WXXI TV

Gear Up for Gold: Your Ultimate Viewing Guide Leading Up to the July 2024 Paris Olympic Games

July of 2024 promises two things: long, sun-filled summer days and the much-anticipated Paris Summer Olympics! To make sure our viewers are prepared for the world’s biggest sporting event, we’ve crafted the ultimate viewing guide. Get ready to dive into the most iconic moments in sports to appreciate this Olympic season even further.

#1: American Experience: The Boys of ’36 • Airing Tuesday, July 9 at 9pm on WXXI-TV
In 1936, nine working-class young men from the University of Washington took the rowing world and America by storm when they captured the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Berlin.

#2: Hitler’s Olympics • Airing Tuesday, July 9 at 10pm on WXXI-TV
The complete story of the Berlin games – the early plans, the Nazi takeover, the purge of Jews from German athletics and the grand spectacle itself.

#3: Jesse Owens: American Experience • Airing Saturday, July 20 at 4pm on WXXI-TV
The most famous athlete of his time, Jesse Owens’ grace and athleticism rallied crowds across the globe. But when the four-time Olympic gold medalist returned home, he could not even ride in the front of a bus. The story of the 22-year-old son of a sharecropper who triumphed over adversity to become the hero and world champion we know today.

#4: Gods of Tennis: Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe • Airing Tuesday, July 23 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV
In 1975, the legendary Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe are fighting to become Wimbledon champions, while in their own ways, they are also battling social change for equality on a global level.

Darius Rucker: Live from Nashville• WXXI-TV

Join the triple Grammy winner for new songs, Hootie & the Blowfish classics, and his solo hits.

Darius Rucker: Live from Nashville airs Sunday, July 7 at 2:30 p.m. on WXX-TV

Grab a front-row seat as the three-time Grammy Award winner performs songs from his latest album, Carolyn’s Boys, along with Hootie & the Blowfish classics and his solo country hits, including a special performance of Diamond-certified “Wagon Wheel” with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor.

RIT Shorts • WXXI-TV

WXXI puts a spotlight on the work of Rochester Institute of Technology film and photo journalism students by presenting three short films.

RIT Shorts airs Friday, July 12 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV. Repeats Saturday, July 13 at 4:30 p.m.

The first edition of RIT Shorts features three short films themed around sports. They include:

Back to the Ballpark, which chronicles the heartwarming return of the Rochester Red Wings and their devoted fans as a new season kicks off at Innovative Field. It captures the joy and anticipation as players and supporters reunite after a prolonged hiatus. follows five days leading up to the Rochester Red Wings opening day at Innovative Field. The production team includes first-year students Liam McCammon, Max Alves, and Dillon Sharp.

Falling Forward, produced by Georgia Pressley, a fourth-year photojournalism student, follows the story of Pamela Tuety, Adele Long, and Lauren Ayes, who all found roller derby at different times. “It’s almost like an addiction or something,” says Tuety. Is it the pseudonyms and alternate personas, the ferocity of a full-contact sport, or the community of people? The documentary looks inside the lives of three of the players at the Roc City Roller Derby team and what makes the community unique.

Protect Our House, directed by Denna Alece-Dom, a fourth-year animation student, and produced by Michelle Snow, a fourth-year production student who is also pursuing an MBA, introduces viewers to three all-star players of the RIT Division 1 men’s hockey team. The mixed media documentary shares how the unique hockey fan culture impacts their lives both as students and as players.

Photo: From “Back to the Ball Park.” Red Wings players standing for the National Anthem
Photo credit: Liam McCammon

POV: Is There Anyone Out There • WXXI-TV

Watch as filmmaker Ella Glendening goes on a journey to find solidarity and community within her disability.

POV : Is There Anyone Out There airs Monday, July 8 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Born with a rare disability, filmmaker Ella Glendining wonders if there is anyone who can share the experience of living in a body like hers. This simple question–one which non disabled people take for granted, leads to a journey to not only others who live like her–but to the realization that meeting them changes how she views herself in the world, as well as many surprises along the way.

This film is presented as part of Move to Include™ , a national initiative in partnership with WXXI and The Golisano Foundation that uses the power of public media to promote inclusion. Click here to learn more.

A Capitol Fourth • WXXI-TV

Celebrate America’s 248th birthday with a star-studded musical celebration, plus a special tribute to our military heroes and their families.

A Capitol Fourth airs Thursday, July 4 at 8 p.m. and again at 9:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Celebrating America’s National Independence, A Capitol Fourth honors our country’s birthday with an all-star salute. America’s longest-running live national Independence Day TV tradition, this television event features performances by top stars from pop, country, R&B, classical and Broadway with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of premier pops conductor Jack Everly to set the tone for a spectacular American birthday party. This top-rated extravaganza features coverage from 20 cameras positioned around Washington, D.C., ensuring viewers an amazing show featuring the greatest display of fireworks in the nation.

POV “Hummingbirds” • WXXI-TV

Hummingbirds- an upbeat documentary feature, centers on the lived experiences of its protagonist directors, Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras, who grew up in the shadow of the Texas borderlands.

POV “Hummingbirds” airs Monday, July 1 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Captured during the balmy summer nights of their fleeting youth in Laredo, Texas, best friends and directors Castaños and Contreras—the former from Laredo and the latter from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico—narrate their coming-of-age journey, transforming their border-town locale into a haven of creative expression and activist mischief. Through collaborative filmmaking, their cinematic self-portrait exalts the potency of friendship and joy as tools of survival and resistance.

Between drive-thru’s, friends’ couches, and the borderlands, both friends confront the stresses of survival, the future, and the imperative of community building. For them, this means protest action for legal abortion and against border militarization, in a politically divided America. But the summer heat is also a time for poetry and dreams. Their laughter and creative expression cement a sense of solidarity and belonging in togetherness.

Cyndi Lauper Live… At Last • WXXI-TV

Experience one of Cyndi Lauper’s most intimate and iconic performances from the comfort of your home with this PBS special.

Cyndi Lauper Live… At Last airs Sunday, June 30 at 1 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Twenty years after her debut album She’s So Unusual made her an icon, singer Cyndi Lauper performed an intimate concert at New York’s Town Hall. Filmed in 2004, this special features dramatic renditions of her greatest hits including “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “Money Changes Everything,” “Time After Time,” and “True Colors.”

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution – “Stayin’ Alive” • WXXI-TV

This three-part series Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution airs its final episode “Stayin’ Alive,” showcasing how Disco stayed alive despites the strong backlash it received from Middle America, who opposed the genres hedonism, femininity, and queerness.

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution – “Stayin’ Alive” airs Tuesday, July 2 at 9 p.m. on WXX-TV

This must-see final episode of the three-part “Disco Soundtrack of a Lifetime” docuseries documents the wellspring of resentment from white, straight, male-dominated, rock-loving middle Americans, as they targeted disco for its hedonism, femininity, and queerness. A vocal “Disco Sucks” movement began to gain momentum, culminating in the “Disco Demolition Derby” at Comiskey Park Stadium in Chicago, where organizers destroyed thousands of disco records in front of a baying audience of baseball fans. In addition, the hedonism and sexual liberation embodied by disco found itself stopped in its tracks by the AIDS crisis. Pushed out of the mainstream, but not forgotten, the pioneers of disco retreated and regrouped. Cult disco DJ Frankie Knuckles left New York for Chicago, where he remixed disco breaks with R&B to produce a new genre of dance music – house. Discover how he and other disco pioneers kept disco alive in the world of electronic dance music.