PBS Slates New Projects from Ken Burns, Brian Greene

ARLINGTON: PBS has lined up a new slate of fall programming that includes Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s Prohibition, along with Brian Greene‘s The Fabric of the Cosmos from Nova.

This fall will also mark the first-ever PBS Arts Fall Festival, featuring full-length performances, artist and performer profiles, behind-the-scenes documentaries and mini-films about the art scenes in various places around the country. The festival kicks off October 14 and airs on Fridays through December. The lineup includes Women Who Rock, Give Me the Banjo and Great Performances "The Little Mermaid from San Francisco Ballet."

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick go beyond the traditional stories of gangsters, rumrunners, flappers and speakeasies in Prohibition. The series features music by Wynton Marsalis and the voice talents of Tom Hanks, Jeremy Irons, Paul Giamatti, Oliver Platt, John Lithgow, Samuel L. Jackson, Patricia Clarkson, Adam Arkin, Sam Waterston, Josh Lucas and others with narration by Peter Coyote. The program debuts on October 2.

Brian Greene returns to Nova with The Fabric of the Cosmos, launching November 2. The four-part mini-series looks at how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time and the universe.

PBS will pair Nature and Nova on Wednesdays nights starting this fall. The public-affairs series Need to Know re-launches on September 16. Frontline continues on the network, along with PBS Newshour, Charlie Rose, Independent Lens, Nightly Business Report, Tavis Smiley and Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal.

“Over the last year, PBS has seen a steady upward trend in viewership, including a banner season for Masterpiece, which saw viewership increase 54 percent compared to last season. We’ve also expanded our content offerings on digital platforms for viewers to watch when and where they want it,” said John F. Wilson, PBS’s senior VP and chief TV programming executive. “Along with Ken Burns’s and Lynn Novick’s Prohibition, the PBS Arts Fall Festival and Nova ‘The Fabric of the Cosmos‘ with Brian Greene, PBS and its producing partners will be announcing even more great content in the days ahead, including additional miniseries, ongoing series premieres and special programming to commemorate the anniversary of 9-11.”