Archive for Prime

Tonight on wttwPrime

Tuesday nights on wttwPrime, you can catch the series History Detectives at 7pm.  I really like this show.  Folks with old stuff they’ve inherited, found, or bought come to the history detectives to figure out where it came from.  Sort of like Antiques Roadshow, but way more in-depth – here you get to find out the story (or history, as it were) behind the items, instead of what they are worth.  So, not only do you learn about the item, but about it’s place in the world. 

On tonight’s episode, a woman learns about the history of a camera inherited from her uncle who survived the Holocaust.  Her family tells two conflicting stories about the uncle – in one he survives persecution with the help of his gentile girlfriend, and in the other, he takes pictures with the camera for the Nazi’s.  Also, a confusing letter from 1942 leads to an examination of the history of  Alcoholics Anonymous.

At 8pm, Simon Schama’s Power of Art delves into the life of Caravaggio.

At 9pm, the first in a series called Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?  Here is the series description:

UNNATURAL CAUSES is a four-hour series that, for the first time on television, sounds the alarm about glaring socio-economic and racial inequities in health and searches for their causes. he series looks at what’s making us sick in the first place, investigating startling new findings that suggest there is much more to poor health than bad habits, inadequate health care or unlucky genes. The series circles in on a slow killer in plain view: the social circumstances in which we are born, live and work that can affect our risk for disease as surely as germs and viruses.

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Tonight, 6/15 on wttwHD and wttwPrime

Well, the digital transition has come and gone without much ado.  Be sure to check out wttwPrime on channel 11.2 over the air, or on Comcast 243.

Tonight, on wttwHD: After Antiques Roadshow at 8 pm, we air an American Experience about Roberto Clemente:

Baseball great Roberto Clemente’s talent and inimitable style drew legions of fans, but as this production reveals, he was more than an exceptional baseball player. He was also a committed humanitarian who challenged racial discrimination and worked for social justice.

On wttwPrime this evening, some interesting stuff:  At 7pm, the Nova presents “The Family that Walks on All Fours”, which is really fascinating:

An intense scientific debate has ignited around a quiet but extraordinary family living in rural Turkey — a family with five adults who walk on all fours. Since bipedality has long been considered one of the defining characteristics of modern humans, such a discovery raises fascinating questions about genetics, society and the evolutionary history of our species. Is this the anthropological find of the millennium or simply a unique medical case? In this moving documentary, NOVA sets out to unravel the controversy and meet the individuals who have captured the imagination of scientists around the world.

At 8pm, Nature chronicles “The Adventures of the Ultimate Spider-Hunter”:

Mild-mannered water treatment engineer by day, tarantula obsessive and arachnid guru by night, Martin Nicholas is the real Spiderman. And he’s out to find the most amazing spiders in the world. Featured in NATURE’s “Deep Jungle,” Nicholas travels the world in pursuit of exotic spiders, including the goliath bird-eater of Venezuela and a small South American spider that creates the biggest web in the world – up to 30 feet long

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Monday, April 20 on Prime

This week is Explorations Week on wttwPrime.  Tonight, travel to the Andes and Alaska with three programs that take you to the edge.

7pm – Touching the Void – Based on the international best-seller by renowned climber Joe Simpson, this show recounts the extraordinary story of a climb Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, undertook in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The two ambitious young mountaineers set off to scale the hitherto unclimbed west face of Siula Grande, a remote and treacherous 21,000-foot peak. Starting their descent through a blizzard, Simpson fell and shattered his leg, launching a heroic battle for survival in which both men were faced with life-or-death decisions that tested the human spirit to its limit. Simpson and Yates return to Siula Grande together for the first time to retell their story for the cameras.

8:30pm – Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge goes to Alaska’s Gacier Bay.  The beautiful, protected waters in southeast Alaska are filled with islands and bays rich with wildlife. The concentration of diversity in this secluded environment is remarkable. Art goes by boat on a voyage of discovery, encountering dramatic calving glaciers and Sitka forests, breaching orcas and migrating humpbacks, eagles and barnacle-eating bears.

9pm – Gates of the Arctic: Alaska’s Brooks Range -  The mountain chain stretching across northern Alaska and into Canada’s Yukon Territory inspired a national wilderness-protection movement with its pristine vistas and habitats teeming with wildlife. This is one of the most remote and pristine places in North America.   The few travelers fortunate enough to visit the Brooks Range share their experiences, while stunning high-definition photography captures several brief and unexpected encounters some of region’s diverse animal life and a few of its exceptional local characters.

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Sunday, April 5 on Prime

If you are like me and can’t ever get enough of cooking shows, then tune in to wttw Prime on Sunday afternoon.  We’ll be featuring “how-to” marathons every week, and we kick them off with Julia Child: Cooking with Master Chefs from 11am -330pm.

At 7pm Sunday evening we air the first installment of Ken Burns’ The Civil War, which focuses on the causes, which of course included slavery and states’ rights.  This series is a very in-depth and fascinating watch.

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Saturday, April 4

On Saturday we premiere a new miniseries called Lost in Austen at 8pm. 

The classic story of Pride and Prejudice is thrown off track by a very modern heroine, Amanda Price, a bored and frustrated modern-day Londoner who longs for the old-fashioned world of courtship, romance, bonnets and ballrooms brought to life in Austen’s masterwork. When a mysterious time portal appears in her apartment, Amanda suddenly swaps places with the novel’s central character, Elizabeth Bennet, and finds herself center stage in the celebrated romance. How can she keep one of literature’s greatest love stories on track when the real Elizabeth Bennet is stuck in the modern world?

I’ve seen some of the first episode, and it was well done and quite enjoyable, if you like Jane Austen and switcheroos.    The miniseries is set to be made into a feature film in 2010, but you can see it here first!

Speaking of Jane Austen, Best of Britain week concludes Saturday with a day full of British delights on wttw Prime.  We start at 7am with the 3-part Churchill, and the rest of the day is filled with classic Masterpiece and Mystery! episodes.  Check our website for details.

A heads up for Prime – Civil War Week kicks of Sunday at 7pm.  We’ll be airing the 9-part Ken Burns documentary all week in that time slot.

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This week on Prime: Best of Britain Week

The primetime lineup for wttw Prime this week is:

Tonight (Tuesday):

        7pm – Masterpiece Theatre’s Cassanova (Parts 1 and 2)

Wednesday:

        7pm – 10pm – Churchill (Parts 1-3)

Thursday:

         7pm – Mystery: Nemesis (Parts 1 and 2)

Saturday:

         8pm – Mystery: The Murder at the Vicarage (Parts 1 and 2)

        10pm – Mystery: A Murder is Announced (Parts 1 and 2)

You can find complete program listings for all of our channels here

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Monday, March 30

At noon today we launch our new channel, wttwPrime!  You can find the complete schedule online.  Tonight kicks off Best of Britain Week with two Jane Austen classics.  AT 7pm, you can see Persuasion, and at 8:30, Mansfield Park

If you like Jane Austen, here’s a heads up:  starting this Saturday at 8pm, we will be showing a mini-series called Lost in Austen on wttw11.   It’s about a contemporary young lady who switches places (and worlds) with Elizabeth, the main character in Pride and Prejudice.  I’ve seen some of this, and it looks really fun, if you like that sort of thing.  More on this later. 

Speaking of wttw11, here’s what’s on tonight: After Antiques Roadshow at 8pm, we air an episode of American Experience all about the Jonestown massacre.  In 1978, more than 900 people died in the largest mass murder-suicide in history.  American Experience goes beyond the headlines to reveal an intimate portrait of Jim Jones, his followers, and the conditions of the Jonestown compound as told by survivors, defectors, relatives and journalists.

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New Channel Launch- Monday, March 30!

We in the broadcast department are busy getting ready for the launch of our new channel, wttw Prime, next Monday! 

For those of us who have antennas (and a converter box to receive digital channels), Prime will be 11.2.  On Comcast, Prime will be channel 243.

There are several  great things about this new channel.  First, the programming is counter to what we have scheduled on 11.1, so you’ll always have two distinct choices about what to watch.  For example, while we are broadcasting kids shows from 6am-6pm on 11.1, we’ll have prime time repeats, cooking shows and public affairs during the day on 11.2.  If we are airing science shows on 11.1, we’ll be airing history or arts programming on 11.2. 

Second, we’ll be repeating the evening’s Chicago Tonight at 10pm for those of you miss it at 7pm on 11.1.  There will also be plenty more news and public affairs shows available on Prime – you can catch BBC World News, Nightly Business Report and World Focus starting at 5pm weekdays.  Charlie Rose at 11pm weekdays.  And Public Affairs Fridays, every week starting at 6:30pm.

During the daytime you can also catch repeats of the previous day’s prime time programs from both channels on 11.2.

It’s really exciting for us to be able to offer viewers twice the programming and so many choices.  To kick off the new channel, the first four weeks will each have a different theme -

Week 1 – Best of Britain Week- featuring plenty of Jane Austen, Casanova, a documentary about Churchill, and Mystery!

Week 2- Civil War Week – we’ll be showing the entire Ken Burns epic every night at 7pm, starting on Sunday April 5.

Week 3- Presidents Week- every night a documentary about a president – FDR, Truman, Nixon, Reagan , Carter, and even some Obama.  I screened a lot of footage of these American Experience docs and found myself really enthralled.  I don’t remember much from history class and these are really a fascinating way to learn.  Seriously.

Week 4 – Explorations Week – This week is filled with historical explorers like Lewis and Clark and Columbus, as well as contemporary explorations into space and untouched parts of the country like Alaska’s Brooks Range. 

More to come – please check out wttw Prime starting Monday March 30!

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