PBS Announces Summer 2011 Lineup

Rufus Sewell, Eric Clapton and Little Richard Bring Mystery and Music to All-New Shows

HISTORY DETECTIVES Moves to New Tuesday Night Slot on June 21

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! Season Premieres With New Agatha Christie Whodunits

New AN AMERICAN FAMILY Two-Hour Special Airs on July 7

Masterminds and maestros - it's a summer of mystery and music on PBS. On Sunday, June 19, MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! welcomes back super sleuths Poirot and Miss Marple with all-new episodes. Joining the gifted gumshoe line-up is Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen in the three-part miniseries, "Zen." The HISTORY DETECTIVES crack all-new cases on a new night, Tuesdays, beginning June 21. Summer music fills the airwaves on PBS with all-new GREAT PERFORMANCES, including "Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival 3," and A CAPITOL FOURTH featuring the legendary Little Richard and Broadway star Kelli O'Hara, among others. Many of these shows, including MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! and HISTORY DETECTIVES, are also available for viewing anytime, anywhere on the PBS Video Portal and on PBS' iPad and iPhone Apps, available for free.

Starting Monday, June 20, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW treats viewers to a double whammy of appraisals and antiques. Throughout the summer, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW will air at 8:00 p.m. ET and 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday nights. Also, this season, HISTORY DETECTIVES gets to the bottom of an item formerly appraised on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW - the first-ever object crossover between the two programs.

This July, PBS presents a two-hour AN AMERICAN FAMILY special comprised of filmmakers' selections of scenes handpicked from the groundbreaking 1973 series, a cinema vérité production that followed the lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara. The special premieres Thursday, July 7, 2011, 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET.

Who knows, you might uncover something new this summer with PBS...

Season highlights:

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET "Nixon in China"

Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 9:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. ET

Composer John Adams conducts the Met premiere of his most-famous opera. Baritone James Maddalena stars in the title role. Peter Sellars directs.

GREAT PERFORMANCES "Jackie Evancho: Dream With Me in Concert"

June 2011 (check local listings)

Jackie Evancho - the 11-year-old soprano with the extraordinary voice who came to national prominence on "America's Got Talent" - returns to PBS after her sensational guest appearance on GREAT PERFORMANCES "Hitman Returns: David Foster & Friends."

GREAT PERFORMANCES "Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival 3"

June 6, 2011 (check local listings)

Grammy Award-winning guitar superstar Eric Clapton has re-teamed with fellow "guitar gods" for a third Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, America's Blues Capital.

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!

Sundays, beginning June 19, 2011, 9:00 p.m. ET

"Poirot XI"

Sundays, June 19-July 3, 2011, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

David Suchet ("The Way We Live Now") returns as suave Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot in three brand-new mysteries based on the novels by Agatha Christie.

"Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Series V"

Sunday, July 10, 2011, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

Acclaimed British actress Julia McKenzie (MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Cranford") stars as the beloved spinster sleuth Miss Marple in a new episode of the popular Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series.

"Zen"

Sundays, July 17-31, 2011, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

What does an honest cop do when his bosses are on the side of the lawbreakers? Outwitting prosecutors, politicians, mobsters, and run-of-the-mill kidnappers and killers, Detective Aurelio Zen brings justice to modern-day Italy, whether the authorities want it or not, on "Zen," a trio of spellbinding cases based on the bestselling novels by Michael Dibdin.

HISTORY DETECTIVES

*NEW NIGHT* Tuesdays, premiering June 21, 2011, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET

America's top gumshoes are back to prove once again that an object found in an attic or backyard might be anything but ordinary. Wesley Cowan, independent appraiser and auctioneer; Gwendolyn Wright, historian and professor of architecture, Columbia University; Elyse Luray, independent appraiser and expert in art history; Dr. Eduardo Pagan, professor of history and American studies at Arizona State University; and Tukufu Zuberi, professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, leave no stone unturned as they travel around the country to explore the stories behind local folklore, prominent figures and family legends.

A CAPITOL FOURTH 2011

Monday, July 4, 2011, 8:00-9:30 p.m. ET

America's biggest and brightest birthday party, A CAPITOL FOURTH, features unrivaled musical performances by some of the country's best-known and award-winning musicians, including Little Richard and Kelli O'Hara, in performance with the National Symphony Orchestra live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

AN AMERICAN FAMILY

Thursday, July 7, 2011, 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET

Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond present handpicked selections from their groundbreaking 1973 cinema vérité series.

GREAT PERFORMANCES "Rigoletto from Mantua"

Friday, July 15, 2011, 9:30 p.m.-12:00 a.m. ET (check local listings)

From Andrea Andermann - producer of the acclaimed on-location productions of Tosca From Rome and La Traviata From Paris - comes a visually and musically spectacular production of Verdi's Rigoletto, filmed in and around the Renaissance splendor of Mantua, Italy, in the places and hours specified in the libretto. Starring tenor Placido Domingo.

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