Mark your calendars…
MARCH 2023
GREAT PERFORMANCES “Remember This” (New Program Addition)
Premieres: Monday, March 13, 9 p.m. ET
Academy Award nominee David Strathairn gives a virtuoso solo performance as World War II Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski in this genre-defying true story of a reluctant hero and Holocaust witness.
FRONTLINE “Age of Easy Money” (New Title)
Premieres: Tuesday, March 14, 9 p.m. ET
Around the country and across the world, the threat of a recession is looming, and economic uncertainty is rising as markets, businesses, and individuals adjust to a new reality: The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and pulling back on its epic monetary experiment that started with the Great Financial Crisis. From the award-winning team behind “The Facebook Dilemma” and “Amazon Empire,” the two-hour documentary AGE OF EASY MONEY investigates how the Fed’s experiment has changed the American economy and what it means that the era may be over.
GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET “The Hours” (Updated Description)
Premieres: Friday, March 17, 9 p.m. ET
Enjoy Renée Fleming’s return to the Met in this new production inspired by Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” Also starring Tony winner Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato, the opera follows three women from different eras. Christine Baranski hosts.
CALL THE MIDWIFE (Season 12)
Premieres: Sunday, March 19, 8 p.m. ET
It’s 1968, and the nuns and nurses from Nonnatus House return for more midwifery and family life. The midwives welcome a new nun, Sister Veronica, and tension in Poplar arises following the effects of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech.
SANDITON ON MASTERPIECE (Season 3)
Premieres: Sunday, March 19, 9 p.m. ET
The third and final season returns viewers to the seaside resort of Sanditon for the conclusion of Charlotte and Georgiana’s stories. Drama, laughter, and romance are all in store for the ensemble of new and returning characters.
MARIE ANTOINETTE (Updated Description)
New Series Premieres: Sunday, March 19, 10 p.m. ET
Marie Antoinette (Emilia Schüle, “Berlin Dance School”) is just a teenager when she leaves Austria to marry the dauphin of France (Louis Cunningham, “Bridgerton”). With pressure to continue the Bourbon line and secure the Franco-Austrian alliance, she must follow the complex rules of the French court while attempting to charm her reluctant king-to-be, Louis XVI. Transforming into the Queen of Style and a true fashion icon, Marie Antoinette tries to recreate Versailles in her image: free, independent, and feminist. But defamatory pamphlets and persistent rumors about her private life undermine her status, and her opponents within the Royal Family will do everything they can to bring her down.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Storming Caesars Palace”
Premieres: Monday, March 20, 10 p.m. ET
After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the “welfare queen.” In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace.
AMERICAN MASTERS “Dr. Tony Fauci”
Premieres: Tuesday, March 21, 8 p.m. ET
Follow Dr. Anthony Fauci as he grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and his 50-year career as the nation’s leading public health advocate. AMERICAN MASTERS “Dr. Tony Fauci” reveals a rarely seen side of the physician, husband, and father as he confronts political backlash, a new administration, and questions of the future.
AMERICAN MASTERS “In the Making”
Premieres: Friday, March 24, 9 p.m. ET
Follow two performers as they break down barriers in music. Opera singer J’Nai Bridges takes the stage in “A Knee on the Neck,” a tribute to George Floyd. Country artist Rissi Palmer works on her latest album while uplifting other artists of color.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Hidden Letters”
Premieres: Monday, March 27, 10 p.m. ET
For centuries in China, the once-secret written language of Nüshu was calligraphed on folded fans and handkerchiefs as hidden letters so women could share stories and express solidarity in a repressive era when many women were denied literacy. Confronting patriarchy, two modern women find solace in Nüshu, rediscovering connections between traditional Chinese womanhood and contemporary feminism.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Movement and the ‘Madman” (New Program Addition)
Premieres: Tuesday, March 28, 9 p.m. ET
Explore how two brilliantly orchestrated antiwar protests in the fall of 1969 — the largest the country had ever seen — pressured President Nixon to cancel what he called his “madman” plans for a massive escalation of the U.S. war in Vietnam, including a threat to use nuclear weapons. At the time, protestors had no idea how influential they would be and how many lives they may have saved. Told through remarkable archival footage and firsthand accounts from movement leaders, Nixon administration officials, historians, and others, the film reveals how the leaders of the antiwar movement mobilized disparate groups from coast to coast to create two massive protests that changed history.
JONI MITCHELL: THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GERSHWIN PRIZE FOR POPULAR SONG (New Program Addition)
Premieres: Friday, March 31, 9 p.m. ET
Musical artists join the national library and American leaders to honor music legend Joni Mitchell as she is awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an all-star tribute concert in the nation’s capital. The lineup includes performances by James Taylor, Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Marcus Mumford, Graham Nash, Diana Krall, Lucius, and Angélique Kidjo.
APRIL 2023
LA FRONTERA WITH PATI JINICH (Season 2)
Premieres: Monday, April 3, 9 p.m. ET
Savor the sights, sounds, and flavors of the US-Mexico borderlands alongside acclaimed chef and James Beard Award-winning host Pati Jinich as she experiences the region’s rich culture, people, and cuisine. Travel with Pati to Southern California, Baja, Arizona, Sonora, New Mexico, and Chihuahua as she shares meals with self-described “fronterizos” or “borderlanders” from all walks of life and reflects on the melding of cultures.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Sun Queen”
Premieres: Tuesday, April 4, 9 p.m. ET
For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the sun’s power. She designed and built the first successfully solar-heated modern residence in 1948 and identified a promising new chemical that could store solar energy like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues — all men — at MIT. Despite these obstacles, Telkes persevered, and, upon her death in 1995, held more than 20 patents. An unexpected and largely forgotten heroine, Telkes is now recognized as a visionary pioneer in the field of sustainable energy.
GREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS “Piazzolla’s History with Tango”
Premieres: Friday, April 7, 9 p.m. ET
Tango to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with host Scott Yoo and flutist Alice Dade to explore the evolution of composer Astor Piazzolla’s work and the music genre itself as it becomes fused with jazz across time and numerous instruments.
MY GRANDPARENTS’ WAR (Season 2)
Premieres: Tuesday, April 11, 9 p.m. ET
Explore the impact of war on the families of four international stars: Kit Harington, Keira Knightley, Emeli Sandé, and Toby Jones. Discoveries are made and secrets revealed as they travel to historic locations to retrace their grandparents’ steps.
NATURE “The Hummingbird Effect”
Premieres: Wednesday, April 12, 8 p.m. ET
Discover how tiny hummingbirds influence their many flowering kingdoms and their ripple effects on macaws, quetzals, monkeys, tapirs, and coatis in the exotic landscapes of Costa Rica.
NOVA “Weathering the Future”
Premieres: Wednesday, April 12, 9 p.m. ET
It’s hard not to notice: Our weather is changing. From longer, hotter heat waves, to more intense rainstorms, to megafires and multi-year droughts, the U.S. is experiencing the full range of impacts from a changing global climate. At the same time, many on the front lines are fighting back — innovating solutions, marshaling ancient wisdom, and developing visionary ideas. The lessons they’re learning today can help all of us adapt in the years ahead as the planet gets warmer and our weather gets more extreme.
HOW SABA KEPT SINGING
Premieres: Tuesday, April 18, 10 p.m. ET
Musician David “Saba” Wisnia always believed that he survived the horrors of Auschwitz by entertaining the Nazi guards with his beautiful singing voice. When his curious grandson, Avi, suspects there’s more to the story, the pair embark on a journey that leads them into the mystery of Saba’s past. HOW SABA KEPT SINGING tells a story about faith, family, and the power of discovery, proving love can grow and take hold in even the grimmest of places.
NATURE “Niagara Falls”
Premieres: Wednesday, April 19, 8 p.m. ET
Niagara Falls is made up of three separate waterfalls that combine to form the world’s second-largest and fastest-moving waterfall. Embark to this geological wonder and witness its stunning beauty and the wide variety of wildlife — mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians — that call it home.
CHANGING PLANET (Season 2)
Premieres: Wednesday, April 19, 9 p.m. ET
In its second year, CHANGING PLANET revisits six of our planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems and catches up with the truly inspiring people introduced in the first season: scientists and local experts fighting to safeguard their communities and wildlife, and charting the progress of their game-changing environmental projects. Join conservation scientist Dr. M. Sanjayan to meet new faces who’ll deepen our understanding of these habitats and introduce new potential solutions to combat the effects of the climate crisis.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Free Chol Soo Lee”
Premieres: Monday, April 24, 10 p.m. ET
Sentenced to life for a 1973 San Francisco murder, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee was set free after a pan-Asian solidarity movement, which included Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Americans, helped to overturn his conviction. After 10 years of fighting for his life inside California state prisons, Lee found himself in a new fight to rise to the expectations of the people who believed in him.
NATURE “The Secret Crown”
Premieres: Wednesday, April 26, 8 p.m. ET
The discovery of a coral reef in Guatemala, five times the size of Manhattan, marks an exciting new chapter in understanding corals, the fish that need them, and the battle to save coral reefs worldwide.
NOVA “Chasing Zero Carbon”
Premieres: Wednesday, April 26, 9 p.m. ET
The U.S. recently set an ambitious climate change goal: zero carbon emissions by 2050. And to achieve that, slash emissions in half by 2030. Is it possible? And what kind of technology will it take? Meet scientists and engineers who are convinced we can achieve carbon zero in time to avoid the biggest impacts of climate change.
ICONIC AMERICA: OUR SYMBOLS & STORIES WITH DAVID RUBENSTEIN
Premieres: Wednesday, April 26, 10 p.m. ET
In this new eight-episode documentary series, David M. Rubenstein explores American history by closely examining iconic national symbols across the country, including Fenway Park, the Hollywood Sign, the Gadsden Flag, the American Cowboy, and more. In each episode, Rubenstein is on location and in conversation with historical thinkers, community members, and subject matter experts — such as David “Big Papi” Oritz (former Red Sox player), Michael Boulware Moore (chief executive officer of the International African American Museum), and Melissa Rivers (writer, host, and producer), among others — to discuss these indelible artifacts, places, and archetypes and to examine myriad ways Americans engage with these subjects.
GREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS “Schumann: Genius and Madness”
Premieres: Friday, April 14, 9 p.m. ET
Visit Scotland, Germany, and France with host Scott Yoo as he investigates the connection between Robert Schumann’s bipolar disorder and creative genius via experts, musical performances, and the work of other artists outside the world of music.
NEXT AT THE KENNEDY CENTER “Ballet Hispánico’s Doña Perón”
Premieres: Friday, April 14, 10 p.m.
Ballet Hispánico presents an explosive portrait of Eva “Evita” Perón, one of the most captivating and controversial women in Argentinian history. Choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the company explores her diverging legacies and follows her rags-to-riches story. The illegitimate daughter of a prosperous farmer, Evita concealed this shameful past as she climbed Argentina’s social ladder from dancehall performer to Argentina’s First Lady — all before her untimely death at the age of 33. “Doña Perón” brings to light the extremes of power at the forefront of Evita’s life. Her work as an activist and advocate for Argentina’s women and the working class raised skepticism as she indulged in the opulence of a high-class life. Was she a voice for the people or a deceitful actress?
GREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS “Andy Akiho Found (His) Sound”
Premieres: Friday, April 21, 9 p.m. ET
Experience the creation of music from this Japanese American composer with host Scott Yoo using “found” instruments. To develop a music video, the two visit New York City and explore the creative process with an interactive light show and more.
NEXT AT THE KENNEDY CENTER “Continuum: Jason Moran & Christian McBride”
Premieres: Friday, April 21, 10 p.m. ET
Modern jazz luminaries Jason Moran (piano) and Christian McBride (bass) together perform music by Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Geri Allen, and Louis Armstrong in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Taking inspiration from America’s diverse artistic landscape, their collaboration is infused with a distinctive soul that illuminates their reverence of the past and commitment to making every note feel relevant to modern times. The award-winning musicians also entertain with stories about their legendary teachers and introduce their remarkable protégés.
GREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS “Albéniz: Portraits of Spain”
Premieres: Friday, April 28, 9 p.m. ET
Discover the inspirations Spain provided composer Isaac Albéniz with host Scott Yoo and Scottish Grammy-winning guitarist David Russell, along with musicians from Albéniz’s birthplace in the Pyrenees mountains, Sevilla, Mallorca, and more.
INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY FROM THE UNITED NATIONS
Premieres: Friday, April 28, 10 p.m. ET
Herbie Hancock, Terri Lyne Carrington, Marcus Miller, Zakir Hussain, and jazz stars from around the globe come together to celebrate the unifying power of music.
Premieres: Sunday, April 30, 9 p.m. ET
This four-part adaptation of one of the greatest novels in the English language, “The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling” by Henry Fielding, offers a new twist to the tale of a young man’s love for a wealthy heiress. Starring Solly McLeod as Tom, Sophie Wilde as the heroine Sophia and Hannah Waddingham as the iconic temptress Lady Bellaston, “Tom Jones” brings mid-18th-century England to life in all its passion and prejudice, luxury, and loose morals.
MAY 2023
INDEPENDENT LENS “Matter of Mind: My ALS”
Premieres: Monday, May 1, 10 p.m. ET
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuromuscular disease with an average survival time of 2-5 years from diagnosis. In this intimate exploration, three people with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, bravely face different paths as they live with this progressively debilitating illness.
NOVA “Saving the Right Whale”
Premieres: Wednesday, May 3, 9 p.m. ET
The North Atlantic right whale is on the brink of extinction. But a handful of specialists are determined to help save it as they discover new secrets about the lives of these giants of the sea.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Sam Now”
Premieres: Monday, May 8, 10 p.m. ET
In this coming-of-age documentary about generational trauma, follow Sam Harkness from age 11 to 36 as his middle-class Seattle family is heartbroken and unsure of what to do after his mother suddenly leaves them. Woven together with home movies lovingly crafted by Sam’s half-brother, director Reed Harkness, witnesses a boy grow up grappling with the ripple effects of a singular traumatic event.
GREAT PERFORMANCES AT 50: CELEBRATING BROADWAY’S BEST
Premieres: Friday, May 12, 9 p.m. ET
Enjoy a show-stopping performance from Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater presenting a revue of milestone shows and songs from 1973 to 2023. Performed by a cast of veteran Broadway stars as well as new a new generation of up-and-coming talents, the concert celebration is a living testament to why musical theater continues to resonate so powerfully.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Silent Beauty”
Premieres: Monday, May 15, 10 p.m. ET
In this autobiographical exploration of survivorship, New Orleans journalist and filmmaker Jasmin Mara López unabashedly shares her process of healing from childhood sexual abuse. After Jasmin discloses to her family she’d been abused by her grandfather, she liberates others to come forward in a story of confronting a culture of silence over generational trauma.
AMERICAN MASTERS “Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV”
Premieres: Tuesday, May 16, 9 p.m. ET
See the world through the eyes of Nam June Paik, the father of video art and coiner of the term “electronic superhighway.” Experience the acclaimed artist’s creative evolution, as Academy Award nominee Steven Yeun reads from Paik’s own writings.
NOVA “Your Brain” (2-Part Series)
Premieres: Wednesdays, May 17 and May 24, 9 p.m. ET
How does your brain create your reality? Discover surprising new insights about how your brain processes the world and makes you who you are in this eye-opening journey into the latest research on the human brain with neuroscientist Heather Berlin.
GREAT PERFORMANCES “Richard III”
Premieres: Friday, May 19, 9 p.m. ET
From the Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park, this bold new production stars Danai Gurira in the title role with direction by Tony Award nominee Robert O’Hara as part of GREAT PERFORMANCES’ “Broadway’s Best” lineup. One of Shakespeare’s most indelible villains, Richard is determined to be king, using his brilliant words and dark charm to conceal his dismantling of government and justice to satisfy his lust for power as he manipulates, kidnaps, or kills all who stand in his way. This drama, filmed at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, explores the muddy middle between political genius and a violent quest for power.
FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK
Premieres: Monday, May 22, 10 p.m. ET
Co-founded by Filipina American sisters, Fanny made history in 1970 by becoming the first all-female rock band to release an LP with a major record label. Despite roadblocks of misogyny and bigotry, Fanny released five critically acclaimed albums in five years, counting David Bowie as one of their most vocal fans. This documentary — featuring interviews with Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren, Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, and others — aims to elevate the group’s groundbreaking, often-forgotten legacy in rock music by tracking its rise, fall, and reformation 50 years later.
NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT 2023
Premieres: Sunday, May 28, 8 p.m. ET
A more than three-decades-long tradition unlike anything else on television, America’s national night of remembrance takes us back to the real meaning of the holiday through personal stories and tributes interwoven with musical performances. Featuring an all-star line-up with the National Symphony Orchestra, the deeply moving and reverential night brings us together as one family of Americans to honor the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, military families, and all those who have given their lives for our country.
