Don't worry...there'll be more CLIFFHANGERS to come...

FRONTLINE investigates the inside history of how Washington has failed to solve the country's problems of debt and deficit. Drawing on interviews with key players in Congress and the White House, FRONTLINE goes behind the scenes to show how a clash of politics and personalities has taken the nation's economy to the edge of the "fiscal cliff," and now to a second round of standoffs over the debt ceiling and sequestration FRONTLINE SPECIAL TIME...7pm

When Clooney speaks, folks listen...

Introduced by George Clooney, and traveling with intrepid reporter Nicholas Kristof and celebrity advocates (America Ferrera, Diane Lane,Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union and Olivia Wilde), HALF THE SKY presents women and girls who are living under some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable -- and fighting bravely to change them. Filmed in 10 countries, from Cambodia to Kenya, from Vietnam to the U.S....Their intimate, dramatic and immediate stories of struggle are worth telling, and hearing. HALF THE SKY: TURNING OPPRESSION INTO OPPORTUNITY...9pm

First rule of writing..."Go There"!

David Maraniss is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist who's written five bestselling books, including a biography of Bill Clinton and a history of the 1960 Rome Olympics. His latest book is Barack Obama: The Story, which uses hundreds of interviews to chronicle the President's family history and his life before he entered politics. Maraniss takes us through 2 generations before Obama's birth and follows him down the road to the presidency. What is particularly amazing is how difficult that path became. "No life could have been more the product of randomness than that of Barack Obama," writes Mr. Maraniss...and tonight he shares some of that insight with Evan Smith.
OVERHEARD with EVAN SMITH...8pm

and remember - no talking on your cell phone...

In this film, a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover astonishingly advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars and even a convex shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930's-era Buicks! Take a test drive of a 3600 year old design in the desert around Cairo...and be sure to fasten your seat belt. NOVA: BUILDING PHARAOH'S CHARIOT...8pm 

The future was invented in his garage...

In 1957 Robert Noyce was one of the young founders of a new semiconductor company in Santa Clara California, and credited with perfecting the integrated circuit. Noyce's innovation, though originally intended for the Apollo Space program, would have huge impact over the way Americans live, making possible smart phones and digital video recorders, pacemakers and microwaves. In telling the story of Noyce and the integrated circuit, this film looks at the monumental impact the microchip had on modern life and reveals the pivotal role Noyce played in transforming a fertile farmland into one of the most creative places on earth -- the hub of technological ingenuity we now know as Silicon Valley. SILICON VALLEY: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE...8pm 

Small town America with Big, Big Troubles...

Tonight INDEPENDENT LENS looks at the impact of the economic crisis on the people of Janesville, Wisconsin...focusing on two years in the lives of laid-off workers, business leaders and elected officials all trying to reinvent their lives and their midwestern town amid the closure of their GM plant and America's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
INDEPENDENT LENS: AS GOES JANESVILLE...9pm

A little of this, a little of that...

This series on Shakespeare has been fascinating...tonight Jeremy Irons uncovers the enduring appeal of Shakespeare's "history plays," from the facts of English history to the father-son drama that Shakespeare created. He discloses what Shakespeare's sources were - and how he distorted them. He invites the viewer behind the scenes at the filming of some of the most important sequences in the new GREAT PERFORMANCES adaptations of both plays...SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED...9PM

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS features Tim McGraw Saturday night at 10pm

In 2010, new FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT homeowners set out to restore the 100 year old Boynton House in Rochester NY to its original splendor, following Wright's design concepts and architectural philosophy. They guide cameras through every phase of the transformation, including the restoration of art glass panels and cantilevered front porch, the replacement of the roof, the addition of a three-car garage and back porch, and more...FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S BOYNTON HOUSE: THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS Sunday at 3pm

And of course...DOWNTON ABBEY, beginning at 7pm Sunday