'The Roosevelts' opens PBS season
LOS ANGELES - PBS said Thursday its fall season will open with a binge-viewing opportunity: a seven-part Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelt political dynasty.
"The Roosevelts: An Intimate History," will air as two-hour episodes over seven nights, beginning Sept. 14.
Each episode will be repeated nightly and the show will be widely available for post-air online viewing, said Beth Hoppe, PBS chief programming executive.
"I think it's the best thing Ken's done since 'The Civil War,"' Hoppe said. "He thinks it might be the best thing he's ever done."
"The viewer experience is changing and we're trying to dish this up as an epic binge," Hoppe said of the series about U.S. presidents and cousins Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt and FDR's wife, Eleanor.
The Burns family itself will be well-represented on public TV's schedule, with brother Ric Burns' "The Pilgrims," airing Nov. 25, Thanksgiving week. The "American Experience" film will examine what compelled English men and women to voyage to a new land in 1620.
PBS, whose average household rating for the season to date puts it at No. 7 among all broadcast and cable channels, won't have drama ratings champ "Downton Abbey" back on until January.