Documentary Archives - Page 13 of 63

Exclusive insights on tonight’s Live Exorcism on Destination America

October 30, 2015 Barb Oates

OK, so this one caught our attention — the first live exorcism on TV. Destination America (a Discovery-owned network) is returning to the house where a real-life exorcism was performed on Roland Doe in 1949, an event which inspired the book and the film The Exorcist. Their goal: Ridding the home of lurking spirits and demons that inhabit it. The event, Exorcism: Live!, will be televised on Friday, Oct. 30 beginning at 9pmET. “If you want to know what the show is, we’re telling the real story, the real exorcist story from the most haunted house in America,” says Jodi […]

Breakthrough — Famous folks celebrate scientific minds in NGC’s inspiring new series (video)

October 29, 2015 Lori Acken

The six-episode, science-meets-storytelling series Breakthrough airs Sundays beginning Nov. 1 on National Geographic Channel. With multitasking cellphones in our pockets, artificial knees and hips a normal part of the aging process, and instant access to lifesaving vaccines, Americans are easily inured to the daily wonders of science. Breakthrough, a stirring, six-episode series from National Geographic Channel — in partnership with GE, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, Asylum Entertainment and eager celebrity guest directors — aims to change that, one awe-inspiring innovator at a time. Each hour of Breakthrough takes viewers into the workspaces of today’s most diverse and […]

Preview: The Jacksons Next Generation premieres tonight on Lifetime

October 2, 2015 Lori Acken

“People always want to know what it’s like to be a Jackson,” laments Tito Joe “TJ” Jackson, youngest son of The Jackson 5 favorite Tito Jackson and one of the stars of Lifetime’s new The Jacksons: Next Generation at the start of tonight’s series’ premiere. “I don’t know how to answer that, because I was never not a Jackson.” The Jacksons: Next Generation isn’t the first time we’ve seen members of pop music’s First Family on an unscripted series since Michael died in 2009. Lifetime’s sister network A&E debuted the short-lived The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty later that year and TJ’s aunt La Toya had some success with […]

When to catch reruns of O.J. Speaks and The Secret Tapes of the OJ Case

October 2, 2015 Lori Acken

Last night, sister networks A&E and LMN aired back-to-back specials that offered viewers a jaw-dropping look at O.J. Simpson’s deposition tapes from the 1997 civil suit that proved Simpson’s undoing after a criminal court found him not guilty of killing his ex-wife and her friend. If you missed them (or want to watch again), here is when to catch re-airings of O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes and The Secret Tapes of the O.J. Case: The Untold Story • The Secret Tapes of the O.J. Case: The Untold Story encores Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8pm on A&E and Monday, Oct. 5 at 8pm on LMN. • […]

A&E airs O.J. Simpson special “O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes” tonight (video)

October 1, 2015 Lori Acken

Twenty years after O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, A&E looks back at the case, the verdict and the civil trial that finally proved the football star’s undoing. Featuring exclusive access to O.J.’s stunning deposition tapes and new interviews with folks in the know, O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes gives viewers insider access to elements of the case that courtroom cameras couldn’t capture. After the shocking verdict was rendered on Oct. 3, 1995 — ending the so-called “Trial of the Century,” which also ushered Kato Kaelin, Mark Fuhrman and the Kardashians into the pop culture lexicon — racial tensions boiled […]

American Masters: The Women’s List on PBS is an uplifting celebration of women

September 25, 2015 Lori Acken

If you are a woman, love a woman, are raising a woman-in-the-making or teaching them, tonight’s American Masters: The Women’s List on PBS is can’t-miss TV. The latest of filmmaker/photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ List documentary series (The Boomer List, The Black List, The Latino List, The Out List), The Women’s List features intimate and inspiring interviews with Madeleine Albright, Gloria Allred, Laurie Anderson, Sara Blakely, Nia Wordlaw Margaret Cho, Edie Falco, Betsey Johnson, Alicia Keys, Aimee Mullins, Nancy Pelosi, Rosie Perez, Shonda Rhimes and Wendy Williams — all of whom share their own experiences and advice on making it big as a woman in what remains a […]

Ferrell Takes the Field: HBO presents Will Ferrell’s major league day

September 12, 2015 Ryan Berenz

On Sept. 8, 1965, Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics played all nine positions during a major league game vs. the California Angels. To celebrate 50 years since that event, HBO, Major League Baseball and Funny or Die partnered to have Will Ferrell play every position on the field for 10 different teams — visiting five different ballparks — on a single day of Spring Training. HBO captured Ferrell’s big day for the one-hour special Ferrell Takes the Field, premiering Saturday, Sept. 12, at 10pm ET/PT. Ferrell’s antics and errors are funny, but it’s the intense seriousness in which […]

PBS’ “Big Blue Live” billed as “one of nature’s great reality shows”

August 28, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

PBS has aired live events before, usually of the performing arts or concert variety. But the three-part live event Big Blue Live is unique for the network. A co-production with the BBC, the miniseries brings together scientists, filmmakers and photographers, animal behaviorists and other experts for two weeks to document the rejuvenation of the once endangered, but now thriving, ecosystem of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California. Creatures as varied as humpback whales (like the one pictured below), blue whales, sea lions, dolphins, elephant seals, sea otters, great white sharks and more converge in a once-a-year confluence in late […]

Warlords of Ivory: How Africa’s illegal ivory trade funds terrorism

August 28, 2015 Ryan Berenz

The critically acclaimed documentary series Explorer returns to National Geographic Channel on Sunday, Aug. 30, at 8pm ET/PT. Each monthly episode of the series will go deep into a story ripped from the pages of the current issue of National Geographic magazine. In the premiere episode, Warlords of Ivory, special investigative correspondent Bryan Christy, a veteran of wildlife trafficking wars, traces the path of destruction left in the wake of Africa’s illegal ivory trade — a path rife with misery, crime and terrorism that spreads like a dark stain across the map of the world. Christy and his team had an […]

Robin Roberts returns to Gulf Coast to examine region 10 years after Katrina

August 19, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

ABC anchor and Mississippi Gulf Coast native Robin Roberts will return to the region to explore Hurricane Katrina’s legacy 10 years after the devastating disaster, in a new special called Katrina: 10 Years After the Storm, airing Aug. 23 on ABC. Roberts will examine the remarkable recovery, see where it has fallen short, and celebrate the indomitable spirit that runs through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Roberts’ coverage of Hurricane Katrina began during the darkest hours of the storm, when there were uncertainties for many, including Roberts’ own family, who were impacted by the hurricane in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Now, viewers […]