Frontline has served as American public television's flagship public affairs series since 1983. Hailed as "the last best hope for broadcast documentaries," each week for the past 25 seasons Frontline shows incisive documentaries covering the scope and complexity of the human experience.

At the start of Frontline, the prospects for television news documentaries looked grim. Pressure was on network news departments to become profitable, and the spirit of outspoken journalistic inquiry established by programs like Edward R. Murrow's See It Now and Harvest of Shame had given way to entertainment values and feature-filled magazine shows. Therefore, it fell to public television to pick up the torch of public affairs and carry on this well-established broadcast news tradition.

Frontline has never shied away from tough, controversial issues or complex stories throughout its long running airtime. In an age of anchor celebrities and snappy sound bites, Frontline remains committed to providing a primetime venue for engaging documentaries that fully explore and illuminate the critical issues of our times. Frontline remains the only regularly scheduled long-form public affairs documentary series on American television, producing more hours of documentary programming than all the commercial networks combined.

Marking its 25th anniversary season, Frontline has built a reputation for powerful reporting that tackles the tough, controversial, and complex stories that shape our times. From Martin Smith's probe into the decisions leading to the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to Michael Kirk's investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib; from Ofra Bikel's examination of America's racial divide over the O.J. Simpson verdict, to special reports like The Age of AIDS and provocative journeys like Hedrick Smith's search for the answer to the question, Is Wal-Mart Good for America? Frontline gives its award-winning journalists and filmmakers the time needed to thoroughly research a story and the time on-air to tell the story in a compelling way.

Frontline is commited to bringing viewers credible, thoughtful reporting combined with powerful narrative, a good story well told.

American Experience is television's most-watched history series, having been hailed as "peerless" (Wall Street Journal), "the most consistently enriching program on television" (Chicago Tribune), and "a beacon of intelligence and purpose" (Houston Chronicle). The series is shown both online and on television bringing to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America's past and present. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, American Experience documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including twenty-four Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, and fourteen George Foster Peabody Awards, one most recently for Two Days in October.

This ongoing series of award-winning primetime specials examines the lives, works, and creative processes of our most outstanding cultural artists. Created in 1984 by Susan Lacy and produced by Thirteen/WNET for national public television, the series is both a celebration and an exploration of creativity in America. American Masters has had more than 250 hours of programming to date, It is a growing film library documenting the role important individuals, groups, and movements have played in the formation of our cultural identity.

American Masters has been the only PBS primetime series committed to developing and producing comprehensive film biographies about the broad cast of characters who comprise our cultural history since 1986.

The video portraits chronicle the process of discovery and evolution in the working methods and lives of our most significant and influential writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, and filmmakers.

By selectively balancing program topics and approaches, while maintaining across the board the highest standards of historical, intellectual and artistic integrity, American Masters has secured a high degree of audience loyalty and recognition, averaging two to five million viewers per hour. Recognized by the industry and the critics as "the best biographical programs ever to appear on American television," American Masters has received 22 Emmy nominations, winning a primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, five primetime Emmys for Outstanding Documentary; three Oscar nominations; four Peabody Awards, a Grammy Award and 19 Cine Golden Eagles.

American Masters includes profiles of such American artists as Charlie Chaplin, James Baldwin, Helen Hayes, Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Aaron Copland, William Wyler, Martha Graham, Eugene O'Neill, Billie Holliday, The Group Theater, Philip Johnson, Paul Simon, Alexander Calder and Leonard Bernstein among others.. The world-wide recognition afforded most of the individuals profiled by American Masters has assured a vast international television audience as well. And, in its outreach efforts, AMERICAN MASTERS is now enhancing this "archival and living history of American culture" by developing print and interactive materials for educational and home use. Many programs are now available on video.

The show has been praised not only for the consistently excellent quality of its programs, but for the series as a concept. Fascinating in their individuality as well as in the aggregate, the films that make up the American Masters series add to an understanding of our heritage and the extraordinary mosaic of the American character. An artist's work can capture, reflect and, in many cases, even mold the American experience or at least change our perceptions of it. Without art we would, as a society, lack a soul and a voice. American Masters exists to give life to that voice.

Now on its 27th season, Nature has brought the beauty and wonder of the natural world into American homes for more than a quarter century. It has become the benchmark of natural history programs on American television. The series has won more than 450 honors from the television industry, the international wildlife film community, parent groups, and environmental organizations - including 10 Emmy Awards, three Peabody Awards, and the first honor ever given to a program by the Sierra Club.

Nature Online is the award-winning Web companion to the broadcast series and is spearheading Nature's distribution to new media platforms. Online visitors can stream full episodes of the show programs, watch behind-the-scenes video exclusives with filmmakers and producers (also available at iTunes), view program excerpts (also available on YouTube), and find fun interactive content, teacher lesson plans, and more. Online social networkers can join the Nature group at Facebook and keep up with the latest videos, photos, program alerts and more.

Nature has vast potential as a learning resource, with Thirteen producing educational materials available free of charge to every elementary and middle school teacher in America. These include a Teacher's Guide, classroom poster, DVD of select Nature episodes, and take-home activities. A Nature comic book for children ages 10 to 12, also free, is distributed through retail outlets, education centers and museums nationwide, including the American Museum of Natural History.

Antiques Roadshow is part adventure, part history lesson, and part treasure hunt. The five-time Emmy® Award-nominated marks its thirteenth season in 2009. PBS's highest-rated series, Roadshow is seen by almost 11 million viewers each week. Veteran television personality Mark L. Walberg serves as series host.

In each hour-long episode, specialists from the country's leading auction houses - Bonhams and Butterfields, Christie's, Doyle New York, Skinner and Sotheby's - and independent dealers from across the nation offer free appraisals of antiques and collectibles. The cameras capture tales of family heirlooms, yard sale bargains and long-lost items salvaged from attics and basements, while experts reveal the fascinating truths about these finds.

It's a fast game when Antiques Roadshow returns for its 13th season in 2009 with host Mark L. Walberg and a cast of thousands: collectors from six U.S. cities, who bet their prized possessions will win them a slot on the six-time Emmy Award-nominated PBS series. At the top of the heap: a guest at the Palm Springs, California, Roadshow event who antes up an old housewarming gift only to discover that the 1937 painting, by noted American Expressionist artist Clyfford Still, is conservatively estimated to be worth $500,000 - making it the most valuable object every appraised on the series!

The new season of the critically-acclaimed preschool series is now in high definition and season 39 will merge two crucial areas: mathematics and literacy.Research shows that while all young children have knowledge about everyday arithmetic, language skills can be a barrier for them to explain their mathematical thinking. This language deficit may be one reason why lowincome children generally perform lower on tests of mathematical abilities than middle-income children. To address this gap, the 39th season of Sesame Street will put mathematical reasoning into words across the
different formats of the hour (street stories, live action films, and animation).

"The amount of "math talk' children are exposed to during the preschool years directly correlates with their future understanding of mathematical language and concepts," comments Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, Vice President of Education and Research, Sesame Workshop. "This season's curricular focus is designed to help children put their mathematical thinking into words and talk about how they solve problems."

This season will feature new "street" scenes designed to expand a child's mathematic vocabulary. For example: Max the Magician (played by Will Arnett) performs tricks for Rosita, Elmo, Big Bird and Chris. Max's friends are amazed yet he cannot reveal his techniques because of the Magicians Code of Honor. In the end, Chris reveals that it's not magic that he's performing, but it's all math!

Other new episodes include: Legend has it that the Golden Triangle of Destiny is on Sesame Street and Minnesota Mel (a parody of Indiana Jones) is there on an adventure to find it. It is the rarest, most beautiful triangle in the whole world. Unfortunately, Minnesota Mel
is unable to finish his search, but since Telly Monster is a triangle lover, he will try to find it in a series of wacky adventures. Chris is doing his laundry at the Sesame Street Laundromat. While he is folding his clothes, he discovers that a sock is missing. All socks come in pairs so he needs to find the matching sock, but when Abby appears and performs her new "two trick," sock chaos ensues in the Laundromat!

"Sesame Street has been helping children learn to count from day one, but this year we delve deeper into math principles. Of course we do it the Sesame way, with humor and references to pop culture," add Carol Lynn Parente, Executive Producer. "We have exciting new additions to the show that begin with an updated set, the
Sesame Street neighborhood now boasts a new and improved Hooper's store as well as the addition of a Laundromat. We also have two brand new formats, "Murray Has a Little Lamb," shot all on location and "Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures," done entirely in claymation."