WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, JANUARY 2 @ 9:00PM

SHIFTING POLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN 2015

As 2014 comes to a close, it may be remembered as the year that public approval for Congress hit a new low while President Obama, mired with low approval ratings most of the year, saw an uptick in support this month thanks in part to a strengthening economy and improving unemployment numbers.

Republicans seized the Senate and full control of Congress in the midterm elections, but it was President Obama who ended the year emboldened. He granted a reprieve to 5 million immigrants, reached a major climate change agreement with China, and struck a historic deal to normalize relations with Cuba that included a prisoner swap.

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FROM VIENNA: THE NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATION 2015

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 @ 9:00PM

Stage and screen legend Julie Andrews returns for the sixth time to host the festive annual New Year’s celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Zubin Mehta, from Vienna’s Musikverein.

From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2015, featuring the infectious melodies of the Strauss Family and their contemporaries, airs on Great Performances.

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NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR’S EVE

GERSHWIN CELEBRATION

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31 @ 9:00PM

Ring in the New Year with style and swagger, as jazz great Dianne Reeves and Broadway leading man Norm Lewis join the New York Philharmonic for a lush orchestral bounty of Gershwin classics, including his Cuban Overture, Catfish Row, and his own suite of music from Porgy and Bess.

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NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE RAINBOW ROOM

SATURDAY, JANUARY 2 @ 11:00PM

Ring in the New Year with two-time Emmy® and five-time Grammy®-nominated entertainer, Michael Feinstein. Known as “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” this energetic performer captures the heyday of the glamorous New York nightclubs as he hosts this celebration from high atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza in the glittering, newly restored Rainbow Room!

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WITH BRUCE FEILER

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30

Kumbh Mela @ 9:00PM

Every twelve years, tens of millions of men, women and children gather on the flood plain of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in Allahabad, India, for the Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of humanity for religious purposes on the planet. Pilgrims come from across India and around the world to bathe in the water where the two sacred rivers meet. Such mass bathing in the Ganges has been recorded for more than 2,500 years.

Osun-Osogbo @ 10:00PM

The festival of Osun-Osgobo, which takes place every year in Osogbo, Nigeria, celebrates the goddess of fertility, Osun. The festival renews the contract between humans and the divine: Osun offers grace to the community; in return, it vows to honor her Sacred Grove. This ceremony is part of a rich indigenous Yoruba religious tradition that began in West Africa and has become one of the ten largest religions in the world, with upwards of 100 million practitioners.

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DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’: EVERYMAN’S JOURNEY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29 @ 8:00PM

In a real-life fairy tale, a Filipino singer is plucked from YouTube to front the iconic American band Journey, and must deal with the pressures of replacing a legend while leading the band on their longest world tour in ages.

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DOWNTON ABBEY SEASON 4

EPISODE 8

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

Eight months after the bazaar, the Crawleys head to London for Rose’s presentation before the king. Mary’s suitors await them, the Levinsons join them, and a potentially explosive scandal threatens to embroil them.

In the much-anticipated finale of Downton Abbey Season 4, guest stars Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti join Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton, and the rest of the stellar cast. Written and created by Julian Fellowes.

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