No Picture
Drama

Sherlock Season 3 gets U.S. premiere date

Along with several other announcements, PBS confirmed today that Sherlock Season 3 will make its U.S. premiere Jan. 19, and air Sundays through Feb. 2 at 10pm ET (check with your local PBS affiliate for confirmation in your area when the time comes, of course). During its run on PBS, Sherlock Season 3 will follow Downton Abbey, which airs its fourth season in the U.S. Sundays at 9pm ET, Jan. 5-Feb. 23. Sherlock Season 3 will again air as part of PBS’ Masterpiece brand, and features Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman returning as Holmes and Watson in Steven Moffat and […]

POV 56 Up
Documentary

POV: 56 Up premieres on PBS Oct. 14

Director Michael Apted’s documentary 56 Up premieres as an installment of PBS’ POV film series on Monday, Oct. 14, at 10pm ET (check local listings). In 1964, the documentary Seven Up! studied contemporary British society by asking 7-year-olds from different backgrounds about their lives and hopes for the future. Every seven years since, director Michael Apted’s Up film series revisited members of the group, revealing how the “kids” have fared through the stages of life and how their perspectives evolved. Now at age 56, the group members face the personal, health and career challenges of middle age. But Apted found […]

League of Denial
Documentary

PBS Frontline “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis”

Frontline‘s documentary League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis investigates how, for years, the NFL denied and worked to refute scientific evidence that playing football is linked to early onset dementia, brain damage and other devastating consequences. The two-hour League of Denial premieres on PBS Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 9pm ET (check local listings). Watch “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE. What and when did the NFL know about the long-term effects of head injuries on its players? Frontline‘s controversial documentary League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis  — made even more controversial […]

No Picture
Animation

Problem solved: PEG + CAT equals fun!

PBS and The Fred Rogers Company present Peg + Cat on PBS Kids, a new animated series geared to 3- to 5-year-olds that uses songs and stories to explore numbers, arithmetic, measures, geometry, spatial relations and more. PBS teamed up with The Fred Rogers Company to look for an early-learning solution to the problem of students not meeting math proficiency standards. Their answer is Peg + Cat (pronounced “Peg Plus Cat”) premiering Monday, Oct. 9, at 9am ET (check local listings) on PBS Kids. Peg + Cat is an animated series geared to 3- to 5-year-olds using songs and stories to […]

No Picture
Documentary

PBS’ ambitious “Latino Americans” chronicles 500 years of history

In the past few years, in the wake of the Latino impact on the 2012 presidential election, and with heated immigration discussions, the effect of the Latino population on America has been put more toward the forefront of people’s consciousness. But as PBS’ new, three-part, six-hour documentary miniseries Latino Americans shows, Latinos have been contributing to and impacting America for much longer. Narrated by Benjamin Bratt, the series looks back at the past 500-plus years to show how, at more than 50 million people, Latinos have risen to become the largest minority group in the United States. Latino Americans airs […]

No Picture
Documentary

“American Masters” profiles its first sports figure with Billie Jean King documentary

When tennis star Serena Williams won her fifth U.S. Open title on Sunday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, she received $3.6 million — the same amount that Rafael Nadal would receive the next night for winning the men’s singles title of the tournament. It was not always the case that the women’s champion received the same amount of prize money as the men’s champion. There was not even always a separate women’s tennis tour — that is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The developments in the tour, the prize money and many other strides for […]

No Picture
Drama

“Last Tango in Halifax” tells story of a late-blooming love

Last Tango in Halifax Sunday, Sept. 8 PBS, 8pm It’s never too late for love to bloom as this charming yet gritty six-episode series shows. Thankfully it eschews most of the aren’t-old-people-cute clichés that could have made the tale of Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid), who meet up some 60 years after they went to school together and promptly decide to get married, insufferable. This has unforeseen consequences on each of their families, namely their grown daughters (Sarah Lancashire, Nicola Walker) who have serious relationship issues of their own. Jacobi and Reid deliver masterful performances, and it’s incredibly […]

No Picture
Documentary

ESPN withdraws from PBS documentary “League of Denial”

ESPN has withdrawn its collaboration with PBS on the Frontline documentary League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis (Oct. 8), which investigates the NFL’s response to head injuries among football players. ALSO SEE: PBS Frontline documentary League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis premieres Oct. 8 Watch “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE. At the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles earlier this month, PBS presented a panel on its Frontline documentary League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis (Oct. 8), which investigates the NFL’s response to head injuries […]

No Picture
Drama

“The Lady Vanishes” reappears in new version on PBS

Alfred Hitchcock famously adapted Ethel Lina White’s 1936 novel The Wheel Spins into the 1938 film The Lady Vanishes, and that has remained the most familiar adaptation (despite a 1979 remake) for decades. But earlier this year, the BBC aired a new version that is now debuting in America on PBS (as part of the Masterpiece Mystery! franchise) that is similarly effective in conveying a sense of mystery and potential madness. The plot follows the lines of the novel and the earlier films. In 1931, a socialite named Iris (Tuppence Middleton) is on holiday in the Balkans. She decides to […]

PBS Fall Arts Festival - Roseanne Cash
TCA

PBS at 2013 TCA Summer Press Tour

PBS at 2013 TCA Summer Press Tour: A roundup of announcements, initiatives and new programming coming to PBS in late summer and fall 2013. Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO spoke of the network’s 5-percent rise in prime-time ratings, and audience growth both on air on online. While that’s nice, she says the network’s real measure of success is the public service of education, information and entertainment it provides to a diverse audience. She’s proud of the impact that the network’s programming has had with engaging discussion and debate on gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school […]