FEATURED PROGRAMS on Blue Ridge PBS

Be sure to check our schedule for additional air times!

American Experience

@ 9pm 

Discover the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present. Television’s most-watched history series, acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, has been honored with every major broadcast award.

• Monday, September 13 – Sandra Day O’Connor: The First
  Discover the story of the Supreme Court’s first female justice. A pioneer who both reflected and shaped an era, she was the deciding vote in cases on some of the 20th century’s most controversial issues—including race, gender and reproductive rights.
   
• Monday & Tuesday, September 27 & 28 – Citizen Hearst
  Explore the life of William Randolph Hearst. The model for Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, he controlled a vast media empire, wielded unprecedented power and influence, and forever transformed the media’s role in American life and politics.

American Masters - Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Got to Be Me

Friday, September 24 @ 9pm 

Explore the entertainer’s vast talent and journey for identity through the shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress during 20th-century America. Features Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, and clips from his TV, film and concert performances.

Call the Midwife, Season 8 

Thursdays @ 7pm

At the start of season eight, it’s spring of 1964 and everyone is excited for the Queen’s Royal Birth. With the additions of two new Sisters, who have been sent to live and work with the team in Poplar, Nonnatus House feels full once more.

Elizabeth is Missing on Masterpiece 

Sunday, September 26 @ 9pm

Two-time Academy Award®–winner Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class, Women in Love) stars as a woman desperately trying to solve two mysteries as she declines ever deeper into dementia.

Frontline: America After 9/11 

Tuesday, September 7 @ 9pm

How 9/11 ushered in an era of fear, mistrust, and division in America. The compromises and consequences for American democracy—from the terror attacks, through four presidencies, wars abroad, and ultimately insurrection at home.

Future of Work

Wednesdays @ 10pm

Explores monumental changes in the workplace and the long-term impact on workers, employers, educators and communities. Employment is part of the American Dream. Will the future provide opportunities for jobs that sustain families and the nation?

• September 1 – The New Industrial Revolution
  Illuminates disruptions to the world of work – AI, robotics, globalization, labor practices. The pandemic is a new driver of change, with unemployment flipping from lowest in 50 years to highest in a century.
   
• September 8 – Futureproof
  How can we predict job growth, training needs and the role of education to prepare for the work of the future. What are the challenges and consequences of the pandemic, and America’s racial and economic disparities?
   
• September 15 – Changing Work, Changing Workers
  Do businesses need offices? Is a 9-5 workday valid? Does the nation need a drastic rethinking of the social safety nets? Does America face a “post-work” era, or increased inequities in how we make our livings?

Generation 9/11

Friday, September 10  @ 9pm

Follow seven young people whose fathers died on 9/11. When they were born, the nation was drawn together. Twenty years later, in a divided America, they enter adulthood with a sense of responsibility that stems from their own personal tragedy.

Grantchester on Masterpiece 

Thursdays @ 10pm

• September 2, 9, 16 & 23 - Season 3
  Join James Norton and Robson Green as the improbable crime-fighting team—Reverend Sidney Chambers and Inspector Geordie Keating, respectively—bringing justice and spiritual nourishment to early 1950s England.
   
• September 30 - Season 4
  It’s 1956, and there’s a new vicar in town: Will Davenport, a firebrand who embraces the future and shocks Grantchester. But throughout the upheaval, Geordie knows one constant remains: a vicar can sometimes be a detective’s best friend.

Great Performances

Fridays @ 9pm (except where noted)

Watch television’s longest-running performing arts anthology to enjoy the best in music, dance and theater.

• September 3 – Yannick: An Artist’s Journey
  Experience the music director of the Metropolitan Opera’s meteoric rise to become one of the most acclaimed and sought-after music directors of his generation in this documentary from cinema verité filmmaker Susan Froemke.
   
• Saturday, September 11 @ 8pm – Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11
  Honor the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks with this special performance hosted by Misty Copeland and led by Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin featuring soloists Ailyn Pérez, Michelle DeYoung, Matthew Polenzani and Eric Owens. 
   
• September 17 – The Red Shoes
  Experience Hans Christian Andersen’s dark fairytale from acclaimed director-choreographer Matthew Bourne with this Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation starring Ashley Shaw, Adam Cooper, Dominic North and Michaela Meazza.

Guilt on Masterpiece

Sundays, September 5 & 12 @ 9pm & 10pm
A drunken drive home from a wedding lands two brothers in increasingly hot water, as they commit more and more serious crimes to hide their culpability in a hit-and-run. Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives star as the brothers, with Ruth Bradley as the victim’s niece, who falls for her uncle’s killer. “A darkly delicious tale,” declared The Guardian (London).

• September 5 – Episodes 1 & 2
  Jake and Max hit an elderly pedestrian and then run from the truth. / Max’s detective goes rogue, and the price for the cover-up soars.
   
• September 12 – Episodes 3 & 4
  Suspicions fly among Jake, Angie, Max and Sheila. Who is hiding what? / As the cover-up verges on collapse, Max tries a desperate gamble.

In Their Own Words

Tuesday, September 28 @ 8pm
Explore the lives and impact of the most transformative figures in modern history. Through an innovative combination of interview, archive and animated content, take a journey into the lives and minds of some of the world’s most compelling people.

• Jimmy Carter
  Hear the inspiring story of a long-shot outsider who fought his way to the top office in the world, beat the odds against him again and again, and never looked back in his quest to better the lives of millions.

Lucy Worsley’s Royal Myths

Sundays @ 8pm 

Join Lucy Worsley on a journey across Europe to visit the locations where royal history was made. 

• September 5 – George IV and The Regency
  Follow Lucy as she reveals how mental health problems forced King George III to relinquish power to his debauched and extravagant son. Was this really an era of elegance and regal splendor or an age of radicalism and revolution?
   
• September 12 – The Russian Revolution
  Join Lucy as she explores how the spontaneous February 1917 popular uprising was the real Russian revolution that swept the Czar from power, not the famed October event in the history books.

Muhammad Ali

@ 8pm with an encore presentation each evening

Muhammad Ali brings to life one of the best-known and most indelible figures of the 20th century, a three-time heavyweight boxing champion who captivated millions of fans throughout the world with his mesmerizing combination of speed, grace, and power in the ring, and charm and playful boasting outside of it. Ali insisted on being himself unconditionally and became a global icon and inspiration to people everywhere.

• Sunday, September 19 – Round One: The Greatest  (1942-64)
  Boxer Cassius Clay rises up the amateur ranks to win gold at the 1960 Olympics. He turns professional, sharpening his boxing skills and honing his genius for self-promotion. In 1964, he upsets Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion.
   
• Monday, September 20 – Round Two: What’s My Name?  (1964-70)
  Cassius Clay publicly joins the Nation of Islam and takes the name Muhammad Ali. When he refuses induction into the Army, he is stripped of his title and forced into exile. After three years he returns to the ring, but he’s lost a step.
   
• Tuesday, September 21 – Round Three: The Rivalry (1970-74)
  Muhammad Ali battles his fiercest rival, Joe Frazier, and the U.S. government, as he attempts to regain the heavyweight title. He first loses to and then defeats Frazier, but to become champion again, he will have to beat George Foreman.
   
• Wednesday, September 22 – Round Four: The Spell Remains  (1974-2016)
  Muhammad Ali shocks the world by defeating George Foreman, winning back the heavyweight title and becoming the most famous man on earth. After retiring in 1981, he travels the world spreading his Islamic faith, and becomes a symbol of peace and hope.

Native America

Tuesday @ 8pm
Explore the splendor and ingenuity of the world created by America’s First Peoples, 15,000 years ago. Combining modern science with Native knowledge, the series shines a spotlight on these ancient cultures and the communities that still thrive today.

• August 31 – Nature to Nations
  Explore the rise of great American nations, from monarchies to democracies. Investigate lost cities in Mexico, a temple in Peru, a potlatch ceremony in the Pacific Northwest and a tapestry of shell beads in upstate New York whose story inspired our own democracy.
   
• September 7 – Cities of the Sky
  Discover the cosmological secrets behind America’s ancient cities. Scientists explore some of the world’s largest pyramids and 3D-scan a lost city of monumental mounds on the Mississippi River; native elders reveal ancient powers of the sky.
   
• September 14 – New World Rising
  Discover how resistance, survival and revival are revealed through an empire of horse-mounted Comanche warriors, secret messages encoded in an Aztec manuscript and a grass bridge in the Andes that spans mountains and centuries.

NOVA

Wednesdays @ 9pm
Explore the science behind the headlines in PBS's premier science series. With compelling stories and spectacular visuals, NOVA programs demystify science and technology for viewers of all ages and spotlight people involved in scientific pursuits.

• September 1 – Nature’s Fear Factor
  When top predators disappeared from Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, other animals fell into unusual patterns. Now scientists are reintroducing wild dogs to restore the park's "landscape of fear" and with it the natural balance of the ecosystem.
   
• September 8 – Extreme Animal Weapons 
  Explore the secrets that underlie nature’s battleground. Every animal has some kind of weapon, whether it’s claws or horns, fangs or stings. But why are some armaments huge and extreme, far beyond any practical need? 
   

• September 15 – Bat Superpowers
  Bats have been implicated in deadly epidemics such as COVID-19 and Ebola, yet scientists are discovering evidence that they may hold a key to a longer and healthier life. From caves in Thailand and Texas to labs around the globe, NOVA meets the scientists who are decoding the superpowers of the bat.
   
• September 29 – The Cannabis Question
  NOVA investigates the story of cannabis in the U.S., from the criminalization that has disproportionately harmed communities of color to the latest medical understanding of the plant. What risks does cannabis pose to the developing brain? How much do we know about its potential medical benefits? As cannabis becomes socially accepted, scientists are racing to understand its long-term health consequences.

Open A Book, Open the World: The 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival 

Sunday, September 12 @ 6pm

Enjoy highlights from this year's National Book Festival with a celebratory sense of renewal. The many new works featured this year remind us of how books provide a lifeline in hard times and how they often enrich our lives with new possibilities.

The Queen’s Garden 

Sunday, September 26 @ 8pm

With permission from Queen Elizabeth, this program covers a year in Buckingham Palace Garden, exploring the history and the natural history of this remarkable hidden royal treasure in the heart of London.

Suze Orman’s Ultimate Retirement Guide

Monday September 13 @ 7pm
Join the acclaimed personal finance expert for essential advice on planning for and thriving in retirement. With empathy, straight talk and humor, Suze provides information about key steps for anyone trying to achieve their “ultimate retirement.”

Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy Movie / The Napoleon Hill Foundation: Making the World a Better Place 

Monday, September 6 @ 8pm
See a film adaption that features the story of Napoleon Hill who researched and interviewed the world’s most successful people including titans like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Charles M. Schwab, to prove once and for all that anyone can succeed irrespective of their circumstances.

We'll also see a documentary about a little known gem in Southwest Virginia.  Napoleon Hill Foundation, CEO Don M. Green, shares the background of one of the world's most legendary self-help authors, Napoleon Hill. Decades after his passing, Hill, who penned many books including Think and Grow Rich, is still one of the best-selling authors around the world.