Press Release: PBS has announced its updated original summer programming roster in June, which is listed as follows:
JUNE 2023
Dramas: New Series & Finales
RIDLEY (New Series)
Series Premieres: Sunday, June 18 – Aug. 6, 8 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org, PBS App & PBS Passport
Screeners: The Peaceful Garden Part 1, The Peaceful Garden Part 2, Hospitality Part 1, Hospitality Part 2, Swansong Part 1, Swansong Part 2, The Numbered Days Part 1, The Numbered Days Part 2
Retired Detective Inspector (D.I.) Alex Ridley is called back to advise on a complex and compelling murder case by his replacement and former protégé, D.I. Carol Farman. Carol is keen to access Ridley’s unique insight into crime-solving, which served them so well in the past, but the investigation takes a dark and unexpected twist. Created by Paul Matthew Thompson, this thought-provoking original series is inspired by real-life retired detectives re-joining police forces in consultancy roles.
ENDEAVOUR ON MASTERPIECE (Final Season)
S9 Premieres: Sundays, June 18 – July 2, 9 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org, PBS App & PBS Passport
Screeners: Prelude, Uniform, Exeunt
The spinoff series inspired by Inspector Morse comes to a brilliant end as Shaun Evans as the young Morse and Roger Allam as his superior officer face intriguing new crimes including an unsolved case linked to the past. With characters from former seasons popping up in a grand finale, Morse must resolve his professional and romantic future.
Factual Entertainment & Public Affairs: New Series & Specials
AMERICAN MASTERS “Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”
African American Music Appreciation Month
Premieres: Friday, June 2, 9 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Experience the meteoric rise and enduring legacy of Little Richard. With appearances by Keith Richards, Ringo Starr, and more, this portrait of the “King and Queen of Rock and Roll” explores his far-reaching influence — still felt in pop culture today — and his advocacy for the rights of Black artists in the music industry.
BUFFALO SOLDIERS: FIGHTING ON TWO FRONTS: A LOCAL, USA SPECIAL
Premieres: Monday, June 12, 10 p.m. ET on PBS
Monday, June 19, 8 p.m. ET on WORLD Channel
Media Assets: Press Release, Photos, Preview, Trailer
Explore the complex history of Black soldiers in the United States military. Director and producer Dru Holley weaves together the testimony of historians, experts, and descendants of Buffalo Soldiers with archival photographs, reenactments, and animation to tell the story of how newly free Black Americans enlisted in the U.S. Army. For the Buffalo Soldiers, their service was a reliable path to income and greater respect, and in the process, they helped to both fulfill America’s Manifest Destiny and disrupt the lives of Indigenous peoples.
FRONTLINE “America’s Dangerous Trucks”
Premieres: Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 10 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org and PBS App
Deadly truck accidents and the fight over measures that could save thousands of lives. With ProPublica, this episode investigates decades of legal maneuvering, political influence, lax regulation and industry opposition, as deaths rise.
GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET “Medea”
Premieres: Friday, June 16, 9 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Media Assets: “Dei tuoi figli” (Clip)
Enjoy Sondra Radvanovsky as the titular mythic sorceress in this production of Cherubini’s rarely performed masterpiece, with tenor Matthew Polenzani as Medea’s unfaithful husband. Maestro Carlo Rizzi conducts. Joyce DiDonato hosts.
Season 2 Premieres: Mondays, June 19 – Aug. 7, 9 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Media Assets: S2 Release, S2 Contestants, S2 Teaser, S2 Preview
Screeners: Episode 1 (Fine Cut)
THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE, a fun and uplifting eight-part cooking competition that celebrates the multiculturalism that makes American food unique and iconic, returns this summer for Season 2 and will introduce viewers to a new group of inventive home cooks competing to wow the judges with their beloved signature dishes. Alejandra Ramos returns as host, and renowned chefs Leah Cohen, Tiffany Derry, and Graham Elliot are back as judges and mentors.
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
Premieres: Tuesday, June 20, 10 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Media Assets: Trailer
Although they grew up as fundamentalist, evangelical Christians, these moms are now willing to risk losing friends, family, and faith communities to champion their kids — even if it challenges their belief systems and rips apart their worlds.
BELOW THE BELT: THE LAST HEALTH TABOO
Premieres: Wednesday, June 21, 10 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Media Assets: Trailer, Screener, Photos
BELOW THE BELT: THE LAST HEALTH TABOO, a film by award-winning filmmaker Shannon Cohn and executive producers Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rosario Dawson, Corrine Foxx and Mae Whitman, tells the personal and inspiring stories of four patients urgently searching for answers to mysterious symptoms and exposes widespread problems in the healthcare system that disproportionately affect women. From societal taboos and gender bias to misinformed doctors and financial barriers to care, the film shines a light on how millions are effectively silenced. Through its powerful, intimate storytelling, it is a tribute to the strength of women and a stirring message for better care.
Season 36 Premieres: Monday, June 26, 10 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Media Assets: Press Release, Photos
“After Sherman” is director Jon-Sesrie Goff’s feature debut about inheritance and the tension that defines our collective American history. The film explores coastal South Carolina as a site of pride and racial trauma through Gullah cultural retention and land preservation.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “Casa Susanna”
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
Premieres: Tuesday, June 27, 8 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org & PBS App
Media Assets: Screener, Photos
Casa Susanna offers a fascinating window into a secret chapter of LGBTQ+ history, taking viewers back to the 1950s and 60s when laws criminalizing cross-dressing were common across the country. During that time, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, it was a safe place where they could live for a few days as they had always dreamed—dressed as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized for their self-expression.
Episode 3 Premieres: Friday, June 30, 10 p.m. ET on PBS
Currently Streaming on PBS.org & PBS App: “Episode 1 Preview: Partial Recall,” “Episode 2 Preview: Together/Alone,” Episode 3 “Marking Time”
Media Assets: “Press Release”, Episode 1 “Partial Recall” Screener, Episode 1 Photos, Episode 2 Photos, Episode 3 Photos, Series Preview
THE ARTICULATE HOUR makes sense of big ideas. In each episode of the three-part series, artists, scholars, and other special guests explore a new topic through a lens of arts, culture, and science. The series is hosted by Emmy Award-winning host Jim Cotter with notable guests Mahzarin Banaji, Harvard professor and psychologist; Lee Child, best-selling author; Simone Dinnerstein, pianist; Ben Folds, American singer-songwriter; Lisa Genova, neuroscientist and novelist; Sebastian Junger, filmmaker and journalist; Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize-winning psychologist; Gregory Pardlo, poet and Pulitzer Prize-winner; Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, folk musicians; Valerie June, singer-songwriter; Lera Boroditsky, cognitive scientist; Akram Khan, dancer and choreographer; David Henkin, historian; and more.
PBS Digital Studios is a network of series bringing fresh and insightful content through the familiar lens of PBS. New digital series are available weekly on YouTube, Facebook Watch and PBS.org offering timely episodes tied to current and cultural events. Please see below for a sampling of new offerings and check the monthly guide for a more extensive overview of programs.
NEW SERIES & EPISODES
BRAVE SPACES: “Buffalo Historic Bowling League”
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
Premieres: Tuesday, June 6 on PBS Voices
Sports and athletic leagues have traditionally, and tragically, closeted members of the LGBTQIA+ community. That has not stopped anyone from competing by bravely forging their own athletic organizations. The Buffalo Historic Bowling League is a striking example of a brave space where one’s own sexual and gender identity is not a barrier.
HIP-HOP AND THE METAVERSE “Hip Hop and Social Justice”
African American/Black Music Appreciation Month
Premieres: Thursday, June 8 on PBS Voices
Hip Hop’s revolutionary anthem “Right the Power” has resonated across the world for decades. What persists today from Hip-Hop’s drive to speak for the disenfranchised and its unique ability to reach out to the masses as today’s most streamed music in the world? How does Hip Hop, always at the forefront of technology use the current tools to innovate and stay on course as a force for social change?
DEAD AND BURIED “Green Burials”
New Series/Debut Episode: Thursday, June 8 on PBS Voices
Now more than ever, there’s a growing interest in the connection shared between humans and the earth we’re buried in. Natural or “green” burials are a burial practice that forgoes the process of embalming and the use of ornate caskets and headstones. This isn’t a new idea – natural burial practices are thousands of years old. So, as curiosity moves toward these ancient and renewed burial practices, does that fundamentally change how we mourn?