Join WETA to celebrate the career of legendary musician and songwriter Carole King. WETA Presents: In Performance at the White House Gershwin Prize: Carole King airs tonight, May 28 at 8:00pm. Famous for her own music and for writing a laundry list of hits for other artists, King broke records with her 1971 album Tapestry. King will be honored by President Barack Obama with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song 2013. Held in the East Room of the White House, the event will feature performances from Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, James Taylor and Trisha Yearwood. The prize has previously been awarded to Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Sir Paul McCartney, and the duo of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. King is the first woman to be awarded with the prize. 

Watch tonight at 8:00pm on WETA TV26 & HD.

Click here to watch a preview of the show & a video of Carole King performing "I Feel the Earth Move" 1971.

Every Monday, the Programmer’s Choice gives you highlights from this week’s WETA UK schedule. These highlights include new shows, new seasons, special episodes, and refreshers on WETA UK favorites. Read on to see what WETA UK shows are featured this week March 18 – March 24!

Read the full blog post to watch trailers of these shows!

Monday at 7:30pm begin season 2 of the hearty series Fresh Fields. Hester and William Fields are bored empty nesters. William is an accountant and Hester does random things around town including taking care of her elderly mother and gossiping with her neighbor Sonia. Stars: Julia McKenzie (Miss Marple, Return to Cranford), Anton Rodgers (May to December). Also airs throughout the week.

Tuesday at 7:30pm catch the first episode of May to December season 2. Two unlikely people find a mutual love of old musicals humor sparking a romance surprising much more than just themselves. Stars: Anton Rodgers (Fresh Fields), Frances White (I, Claudius). Also airs throughout the week. 

Wednesday at 11:00pm continue the action and humor of Hustle. Master con-man Mickey Bricks and his team of talented con artists have a very important rule: never con an honest man. So instead, they have lots of greedy enemies lined up for some of their boldest cons yet. Tough decisions and plenty of fun as the team goes head to head with some of the meanest, greediest people society has to offer. Stars: Adrian Lester, Robert Glenister (Prime Suspect), Robert Vaughn, Matt Di Angelo (EastEnders), and Kelly Adams.

Thursday at 8:00pm rekindle your love of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. This week, Holmes and Watson take on The Norwood Builder, when a notorious retiree is found murdered, his recently-named heir is the prime suspect. Also airs: Saturday at 2:00pm. Then at 9:30pm Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings investigates the mystery Double Sin in Agatha Christie’s Poirot. A woman is robbed while delivering a set of antique Napoleon miniatures to an American collector. Poirot and Hastings set out to find the thief. Also airs: Saturday at 4:00pm.

Friday at 8:00pm get your warm-hearted laughs with The Café. Three generations of a family host customers at their seafront cafe in this warm and funny comedy series. Sarah moves back home from London, having lost her boyfriend and her job, so she's helping her mum Carol at the café. But returning home has its pluses and minuses. Also airs: Tuesday at 5:30pm.

Saturday at 9:30pm experience Masterpiece Contemporary: Framed. Based on the bestselling book by Frank Cottrell Boyce, when London's National Gallery accidentally floods, treasured paintings must be transferred to an abandoned slate mine in the Welsh countryside for safety. Curator Quentin Lester is secretly pleased to have the art all to himself but while away, he encounters a lineup of quirky neighbors causing Lester great concern. Stars: Trevor Eve (Waking the Dead) and Eve Myles (Little Dorrit). Also airs: Sunday at 1:30pm.

Sunday at 5:00pm kick off season 2 of Born and Bred! In season 1, Tom Gilder moved his wife Deborah and four children from the busy city of Manchester to rural Ormston to take on the responsibility of his father’s practice. Despite a few old versus new clashes, Tom quickly settled in and together they got the go-ahead to make the cottage hospital a success. In season two, get ready for a whole new set of problems for the father-and-son practice. Delve further into the lives of the villagers, including some highly amusing incidents. Stars: James Bolam, Michael French (EastEnders), and Clive Swift (Keeping up Appearances). Also airs throughout the week. 

The WETA Kids Block Party showcases every episode of all your favorite shows from the week, back-to-back in a special block on Saturdays and Sundays. If you’re up late on Saturday, watch every WordGirl episode from the previous week from 10:30pm – 1:00am or DVR it for Sunday morning!

But coming next week, we have something extra special for WordGirl fans: March-Enemy Week! Everyone’s favorite vocabulary-slinging super hero squares off against a cavalcade of evil-doers in WordGirl: March-Enemy Week! From March 11-15, WETA KIDS has five brand-new WordGirl episodes including the two-part Dinner or Consequences. The title of this week’s theme is a play on “arch enemy”. This means every episode is action-packed with an encounter between WordGirl and some of her most nefarious foes: Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy, Birthday Girl, Tobey, The Butcher, Granny Mae, The Energy Monster, and, of course, Dr. Two Brains.

Click here to watch a preview of WordGirl: March-Enemy Week!

Be sure to tune in March 11-15 for five all new WordGirl episodes and stop in every Saturday from 10:30pm – 1:00am for The WETA Kids Block Party: WordGirl.

For more WETA Kids Block Party information, check out our blog post on The WETA Kids Block Party Curious George, The WETA Kids Block Party Dinosaur Train, and The WETA Kids Block Party Wild Kratts!

Day at the Museum / Best Fan Club Meeting Ever

Take a look at what WETA television has to offer this January! Read show descriptions, watch video previews, and let us know in the comments what you’re most excited to see! Our channel guide is below so you can find and watch WETA TV26 & WETA HD in your DC, MD, or VA home!

Subscribe to our blog and return next week to find out when you can catch up on season 2 of Downton Abbey before the season 3 premiere on WETA January 6! 

Great Performances From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2013

Tuesday January 1 at 8:00pm & Wednesday at 3:00pm

Continue the tradition of ringing in the New Year with host Julie Andrews and the Vienna Philharmonic at the opulent Musikverein. Experience guest conductor Franz Welser-Most and the Strauss family waltzes accompanied by the beautiful dancing of the Vienna City Ballet.

Life on Fire

Wednesdays at 10:00pm beginning January 2

Get a close up look at volcanoes, a never seen before look at their effect on the environment around them. Each episode of Life on Fire paints survival stories around different volcanoes. Each time a volcano erupts, animals have a choice: face the consequences or flee. Fragile and engaging, these creatures teach us lessons in survival in a world as fascinating as it is dangerous.

Midsomer Murders III & IV

Thursday evenings beginning January 3 | Repeats Friday afternoons

The rural countryside of a fictional county in England provides the backdrop for this crime series based on the novels of Caroline Graham. A lush visual style, quirky characters and ubiquitous red herrings recall classic public television British mysteries of the past. At the center of the Midsomer Murders investigations is Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. Episodes begin at either 9:00pm or 10:00pm depending on the length of the previous show. Click here to check when Midsomer Murders is on WETA TV26 & HD!

Life of Mammals 

Two episodes back-to-back Mondays at 9:00pm beginning January 7 | Repeat Tuesdays at 4:00pm

David Attenborough introduces us to the most diverse group of animals ever to live on Earth, from the smallest to the largest. This is the story of 4,000 species which have outlived the dinosaurs and conquered the farthest places on earth, dry or wet, hot or cold.

Pioneers of Television 

Tuesdays at 8:00pm beginning January 8 | Repeat Wednesdays at 4:00pm & Sundays at 4:00pm

This series transports viewers behind the scenes for a revealing look at the inception of specific aspects of television history: Late Night shows, Funny Ladies, Prime Time Soaps, Superheroes.

American Experience: The Abolitionists

Tuesdays at 9:00pm beginning January 8 | Repeat Wednesdays at 3:00pm

Bringing to life the intertwined stories of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimké, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown, The Abolitionists takes place during some of the most violent and contentious decades in American history, amid white-hot religious passions that set souls on fire, and bitter debates over the meaning of the Constitution and the nature of race. The show reveals how the movement shaped history by exposing the fatal flaw of a republic founded on liberty for some and bondage for others, setting the nation on a collision course. In the face of personal risks -- beatings, imprisonment, even death -- abolitionists held fast to their cause, laying the civil rights groundwork for the future and raising weighty constitutional and moral questions that are with us still.

Midsomer Murders V 

Sundays at 7:30pm - 9:00pm beginning January 13

In this crime drama, Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby of the Causton C.I.D. is a terse, down-to-earth detective who faces many ingenious and remarkable murders. These are not repeats of the Thursday night episodes. This is season 5!

Call the Midwife

Sundays at 10:00pm & 11:00pm beginning January 13

This moving, intimate, funny, and true-to-life series, based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth, tells colorful stories of midwifery and families in London’s East End in the 1950s. Jenny Lee, a young woman raised in the wealthy English countryside, has chosen to become a nurse and now, as a newly qualified midwife, has gone to work in the poorest area of the city. Attached to an order of nursing nuns at Nonnatus House, Jenny is part of a team of women who minister to expectant mothers, many of whom give birth at home in appalling conditions. The drama follows Jenny as she meets her patients and learns to love the people who live in the East End.

Shakespeare Uncovered

Fridays at 10:00pm & 11:00pm beginning January 25 | Repeat Sundays at 2:00pm & 3:00pm

Six episodes combine history, biography, iconic performances, new analysis and the personal passion of its celebrated hosts — Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Irons, Derek Jacobi, Trevor Nunn, Joely Richardson and David Tennant — to tell the story behind the stories of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Each episode combines interviews with actors, directors and scholars, along with visits to key locations, clips from some of the most celebrated film and television adaptations, and illustrative excerpts from the plays specially staged for the series at Shakespeare's Globe in London.