October is going to be one of the busiest months of the year on PBS because of the upcoming presidential election. There are many news specials and documentaries dedicated to the election. Thankfully, PBS isn’t wall-to-wall election coverage, and there are still new nature and science documentaries to enjoy as well.
PBS is also launching two new British dramas this month: The Marlow Murder Club and Velvet. Those kinds of shows almost always draw more attention to PBS, especially when they sidestep streaming for their American premieres. The best part is that everything on PBS is free. Public Broadcast System lives up to its name each and every month, so you enjoy it on your local PBS station or stream online through PBS’ official site.
If you missed the best shows on PBS from September, you can still stream those online. But you will have to wait for the premiere dates listed below to catch everything coming to PBS in October.
Are you looking for more shows to watch this month? If so, check out our guides on the best new shows to stream, the best shows on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, and the best shows on Disney+.
American Experience — The American Vice President
Premieres: Monday, October 1
What happens when the president is unable to serve due to death or incapacity? This film explores the fraught period between 1963 and 1976 when a grief-and-scandal-stricken America was forced to confront the purpose of the vice president and the succession process via the evolution of the 25th Amendment.
PBS News Special CBS News Vice Presidential Debate Simulcast
Premieres: Monday, October 1
PBS News offers live special coverage of the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate simulcast, co-anchored by Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz, with reporting from the News Hour team and expert analysis from additional guests.
Nova — Solar System: Storm Worlds
Premieres: Wednesday, October 2
Across the solar system, wild storms are raging. From globe-spanning dust storms to monsoons of liquid methane to monstrous storms with lightning bolts 10 times more energetic than anything on Earth, our solar system is full of weird and wonderful weather. Explore the forces that create the truly awesome and extreme conditions found on our neighboring planets and moons.
Secrets of the Dead — Returning to Babylon
Premieres: Wednesday, October 2
Returning to Babylon is a moving story of a people reclaiming their cultural heritage after an occupying force tried to erase it. Priceless artifacts from the Assyrian Empire were destroyed during the Isis occupation of Mosul. Now, archaeologists are dedicated to finding pieces that survived. One possible discovery is the location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Voces — Mambo Legends: The Music Never Ends
Premieres: Friday, October 4
The Mambo Legends Orchestra is committed to keeping the sounds of the great Afro-Cuban band leaders Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez alive for future generations. Comprised of several former members of legendary orchestras, The Mambo Legends provide a link to the golden era of music in New York in the early 1940s. Machito Orchestra fused the big-band sound of popular music with the rhythms of Africa, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to create an enduring musical genre beloved around the world.
POV — In the Rearview
Premieres: Monday, October 7
In a volunteer aid van occupied by multiple generations of civilians, an authentic, intimate observation of the war in Ukraine unfolds. Each passenger is unique in age, origin, and circumstance, but alike in where they find themselves — huddled together in a cramped backseat. Bound for Poland, the vehicle operates as a shelter, waiting room, hospital, and confessional.
Citizen Nation
Premieres: Tuesday, October 8
This four-part documentary series is an inspiring coming-of-age story that follows teenagers from across America as they face off in the nation’s premier civics competition. In a championship showdown in the nation’s capital, high school students with diverse personal and political backgrounds grapple with critical questions about democracy. Watch the future unfold on Citizen Nation as a new generation discovers what it means to show up, be civil, and tackle the big issues straight on.
Frontline — The VP Choice: Vance vs. Walz
Premieres: October 8
Frontline investigates the lives and views of JD Vance and Tim Walz as they run for vice president. In a historic election, those who know the candidates best reveal the influences and ideas they’d bring to the White House.
Nova — Solar System: Strange Worlds
Premieres: Wednesday, October 9
There’s no other way to describe it. Some worlds in our solar system just look strange. But these worlds, misshapen in the weirdest ways, offer clues to understanding how the fundamental force of nature and gravity works to shape our solar system. From a dwarf planet that looks like a deflated football to a tiny moon with cliffs taller than Mt. Everest to the spectacular rings of Saturn, discover how the effects of gravity produce the amazing variety of bizarre worlds in our solar system.
Secrets of the Dead — Mozart’s Sister
Premieres: Wednesday, October 9
Maria Anna Mozart was a musical prodigy, just like her younger brother Wolfgang. Although the children toured Europe together, Wolfgang become a star, but Maria Anna was left behind once she came of age. However, new controversial evidence suggests she may have contributed to her brother’s earliest works while a global search for her compositions continues.
Velvet
Premieres: Thursday, October 10
In late 1950s Madrid, the golden age of haute couture, there was one place everyone would like to shop at least once in their lifetime: the Galerías Velvet. The series follows the love story of Alberto Márquez, heir of Galerías Velvet, one of the most prestigious fashion houses in Spain, and Ana Ribera, who works as a seamstress there.
Next At the Kennedy Center — Snarky Puppy: The Family We Make
Premieres: Friday, October 11
Snarky Puppy, the acclaimed Grammy Award-winning band, brings their genre-breaking sound to a sold-out show at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. When one of the main guest artists, Afro-Peruvian icon Susana Baca, falls ill, the band quickly comes up with a new plan to transform the concert into a loving tribute to her music and influence. Joined on stage by stars from several Spanish-speaking countries — including Silvana Estrada (Mexico), Gaby Moreno (Guatemala), Silvia Pérez Cruz (Spain), and Fuensanta (Mexico) — they perform a special “Family Dinner”-style concert, playing their own songs along with Susana’s.
POV — Twice Colonized
Premieres: Monday, October 14
Aaju Peter is a renowned Inuit lawyer and activist who defends the human rights of Indigenous peoples. She’s a fierce protector of her ancestral lands in the Arctic and works to bring her colonizers to justice. As Aaju launches an inspiring effort to establish an Indigenous forum, she also embarks upon a deeply personal journey to mend her own wounds, including the unexpected passing of her son.
Frontline — A Year of War: Israelis and Palestinians
Premieres: Tuesday, October 15
Frontline explores the horrifying accounts of living through the Hamas attack and the war in Gaza, told by the people directly impacted on both sides of the conflict, the death, despair, and ongoing trauma.
Nova — Solar System: Volcano Worlds
Premieres: Wednesday, October 16
All around our solar system, volcanoes are powerful shapers of worlds. Next door on Mars is Olympus Mons, a giant volcanic mountain more than twice the size of Mt. Everest. And closer to the Sun, thousands of volcanoes produce the toxic atmosphere that keeps Venus boiling. Then there’s Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the entire solar system, and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where clues in its watery eruptions hint at the possibility of life. Discover the explosive forces that molded each of these worlds, and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.
Secrets of the Dead: The Herculaneum Scrolls
Premieres: Wednesday, October 16
Making headlines around the world, Brent Seales and his team of computer scientists set out on a mission to read the 2,000-year-old carbonized scrolls found in the remains of a villa in Herculaneum. Mt. Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD transformed the papyri, fusing together the layers of the scrolls and making them impossible to read. Can particle physics and AI finally reveal what the scrolls say?
Next At the Kennedy Center — Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet: Deep River
Premieres: Friday, October 18
Alonzo King LINES Ballet performs the elegant piece, Deep River, in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran. Founder and choreographer Alonzo King invites audiences to look at human beings as the pinnacle of creation in this deeply soulful work. The San Francisco-based contemporary dance company is recognized for its impeccable technique, captivating dancers, and rich visual works that challenge the way we look at ballet.
POV — Tokyo Uber Blues
Premieres: Monday, October 21
Shot with a mix of smartphones and GoPros from a first-person perspective, filmmaker Taku Aoyagi takes us on his daily bike rides as an Uber Eats worker. But pedaling on Tokyo’s deserted streets, delivering boba tea to cloistered condos, he starts wondering, “What was it that Ken Loach said about the Uberization of society?” “And what does gig work offer an unemployed person with student debt?
Voces Latino Vote 2024
Premieres: Tuesday, October 22
This new documentary explores the range of issues that matter most to the politically diverse Latino community in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Arizona, as well as in California and Florida, two states with large Latino populations. The film also examines the influence of Latino evangelical pastors in shaping community perspectives and the role that Spanish-language media will play in the 2024 election.
Nature — Silverback
Premieres: Wednesday, October 23
Silverback is an observational documentary following cinematographer Vianet D’jenguet (Nature “MyCongo”) as he fulfills his lifelong dream to embed himself within a wild gorilla troop. Follow D’jenguet as he joins the park rangers of Kahuzi-Bienga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
With less than 5,000 gorillas left in the wild, the goal is to create vital income from tourism by habituating a family of 23 gorillas, led by Mpungwe, so tourists can safely observe them in the forest. The habituation process has never been filmed before. The silverback’s role is to protect its family from perceived threats, making it that much more dangerous to film.
Nova — Solar System: Icy Worlds
Premieres: Wednesday, October 23
Ice might seem familiar to us on Earth, but out in the solar system, it can get quite exotic. From Uranus’s ultrahot superionic ice to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto to carbon dioxide snow on Mars, ice is a fundamental building block throughout our cosmic neighborhood. Visit some of the strange, frozen worlds of our solar system to discover why the ice here on Earth is so special, and why we wouldn’t be here without it.
Secrets of the Dead: The Civil War’s Lost Massacre
Premieres: Wednesday, October 23
Originally a supply depot for Union forces in Kentucky, Camp Nelson became the site where 10,000 Black soldiers trained in the Civil War. But the war’s end brought violence to these soldiers at the hands of bitter Southerners. With their remains missing, a team attempts to find them and memorialize their service and heroism.
Great Performances — Émigré
Premieres: Friday, October 25
Enjoy this semi-staged oratorio, featuring the New York Philharmonic and an international cast telling the story of Jewish refugees during World War II. Following Kristallnacht in 1938, two brothers are sent halfway around the world to Shanghai to escape the threat of Nazis. Otto cherishes his heritage, while Josef seeks a new path and falls in love with Lina, a Chinese woman recovering from the loss of her mother in the Nanjing Massacre.
A sweeping tale of love and loss, Émigré is set to music by composer Aaron Zigman with lyrics by Grammy-winning librettist Mark Campbell and additional lyrics by Brock Walsh. Long Yu conducts this New York Philharmonic co-commission with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
The Marlow Murder Club on Masterpiece
Premieres: Sunday, October 27
Retired archaeologist Judith (Samantha Bond in Downton Abbey), vicar’s wife Becks, and local dog-walker Suzie forge an unlikely friendship as amateur sleuths as they race against time to stop a serial killer in their town. The Marlow Murder Club is based on the bestselling novel by Robert Thorogood.
Voces — Our Texas, Our Vote
Premieres: Monday, October 28
On the eve of the upcoming presidential election, acclaimed filmmaker Hector Galán takes viewers inside the largest Latino voter registration mobilization in Texas history, led by a new generation on the frontlines of a growing swing state that neither political party can ignore.
Frontline — American Voices 2024
Premieres: Tuesday, October 29
Frontline follows the changing views and experiences of Americans from the 2020 election to today. Returning to voters filmed four years ago, to see how their hopes and fears have changed amid another polarizing election season.
Nature — Dracula’s Hidden Kingdom
Premieres: Wednesday, October 30
Discover Transylvania, a region in central Romania that most people have heard of but few can place on a map. It is a land of mystery and mythology, home to some of the biggest wolf packs in the world who roam across seemingly endless untouched mountain ranges. A sanctuary to vast ancient forests, the land has never seen a chainsaw and is the realm of the magnificent lynx and European brown bear.
It is a land where crumbling medieval villages abandoned by humans long ago have been resettled by elegant storks — the mythical child-bearers of olden times. Bats shelter in the crumbling castles and in the basilica. Follow one family of mouse-eared bats as they struggle to bring up their fragile young in the ruined walls.
Nova — Solar System: Wandering Worlds
Premieres: Wednesday, October 30
The classic view of our solar system contains eight orderly planets, some with moons in neat orbits, but when we look closer, we discover a bunch of stuff missing from this simple, clockwork model. Wandering worlds that seem out of place, found in the gaps between and beyond the planets, offer clues that our cosmic neighborhood is far more dynamic than we once thought. Between the meteorites that impact Earth, a moon that orbits backward, and an imposter lurking in the asteroid belt, these wandering worlds are rewriting what we know — and even how we think about — our solar system.
Secrets of the Dead — Field of Vampires
Premieres: Wednesday, October 30
In 2022, a female skeleton dating from 1650 was found buried with a sickle across her neck and a giant padlock on her toe — double protection to keep her from rising from the dead. All the evidence points to her being buried as a vampire… and she’s not alone, with more than 50 deviant burials around her. Who was she, and what did these burial rituals mean?
