MACHU PICCHU

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9 @ 8:00PM

Structural engineer Steve Burrows leads his team of laser-scanning experts into the Peruvian jungle to scan the sacred Incan city of Machu Picchu. Using cutting-edge, 3D laser-scanning technology he wants to answer three main questions: How did the Inca build a city atop a mountain ridge? How were the terraces constructed? How did they supply water to the city? To find the answers, they must battle altitude sickness and rampaging insects as they hack their way through the jungle to set up their high-tech scanning equipment.

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HOLIDAY SPECIAL

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

Having spent most of her adult life in the kitchens of highly-lauded restaurants, Vivian has rarely celebrated the holidays during busy Decembers. This year, she and her husband Ben Knight are determined to give their toddler twins a traditional holiday experience, cooking, laughing, and yes, crying their way through Southern traditions new and old. In this holiday special, Vivian discovers that mistletoe is traditionally shot out of a pecan tree, experiences her first hog killing, and leads a “tacky Christmas sweater” night with the restaurant staff at Chef and the Farmer.

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ASIAN AMERICA

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 @ 9:00PM

What exactly does food reflect about Asian Pacific Americans? Off the Menu: Asian America grapples with how family, tradition, faith, and geography shape our relationship to food. The program takes audiences on a journey from Texas to New York and from Wisconsin to Hawaii using our obsession with food as a launching point to delve into a wealth of stories, traditions, and unexpected characters that help nourish this nation of immigrants.

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HOLIDAY

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 @ 7:00PM

Harley Refsal is an internationally recognized wood figure carver specializing in Scandinavian flat‐plane wood carving. Raised in Minnesota, he has lived in Norway in the 1960s and 1980s, and traveled extensively throughout Scandinavia. Refsal, who speaks fluent Norwegian, has shared his knowledge of and skills in Scandinavian carving with thousands of carvers through courses and presentations in North America and Scandinavia. In the episode, Harley Refsal teaches a Scandanavian wood carving class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. “Many holiday traditions, Christian and non-Christian, come from the winter solstice which was a pagan holiday that marked the start of the solar year and celebrated light and the rebirth of the sun. Santa, the Christmas tree, gifts and special meals all had their beginnings in the winter solstice.”

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 @ 9:00PM

This Week on Washington Week: Mass Shooting in California Leaves 14 Dead, Pentagon Opens All Combat Jobs to Women and 2016 Politics.

Residents in San Bernardino, California, and across America remain in shock after Wednesday’s shooting massacre at a public health center that left 14 dead and 21 injured. Police discovered an arsenal of weapons including thousands of rounds ammunition and 12 pipe bombs inside a house the two suspects, Syed Rizwan and Tashfeen Malik, had been using, Pete Williams of NBC News will have the latest on the federal investigation and the search for a motive.

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THURSDAY, MAY 19 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

In a story previously untold on film, HRH The Prince of Wales makes a journey through history to celebrate the artistic gene in his family and reveal an extraordinary treasure trove of work by royal hands past and present.

Set against the spectacular landscapes of the royal estates at Balmoral Castle, Birkhall, Highgrove House, Windsor Castle, Frogmore House and Osborne House, and containing insights into works by members of the royal family through the centuries and The Prince of Wales’s own watercolors, Royal Paintbox explores a colorful palette of intimate family memory and observation.

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HELD HOSTAGE

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 @ 8:00PM

This PBS documentary reveals the terrifying story of Western citizens held hostage by Al Qaeda at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria.

Held Hostage includes exclusive interviews with survivors and the families of some of those who died, many of whom are speaking on camera and telling the full story of the incident for the first time. The attack, which took place in January 2013, left over 37 foreign hostages’ dead, including a number from USA, UK, France, Japan and Norway. The gas field is operated by the Algerian state oil company Sonatrach with the British firm BP and the Norwegian firm Statoil. As the horrific events unfolded over four days in the full glare of the world’s media, Algerian special forces and helicopter gunships attacked the site in an effort to end the crisis.

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A SALUTE TO DOWNTON ABBEY

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18 @ 11:30PM

As the top-rated PBS drama of all time approaches its sixth and final season in January 2016, join host Hugh Bonneville, who portrays Robert, Earl of Grantham, to look back on this remarkable series and its beloved characters.

A Salute to Downton Abbey gives a tantalizing glimpse of what the climactic nine episodes in Season 6 will bring. Where will fate, passion, ambition and duty lead television’s cherished characters?

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ANDREA BOCELLI: CINEMA

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 @ 11:00PM

The international superstar tenor lends his unique voice to a lush symphonic salute to the movies, Andrea Bocelli: Cinema, celebrating some of the greatest celluloid songs and scores of all time written by a varied range of Italian and Hollywood composers. The concert special also reunites Andrea Bocelli with legendary music producer David Foster, whose first collaboration with the tenor was Foster’s own Academy Award-nominated song “The Prayer,” a duet with Celine Dion in 1999.

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27 @ 9:00PM

This Week on Washington Week | Measuring the Mood of America: Concerns About Terror Attacks, Distrust of Elected Leaders

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, President Obama tried to reassure nervous Americans this week that there is no credible intelligence about a terrorist plot against the U.S. New polls show a majority of Americans are fearful that a Paris-style attack could happen near them and there is now growing support for the U.S. to intensify its assault on the Islamic State.

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