Around the Tubes: 9/16/16

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 Mission Critical, Global Citizen: The World on Stage, Mars, Star Wars, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Waylon Jennings.

- Thursday, September 22, is World Rhino Day. As a network dedicated to animals and the people who love them, we aim to showcase and celebrate the brave individuals and organizations that are fighting to preserve and protect our world’s amazing wildlife. In honor of this special day, Nat Geo WILD is premiering Operation Sumatran Rhino: Mission Critical on Sunday, Sept. 18 at 9:00 with a special encore on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 9:00. This is the second installment of our new monthly series Mission Critical. In Borneo, Sumatran rhinos’ numbers are down to just single digits. Conservationists are on a desperate mission to save the country’s last individuals. The only way to ensure the safety and survival of these last rhinos is to capture all remaining in the wild — a dangerous and costly operation. Follow Malaysia’s foremost rhino scientists in their incredible quest to save this critically endangered species.

- Tom Morello (Prophets of Rage) and Jon Batiste (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) will curate musical performances for Global Citizen: The World on Stage, an evening bringing renowned artists, world leaders, and influencers together as they address the world’s greatest challenges and make major policy commitments towards ending extreme poverty. The evening of advocacy and impact will take place at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, September 22. The event will feature performances by Tom Morello, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Regina Spektor, Aloe Blacc & Maya Jupiter, Moxie Raia, and The Kenyan Boys Choir. Speakers will include Cecily Strong, Forest Whitaker, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, The Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Nigerian Minister of Environment Amina Mohammed, and Yazidi human rights campaigner Nadia Murad.

- Of all the planets in our solar system, none has captured our collective imagination like Mars — a mysterious, indelible part of the zeitgeist. The quest to send humans to Mars has engaged the top minds in science in a modern-day space race, and it has infiltrated pop culture through blockbusters like Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and through out-of-this-world tweets from astronaut Scott Kelly. Now, National Geographic Channel; Academy Award- and Emmy-winning producers Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg of Imagine Entertainment; and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning producer Justin Wilkes, Academy Award- and Emmy-winning producer Jon Kamen, and Dave O’Connor of RadicalMedia and visionary Mexican filmmaker Everardo Gout (“Days of Grace”), have joined forces to launch viewers farther into outer space than ever before with the global event series Mars. Premiering on the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Mundo in the U.S. on Monday, Nov. 14 at 9:00 and internationally in 170 countries and 45 languages on Sunday, Nov. 13, Mars — which is set both in the future and in the present day — will redefine television storytelling by combining feature film-quality scripted drama and visual effects with best-in-class documentary sequences to drive forward a cohesive, edge-of-your-seat story of mankind’s thrilling quest to colonize Mars.

- Global media company Turner has entered into multi-year licensing agreements for the Star Wars movie collection through unprecedented domestic deals with The Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox that grant TNT & TBS the exclusive linear basic cable and companion ad-supported on-demand rights to Star Wars. The agreement with Disney for 10 films includes the network premiere windows to last year's record-breaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens and this year's highly anticipated Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which opens in theaters on December 16, 2016. The Disney agreement also includes five of the six original classic Star Wars films, as well as the network television premieres of the next three yet-to-be-released movies. The installment that launched the franchise, Star Wars: A New Hope, comes to Turner through a separate arrangement with 20th Century Fox, thus making Turner the only company with basic cable rights to all 11 titles in the collection. The Star Wars movies will come to Turner beginning Tuesday, September 20, when TNT kicks off six consecutive nights of the original classic films (complete schedule below). The movies will also air in December, in conjunction with Disney's theatrical release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. TNT is set to premiere last year's blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens in early 2018, followed in 2019 by this year's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

- On September 24, 2016, the Smithsonian will open the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history and culture. The opening will welcome President Barack Obama and some of the biggest influencers in politics and Hollywood. Smithsonian Channel has partnered with the National Museum of African American History and Culture to produce 130 videos for the inaugural exhibits. The videos, comprised of 450 minutes of footage with an estimated 8,000 images, will be displayed on monitors ranging in size from 22 inches to a massive 186-foot overhead screen.

- Country Rewind Records (a division of Hindsight Records, NY), will introduce one of its newest collections of country music’s hidden treasures—The Lost Nashville Sessions (Waylon Jennings). The project will be available October 21, 2016* via all major digital retail outlets.