news 3 spotlight Frontline “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” Tuesday, October 8, 9pm The National Football League, a multibillion-dollar commercial juggernaut, presides over America’s indisputable national pastime. But the NFL is under assault as thousands of former players and a host of scientists claim the league has covered up how football inflicted long-term brain injuries on many players. In a special investigation, FRONTLINE joins prizewinning journalists Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada to reveal the hidden story of the NFL and brain injuries, drawn from their forthcoming book.
Great Performances “40th Anniversary Celebration” [PBS Arts Fall Festival 2013] Friday, October 18, 9pm A stellar roster of diverse alumni gather to share their personal stories of what GREAT PERFORMANCES has meant to them, with reminiscences and performances by Julie Andrews, Audra McDonald, Don Henley, David Hyde Pierce, Josh Groban, Itzhak Perlman, Patti Austin and Take 6, Met Opera star Elīna Garanča and Michael Bublé. The program launches this year’s PBS Arts Fall Festival, a multi-platform event anchored by seven films that highlight artists and performances from around the country, with related online content.
African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross Tuesdays, October 22-November 26, 8pm This six-hour series chronicles the full sweep of AfricanAmerican history, from the origins of slavery on the African continent up to the present. Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. guides viewers on an engaging journey across two continents to shed new light on the experience of being African American. Among those interviewed are Kathleen Cleaver, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Congressman John Lewis, civil rights activist Diane Nash and more.
American Experience “War of the Worlds” Tuesday, October 29, 9pm Relive the thrill of Orson Welles’ infamous radio dramatization of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, 75 years after it set off one of the biggest mass hysteria events in U.S. history. The film examines the elements that made America ripe for the hoax: America’s longtime fascination with life on Mars; the emergence of radio as a powerful new medium; the shocking Hindenburg explosion of 1937; and Welles himself, the 23-year-old wunderkind director of the drama and mischief-maker supreme.