NOVA

SMARTEST MACHINE ON EARTH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 @ 10:00PM “Watson,” an IBM computing system, is gearing up for a first-of-its-kind challenge—taking on human contestants on the game show Jeopardy!With a brain the size of 2,400 home computers and a database of about 10 million documents, will Watson be able to compute its way to victory? Find out more...

NATURE

THE LONELIEST ANIMALS SATURDAY, MARCH 23 @ 10:00PM Around the globe, unique and fascinating species face extinction from hunting and habitat destruction, which affects vulnerable animals in every kind of environment. Biologists, conservationists, wildlife preservation centers and zoological parks work to breed and shelter rare and critically endangered animals when and where they can, but many...

TIME TEAM SPECIAL EDITION

THURSDAY, MARCH 21 @ MIDNIGHT In Time Team: Special Edition, the United Kingdom’s groundbreaking archaeology series takes viewers on an expedition to Jamestown, Virginia, where a British company’s commercial enterprise planted the seeds of the United States. There have been nearly a million finds from the site’s trenches, but this anniversary special is far more than just an...

FRONTLINE

INSIDE JAPAN’S NUCLEAR MELTDOWN THURSDAY, MARCH 21 @ 10:00PM In the desperate hours and days after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the fate of thousands of Japanese citizens fell into the hands of a small corps of engineers, firemen and soldiers who risked their lives to prevent the Daiichi nuclear complex from complete meltdown. This is their story, with rare footage from inside the plant...

WASHINGTON WEEK

WITH GWEN IFILL FRIDAY, MARCH 15 @ 9:00PM President Barack Obama continued his “charm offensive” this week meeting with House Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. While the president tried to broker a bipartisan budget deal, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled a new GOP budget proposal and Senator Patty Murray unveiled the Democratic blueprint. The reactions by both...