed interest in the series. The meeting turned into a deal, moving the second season into production and securing a winter airdate on ITV and Animal Planet. ITV also signed on as the series second-season distributor.

The broadcaster roulette was stressful, but “we’ve been able to make this show seemingly against all odds,” Puttkamer told Playback Daily.

In the ultimate turnaround, ITV secured sales for Biggest and Baddest into the UK TV’s Eden Channel, Discovery North America and, once again, Discovery Europe.

Biggest and Baddest received financing from the Rogers Cable Fund, a distribution advance from ITV, as well as broadcaster licence fees and tax credits. The budget for each season of the series is about $1.5 million, Puttkamer said.

Gryphon Productions also recently shot a pilot for Destination America and OLN Canada for Killing Bigfoot, an unscripted series that follows a group of hunters tracking the mythical beast. The pilot is set to air on OLN on Oct. 29 as a one-hour special and on Destination America on Oct. 17.

Gryphon Productions is based in West Vancouver, B.C.