Around the Tubes: 10/9/15

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on StarTalk, Mary Tyler Moore: A Celebration, Fargo, Brain Surgery Live with Mental Floss, Breakthrough Prize, I Love Kellie Pickler, Hulu, House of Lies.

- The second season of National Geographic Channel’s Emmy®-nominated series StarTalk hosted by Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (natgeotv.com/StarTalk, #StarTalkTV) will premiere Sunday, Oct. 25, at 11:00. President Bill Clinton will be the first guest of the new season, and additional guests include Susan Sarandon, Seth MacFarlane, David Byrne, Larry Wilmore, Bas Lansdorp, Penn and Teller, David Crosby, Brian Cox and Gina McCarthy.

- Mary Tyler Moore: A Celebration, airing Tuesday, October 13, at 8:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, honors the influential TV icon by looking at her 50-plus-year career that spanned award-wining films and Broadway shows, as well as two beloved television series that broke ground and continue to entertain viewers. The show also features recent interviews with many of Mary’s co-stars including Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, Valerie Harper, Ed Asner and Carl Reiner, who fondly and emotionally recall Moore’s career accomplishments and the role her television characters played in shaping today’s society.

- FXM will air the Emmy® and Golden Globe® winning first installment of FX’s limited series Fargo on October 11, the day before the premiere of the highly-anticipated second installment. The Fargo marathon will air all 10 episodes in sequence beginning at 2 PM and feature a commercial-free exhibition of the first episode, The Crocodile’s Dilemma.

- National Geographic Channel (NGC; @NatGeoChannel), in a partnership with Mental Floss (@mental_floss), will capture the drama of an awake deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, a modern-day medical marvel, to celebrate our most complex machine, the human brain. Produced by Leftfield Pictures, Brain Surgery Live with Mental Floss (#BrainSurgeryLive) will blend live coverage from the operating room at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center (@UHhospitals) in Cleveland, Ohio — a first on U.S. television — with preproduced features that chronicle what science and medicine have historically taught us about the brain, and what is yet to be discovered. The live two-hour special premieres in the U.S. Sunday, Oct. 25, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on NGC and Nat Geo Mundo, and globally in 171 countries and 45 languages (live in some regions, live to tape in others).

- National Geographic Channel and FOX will honor today’s most prominent scientists and mathematicians by airing the Breakthrough Prize ceremony, which will be broadcast live in the U.S. on National Geographic Channel Sunday, Nov. 8, at 10/9c, with a one-hour version of the ceremony scheduled for FOX on Sunday, Nov. 29, at 7-8 p.m. ET/PT.

- CMT today announced the updated premiere for the highly anticipated docu-comedy I Love Kellie Pickler, starring Kellie Pickler and her husband, Kyle Jacobs, on Thursday, November 5 at 10:00.

- Hulu and Viacom today announced a renewal and expansion of their content partnership that grants Hulu the exclusive subscription video on-demand rights to selected top-rated series from Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV. The deal continues their existing relationship under which full episodes of late night shows including The Daily Show with Trevor Noah are available to stream on Hulu the day after airing on linear broadcast, and current seasons of selected shows from Viacom’s media networks remain available to stream on delay after airing on linear broadcast. All Viacom series will be available to stream on Hulu with a subscription for $7.99 per month with limited commercials and $11.99 per month with no commercials.

- Emmy Award-winning comedian Wanda Sykes (Alpha House, The New Adventures of Old Christine) has signed on to guest star on the fifth season of the hit SHOWTIME comedy series House of Lies. In addition, three-time Emmy Award nominee Ken Marino (Children’s Hospital, Marry Me) and Nicky Whelan (Matador, Franklin & Bash) will also guest star. Marino will reunite with his Veronica Mars co-star Kristen Bell playing her love interest “Mark.” Production on the new season starts this month for premiere on Showtime in 2016 on-air, on demand and over the internet.