Joe Elmore at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens.
Need a little Christmas? We’ve got plenty this month with a sleigh full of holiday episodes, music specials and cooking/entertaining shows. Joe Elmore and the Tennessee Crossroads crew put together a collection of an hour-long Tennessee Crossroads Christmas Special, premiering Thursday, Dec. 20, at 7 p.m. Tune in for nine holiday-themed stories including Chad’s Winter Wonderland in Wilson County, the Chattanooga Power Board windows, and a woman with a massive collection of Santa items. The special also features two vintage story segments and a look at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in all of its holiday splendor.
The new Call the Midwife Holiday Special airs Tuesday, Dec. 25, at 8 p.m. It wouldn’t be Christmas at Nonnatus House without new arrivals – this time greets a new nun and four Chinese orphans. We’re also airing the Call the Midwife 2016 specials on Saturday, Dec. 15, at 9:30 p.m.; and the 2017 special airs Saturday, Dec. 22, at 9:30 p.m.
Christmas at Belmont is one of our most popular holiday programs! See the 2015 concert hosted by Kathy Mattea on Friday, Dec. 21, at 7 p.m. and the 2017 concert hosted by Sheryl Crow at 8 p.m. Then, Jordan Smith ’tis the Season airs at 9 p.m., and Happy Holidays with the Boston Pops caps off the night at 11 p.m.
Holiday eats
Hosts Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison (pictured) and the rest of the America’s Test Kitchen crew share favorite recipes, traditions and personal memories in the new Home for the Holidays special, airing Friday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m.
Chef Lidia Bastianich serves up A Heartland Holiday Feast, on Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 8 p.m. In this new Lidia Celebrates America special, Bastianich goes on a cross-country trip to sample tamales, ribs, pies and other culinary traditions of America’s rural communities.
Shows of Christmas Past
Keeping Up Appearances Christmas episodes air Saturdays, Dec. 15 ‒ 22, at 8 p.m. Christmas episodes of Still Open All Hours air Saturdays, Dec. 15 (2016) and 22 (2017), at 9 p.m. The Lawrence Welk Show celebrates Christmas 1966 on Saturday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m. and New Year’s 1970 the following Saturday at 7.
Performance treats
Tony Award-winning Broadway star Sutton Foster and actor Hugh Bonneville host Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a new holiday performance premiering Monday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. Other performers include the eight-person Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble, a percussion ensemble and a handbell choir.
Spend Christmas Eve at a cozy Vermont Inn via an encore presentation of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn ‒ The Broadway Musical on Monday, Dec. 24, at 8 p.m. on Great Performances.
The holiday season wouldn’t be complete without the Nutcracker. Sunday, Dec. 16, at 11 p.m., young dancers compete for roles in an annual production in Getting to the Nutcracker. Meanwhile, Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet transplanted the famous story to the city’s 1893 Columbian Exposition (The White City) with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon. Enjoy a behind-the-scenes look in Making a New American Nutcracker, airing Thursday, Dec. 20, at 11 p.m.
Stocking stuffers
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u’ll find a collection of festive episodes on NPT Passport, our members-only streaming portal. The programs include two Downton Abbey Christmas episodes, a Christmas masterclass from The Great British Baking Show and a classic Julia Child show on how to roast a turkey. Click here for the complete playlist and here for information on NPT Passport. The collection will be available through the end of the year.
Apollo 8 was the first lunar space mission that took humans around the back side of the Moon. The mission came at the end of 1968, launching on Dec. 21 and including a poignant moment when the three astronauts took turns reading from Genesis during a live broadcast on Christmas Eve. Sunday, Dec. 23, at 10:30 p.m., Earthrise on POV Shorts, discusses the mission’s iconic photograph of Earth rising dramatically over the Moon’s horizon. On Wednesday, Dec. 26, at 8 p.m., NOVA’s Apollo’s Daring Mission on chronicles that entire lunar adventure.
New Year’s in
What are you doing New Year’s Eve? We’re airing Live from Lincoln Center featuring the New York Philharmonic and Renée Fleming on Monday, Dec. 31, at 8 p.m. That’s followed at 9:30 p.m. by Austin City Limits Hall of Fame New Year’s Eve show. This year’s guests include Chris Isaak, Boz Scaggs, Gary Clark Jr., and Norah Jones.
Hugh Bonneville returns as host of Great Performances’ broadcast of the New Year’s Celebration from Vienna. The show airs Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, at 8 p.m. and will feature the Vienna Philharmonic led by Christian Thielemann, principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Vienna City Ballet.
Find our complete programming schedule at wnpt.org/schedule.
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The new season of NPT’s free Indie Lens Pop-Up documentary screenings begins Jan. 10, 2019. NPT is partnering with Watkins College of Art again this year to host the screenings 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays in the Watkins theater (2298 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville TN 37228). The screenings are free, but reservations are required. The first event of the new season features Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, an electrifying look at Native American influence in popular music.
Indie Lens Pop-Up is a neighborhood series that brings people together for film screenings and community-driven conversations. The films are chosen from current broadcast seasons of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.
NPT’s 2018-2019 Indie Lens Pop-Up schedule:
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World by Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana
Thursday, Jan. 10, 6 p.m.
Watkins College of Art
RSVP
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World brings to light a profound and missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Featuring music icons Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Randy Castillo, and Taboo, Rumble shows how these pioneering Native musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.
The Providers by Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin
Thursday, March 7, 6 p.m.
Watkins College of Art
Set against the backdrop of the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, The Providers follows three healthcare providers in northern New Mexico. Amidst personal struggles that at times reflect those of their patients, the journeys of the providers unfold as they work to reach rural Americans who would otherwise be left out of the healthcare system. With intimate access, the documentary shows the transformative power of providers’ relationships with marginalized patients.
Charm City by Marilyn Ness
Thursday, April 11, 6 p.m.
Watkins College of Art
During three years of unparalleled violence in Baltimore, Charm City delivers an unexpectedly candid, observational portrait of the police, citizens, and government officials left on the front lines. In these divisive times, Charm City offers humanity as common ground.
Independent Lens is an Emmy Award-winning weekly series airing Monday nights at 9 p.m. on NPT. The acclaimed series, with Lois Vossen as executive producer, features documentaries united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement, and unflinching visions of independent filmmakers. Presented by ITVS, the series is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding from PBS, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more visit pbs.org/independentlens. Join the conversation: facebook.com/independentlens and on Twitter @IndependentLens.
Learn about all of NPT’s events at wnpt.org/events.
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Nashville Public Television recently promoted two staffers and welcomed another back to the city and station.
Shane Burkeen was promoted to Director of Brand & Digital Strategies at NPT. He joined the staff in 2016 and previously served as Brand and Digital Content Manager. During his time at NPT, Burkeen has implemented cross-departmental digital campaigns and has been responsible for refreshing NPT’s brand to better reflect the organization’s mission and core values.
Suzy Hence was promoted to Associate Producer/Senior Editor. Her new duties include producing NPT’s Arts Break interstitials about local arts organizations (she currently serves as host of the series) and A Word on Words interstitials focusing on authors and book-related topics. She will also be responsible for media management and editing workflow. Hence will continue to edit Volunteer Gardener and other NPT productions. She has edited documentaries in every NPT series during her 12 years at the station, including Aging Matters: Caregiving, Next Door Neighbors: Somali, and Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality, for which she received Midsouth Regional Emmys.
NPT welcomed Bridget Kling back to Nashville and to the staff as Senior Director of Broadcast Content responsible for the broadcast schedule on NPT’s three on-air channels. She is also in charge of local content production for broadcast and digital platforms. During her previous tenure at NPT, Kling produced Beautiful Tennessee, Christmas at Belmont, The Fugitives, Arts Break and other long- and short-form programs. She held various positions, including Director of Program Development and Director of Special Projects. During her earlier nine years at the station, Kling received a Midsouth Regional Emmy, a national Gracie Allen award, and National Educational Telecommunications Association awards. She also received the inaugural Rising Star Award presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission.
MiChelle Jones, NPT’s Communications Manager, will become vice chair of NETA’s Communications Council Executive Committee in January 2019. She recently received a Richard E. Ottinger Scholarship to attend the 2019 NETA Conference and CPB Public Media Thought Leader Forum, January 21 ‒ 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah. A two-time National Endowment for the Arts writing fellow, Jones handles NPT’s publicity, advertising, promotions and social media.
Posted in Nashville Public Television by .
Let’s Go Luna! Courtesy of © LATW Productions Inc.
Let’s Go Luna!, a new PBS Kids series, premieres Wednesday, Nov. 21, on NPT with a one-hour special airing at 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. In the animated series, three friends – Mexican butterfly Carmen, Australian wombat Leo, and Andy, a frog from the U.S. – travel around the globe with “Circo Fabuloso,” their parents’ performance troupe. At each stop their friend Luna the Moon joins them as they learn about local customs. This season they’ll visit Mexico City (Carmen’s hometown), Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, London and London.
The regular half-hour airtimes will be weekdays at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on NPT and 4 p.m. and midnight seven days a week on NPT3.
Children’s programming is available around the clock on NPT3, our 24-hour PBS Kids Channel, available over-the-air at 8.3, on Comcast 242 and Charter 189 (or 192, depending on your viewing area). NPT3 PBS Kids is available for streaming at wnpt.org/npt3.
Here’s our updated weekday schedule of NPT children’s programs:
6:00 Ready Jet Go!
6:30 Wild Kratts
7:00 Nature Cat
7:30 Curious George
8:00 Let’s Go Luna!
8:30 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
9:00 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
9:30 Pinkalicious & Peterrific
10:00 Sesame Street
10:30 Splash and Bubbles
11:00 Dinosaur Train
11:30 Cat in the Hat
noon Sesame Street
12:30 Super Why!
1:00 Pinkalicious & Peterrific
1:30 Let’s Go Luna!
2:00 Nature Cat
2:30 Wild Kratts
3:00 Wild Kratts
3:30 Odd Squad
4:00 Odd Squad
4:30 Arthur
As of Nov. 24, our weekend schedule of children’s lineup will be:
5:00 Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood
5:30 Splash and Bubbles
6:00 Sesame Street
6:30 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
7:00 Pinkalicious & Peterrific
7:30 Curious George
8:00 Let’s Go Luna!
8:30 Nature Cat
Posted in children's programming by .
NPT received five nominations at the 33rd Midsouth Regional Emmy Award announcement party on Nov. 15, 2018, at BMI on Nashville’s Music Row.
The following NPT productions and staff received nominations:
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
NPT Reports Aging Matters: Loneliness & Isolation
LaTonya Turner
DOCUMENTARY/CULTURAL
Music Row: Nashville’s Most Famous Neighborhood
Justin Harvey, Paul Mojonnier, Joe DelMerico, Shane Burkeen
INTERSTITIAL
A Word on Words
Linda Wei, J.T. Ellison, Mary Laura Philpott, Courtney Breslin, Jason Code, Shawn Anfinson, Paul Mojonnier
HISTORICAL/CULTURAL FEATURE/SEGMENT
Remembering World War II (Tennessee Crossroads)
Ed Jones, Shawn Anfinson
PROMO SPOT/PROGRAM
Reporting the Vietnam War
Shawn Anfinson
The 33rd Annual Midsouth Regional Emmy Awards will be held Feb. 16, 2019, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Posted in EMMY Awards by .
Nashville Public Television’s 2018 Report to the Community, our annual report of the station’s activities and finances, is now available online and in hard copy. The document covers Fiscal Year 2018 – July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018 – and includes overviews of NPT’s original productions and events during the past year, as well as from many of the documentary and program screenings, special events and town-hall discussions we hosted during that time frame.
In the 2018 Report to the Community, you’ll find information on:
- The 2017 Christmas at Belmont production with host Sheryl Crow
- NPT’s documentary about Music Row (featured on the report’s cover)
- Tennessee Crossroads’ coverage of the August 2017 total solar eclipse
- New documentaries in NPT’s Aging Matters, Next Door Neighbors and Citizenship series.
View the 2018 Report to the Community online as either a flipbook or a downloadable PDF, or pick up a copy at an NPT event.
Posted in Nashville Public Television by .
Nashville Public Television has been named a finalist in five categories in the 2018 NETA Awards competition. Two other public television stations, Alabama Public Television and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, are also named in five categories. The winners will be announced during the National Educational Telecommunications Association annual conference in Salt Lake City in January 2019.
NPT is a finalist in the following categories:
News & Public Affairs
NPT Reports: Aging Matters: Aging & the Workplace
Promotion (Integrated Marketing Campaign)
Music Row: Nashville’s Most Famous Neighborhood
Promotion (Single Video)
Bird’s-Eye View/Cheekwood
Promotion (Special Event)
NPT3 PBS Kids Launch Party
Short Form
A Word on Words
The NETA Awards are an annual recognition of public broadcasting’s finest work, a tradition established in the 1960s by the pioneering Southern Educational Communications Association from which NETA was formed. NETA is a professional association organized in 1997 to serve and support public television licensees and affiliated educational organizations. The organization has member stations in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands.
Posted in awards Uncategorized by .
Nov 18
7
NPT3 PBS Kids channel receives underwriting from The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial
Nashville Public Television welcomes The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial as a major underwriter of NPT3 PBS Kids, NPT’s 24/7 children’s channel dedicated to quality educational programming from PBS Kids. NPT3 PBS Kids is available to all children and caregivers on a platform and at a time that works for them, including prime time, weekends and other out-of-school times.
“Nashville Public Television has been an integral part of the Middle Tennessee community for more than 50 years, delivering content and services that parents trust and that move the needle in early learning,” said NPT’s Kevin Crane. “NPT3 PBS Kids launched a year ago and is part of our service to area families, ensuring that our proven educational content is accessible anytime and anywhere to all kids – especially those who need it the most. We’re grateful to The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial for their generous support of this important educational resource.”
Decades of research confirms that PBS KIDS media content helps children acquire early literacy, math and social-emotional skills, critical that enable them to find success in school and life, while also helping parents increase their own engagement in their children’s learning.
NPT3 PBS Kids is available over-the-air at 8.3, on Comcast 242, on Charter Communications 189 (192 for Huntsville-Decatur), and on Google Fiber on 87. The program feed is also available for streaming via online platforms at wnpt.org/npt3.
NPT3 PBS Kids is part of Nashville Public Television’s commitment to the community in which it provides essential services for kids, parents and teachers. These include NPT’s Emmy-winning original series Children’s Health Crisis and ArtQuest, as well as the station’s ongoing family literacy workshops, and Mobile Learning Lab activities focusing on literary, math and science for children ages 3 to 8.
Posted in NPT3 PBS Kids by .
Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks, the 13th documentary in Nashville Public Television’s NPT Reports: Aging Matters series, premieres Thursday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. on NPT.
If you’re sick or hurt enough to go to the hospital, you expect to leave in better shape than when you arrived. But as we age, it becomes increasingly dangerous to be in the hospital. On the next edition of Aging Matters, we will explore the benefits and risks of hospital treatment for older adults. We’ll also look at a growing movement by hospitals to adapt to the unique needs of the aging baby boom population.
A free preview screening of the documentary will be offered on Monday, Nov. 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at FiftyForward’s Patricia Hart Building (174 Rains Ave., Nashville 37203). The event will include lunch and a panel discussion. The event is free, but RSVPs are required at hospitals-npt.eventbrite.com.
Additional broadcast times for Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks are below; the documentary will also be available for online viewing at wnpt.org/agingmatters/.
- Monday, Nov. 19, at 8 a.m. on NPT2
- Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 1p.m. on NPT2
- Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 5 a.m. on NPT2
Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks was produced by LaTonya Turner, whose previous documentaries in the series include Aging Matters: Loneliness & Isolation and Aging Matters: Caregiving, winner of a Midsouth Regional Emmy Award. Turner also produced NPT’s Emmy Award-winning documentary, The Early Black Press: Tennessee Voices United.
The NPT Reports: Aging Matters series is hosted by Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Kathy Mattea. Aging Matters: Hospitals & Health Risks is made possible by the generous support of the West End Home Foundation, the Jeanette Travis Foundation, The HCA Foundation and Cigna-HealthSpring. Additional support was provided by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and Jackson National Life Insurance Company.
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Keep your little ones entertained this month with new Halloween-themed episodes of Wild Kratts, Odd Squad and other favorite PBS Kids shows! Here are some of the treats in store for them on NPT and NPT3 PBS Kids. NPT airtimes are below; check wnpt.org/schedule for NPT3 PBSKids airtimes. And don’t forget to check out the PBS Kids website for Halloween games and pumpkin-carving templates based on PBS Kids characters.
Odd Squad Two new episodes air this month. In “Saving Agent Orson/The Scientist,” the agents try to save baby Agent Orson’s place on the squad. Meanwhile, Oona finds herself in an alternate dimension. Airs on NPT Oct. 26 and Nov. 6 at 3:30 p.m. Then in “It Takes Goo to Make a Feud Go Right/Friends of Odd Squad,” Olympia and Otis deal with feuding guests when Ms. O leaves an unlikely crew in charge of the HQ. Airs on NPT Oct. 26 and Nov. 6 at 4 p.m.
Pinkalicious & Peterrific The first of two new episodes, “Pink or Treat,” features Pink-a-girl and Pirate Peter trying to save Halloween when a huge storms knocks out power lines in Pinkville. In “Berry Scary,” Pinkalicious, Peter, Rafael and Frida discover the birds have eaten all the berries at the community garden, leaving none for their homemade smoothies. The kids build a scarecrow to keep the birds away – but will it be scary enough? Airs on NPT Oct. 26, 29 and 31 at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and on Oct. 28 at 7 a.m.
Ready Jet Go! When the kids try to grow prize-winning pumpkins, Jet gets carried away and uses his Bortronian Grow-Lamp to grow a huge fruit in “That’s One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!” But how will the kids get this enormous pumpkin downtown to win the contest? Airs on NPT Oct. 23, 26, 30 and 31 at 6 a.m.
Wild Kratts In their first Halloween movie, the brothers decide to spend Halloween looking for new creatures in “Creepy Creatures.” Then, they learn that Zach and the other villains have come up with a plan to ruin the holiday. Can the Wild Kratts save the day and still have time to celebrate Halloween? Airs on NPT Oct. 24, 26, 29 and 31 at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 and 31 at 7 a.m. This episode also airs at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 – 28 on NPT3 PBS Kids as part of the Halloween double feature with Arthur and the Haunted Tree House.
NPT3 PBS Kids is available over the air at 8.3, on Comcast 242, Charter 189 or 192 (depending on area) and Google Fiber 87.
Posted in children's programming by .
