Life After People

Life After People is a television series in which scientists, mechanical engineers and other experts speculate on what might become of Earth if humans instantly disappeared.

Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign appears in the May 5, 2009 episode "The Capital Threat".

It would survive a wildfire about 10 years after humans disappear. Despite this, the acrylic latex paint coating the sign feeds the fire and weakens the bolts supporting the letters.

Sometime later the D on the sign falls off. The sign remains mostly decaying until 40 years after the wildfire that The Big One, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, hits Los Angeles.

Because of all this and no maintenance to the sign, the bolts sheer off and letters slide down the hill.