AUSTRALIA’S FIRST 4 BILLION YEARS

AWAKENING

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16 @ 10:00PM

What can Australia reveal about how Earth was born and how life took hold? Join NOVA and host Dr. Richard Smith as they journey back to the very beginning of the Australian story in “Awakening.” The first stop is Western Australia, around four and a half billion years ago, where we encounter an Earth shortly after its fiery birth. Hidden in the red hills of Australia are clues to the mysteries of when the Earth was born, how life first arose, and how it transformed the planet. Experts unveil how the earliest forms of life—an odd assortment of bacterial slime—flooded the atmosphere with oxygen, sparking the biological revolution that made animal life possible. It is the beginning of the great drama of life on Earth.

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THE ELEPHANT WHO FOUND A MOTHER

SATURDAY, JULY 19 @ 10:00PM

The story of Aisha, the baby elephant orphan, and Daphne Sheldrick, the woman who became her human foster parent. Their intense bond reaches a crisis point when Daphne leaves Aisha with a babysitter for a few days to attend her daughter’s wedding. Aisha believes she has lost Daphne for good and refuses to eat, leading to her death. Heartbroken, Daphne uses the lessons learned from Aisha’s short life to help her save more than 150 orphans over the next 40 years.

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SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

TEXAS SERVANT GIRL MURDERS

SATURDAY, MARCH 9 @  8:00PM

The Case:

In 1884, a string of gruesome murders terrorized the people of Austin, Texas. Three years before Jack the Ripper struck London, a killer—or possibly multiple killers—brutally attacked and murdered eight women in their beds. The heinous crimes stopped as abruptly as they began, and the slayings have remained unsolved for over a century.

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GETTING BACK TO ABNORMAL

MONDAY, JULY 14 @ 8:00PM

What happens when America’s most joyous, dysfunctional city rebuilds itself after a disaster? New Orleans is the setting for Getting Back to Abnormal, a film that serves up a provocative mix of race, corruption and politics to tell the story of the re-election campaign of Stacy Head, a white woman in a city council seat traditionally held by a black representative. Supported by her irrepressible African-American aide Barbara Lacen-Keller, Head polarizes the city as her candidacy threatens to diminish the power and influence of its black citizens.

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ENDEAVOUR, SEASON 2

SWAY

THURSDAY, JULY 2 @ 9:00PM

With the Oxford Strangler on the loose, Endeavour must put his personal travails aside to narrow down a list of suspects before the killer, armed with a deadly silk stocking, strikes again.

Written by Inspector Lewis creator and Inspector Morse writer Russell Lewis, Sway stars Shaun Evans as young Endeavour Morse, Roger Allam as Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, alongside series regulars Abigail Thaw (daughter of Inspector Morse star John Thaw) and Anton Lesser, with Shvorne Marks as Endeavour’s new neighbor, Monica.

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WASHINGTON WEEK

WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, JULY 11 @ 9:00PM

This Week: Immigration Crisis, Middle East Tensions, U.S.-Germany Spying

The influx of unaccompanied immigrant children has become a burgeoning humanitarian crisis on the Texas border with Mexico. This week President Obama asked Congress for nearly $4 billion in emergency funds to address the child refugee crisis but added that the long-term answer would be to pass a year-old bipartisan Senate bill overhauling the immigration system. Republicans said they would consider the president’s request if it included amending a 2008 law that bars the immediate deportation of unaccompanied minors from countries other than Canada or Mexico.

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MYSTERY OF A MASTERPIECE

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14 @ 10:00PM

In October 2007, a striking portrait of a young woman in Renaissance dress made world news headlines. Originally sold nine years before for around $20,000, the portrait is now thought to be an undiscovered masterwork by Leonardo da Vinci worth more than $100 million. How did cutting-edge imaging analysis help tie the portrait to Leonardo? NOVA meets a new breed of experts who are approaching “cold case” art mysteries as if they were crime scenes, determined to discover “who committed the art.” And it follows art sleuths as they deploy new techniques to combat the multibillion-dollar criminal market in stolen and fraudulent art.

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PETRA

TUESDAY, JULY 15 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

Structural engineer Steve Burrows leads his team of laser-scanning experts to Jordan in the Middle East, to scan the ancient desert city of Petra. Using cutting-edge 3D laser-scanning technology he wants to discover its construction secrets and shed new light on this architectural wonderland that was lost to the West for more than 1,000 years.

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SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GLENN

TUESDAY, JULY 7 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

As Glenn Miller’s musical career soared, he traded in his commercial success for a military uniform to entertain US troops during World War II. Then, on a foggy afternoon, December 15, 1944, he took off from England heading for France. His plane vanished over the English Channel. Glenn Miller was never seen again.

Since that fateful day, Glenn Miller’s disappearance has remained a mystery. Did friendly fire destroy the plane? Was Miller involved in espionage? Was he on a secret mission to end the war?

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MY WAY TO OLYMPIA

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 @ 10:00PM

Who better to cover the Paralympics, the international sporting event for athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities, than Niko von Glasow, the world’s best-known disabled filmmaker? Unfortunately — or fortunately for anyone seeking an insightful and funny documentary — this filmmaker frankly hates sports and thinks the games are “a stupid idea.” Born with severely shortened arms, von Glasow serves as an endearing guide to London’s Paralympics competition in My Way to Olympia.

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