30 for 30

2009-2025
5 seasons
Entertainment & Sports Programming Network
Documentary, Sports
TV-G

ESPN Films' 30 for 30 is an unprecedented documentary series featuring today's finest storytellers from inside and outside of the sports world. What started as a celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary has come to life as an eclectic and fascinating collection of passionate films about sports and culture. Individually, each of the films in this series is meant to tell an intimate, compelling story that stands on its own and brings to life the filmmaker's vision. Collectively, however, these creatively different films weave together a diverse tapestry of what sports has meant to culture. Ultimately, 30 For 30 strives to sit the viewer down and tell a story, employing many sources but giving a distinctive point of view, marshaling words and images to serve that particular perspective. In a sports universe of competing voices, these films offer a single, compelling one.

2009-2025
5 seasons
Entertainment & Sports Programming Network
Documentary, Sports
TV-G

The Best Shows and Movies to Watch This Week: The Expanse Season 5 Finale, Studio Ghibli's Earwig and the Witch

Plus: Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek think they're in a simulation

Sun, Jan 31, 2021

The Best Shows and Movies to Watch This Week: The Expanse Season 5 Finale, Studio Ghibli's Earwig and the Witch

The Best Shows and Movies to Watch This Week: Lenox Hill, Da 5 Bloods

And a long-awaited movie arrives on Disney+

Sun, Jun 7, 2020

The Best Shows and Movies to Watch This Week: Lenox Hill, Da 5 Bloods

Weekend TV in Review: Good Wife, Zombie Mania, Crisis, ESPN's Big East Requiem

Just about the best news I heard all week: CBS's renewal of the splendid The Good Wife for a sixth season, among a ton of other pick-ups. If the month or more of special-Sunday distractions (Super Bowl, Olympics, Oscars) caused you to drift away, now's a great time for "Opting Back In." Which happens to be the name of a keynote speech Alicia (Julianna Margulies) is nervously preparing for the annual American Bar Association powwow in New York City — an occasion allowing for a terrific running gag involving new Mayor Bill De Blasio (Sunday, 9/8c).

Fri, Mar 14, 2014

Weekend TV in Review: Good Wife, Zombie Mania, Crisis, ESPN's Big East Requiem

The Tuesday Playlist: Ladies' Night on POI, Frontline Tackles NFL Concussion Crisis

Last Thursday, I was honored to moderate a panel at the "Made in NY" PaleyFest at New York's Paley Center, celebrating the third season of CBS's terrific cyber-thriller Person of Interest. Before the discussion with many of the show's cast and executive producer Jonathan Nolan, there was a screening of this week's episode (Tuesday, 10/9c) — the best of the season to date, and a fairly pivotal one — that is especially enjoyable in how it showcases the series' fabulous femmes fatales. With the target du jour a chameleon Casanova, the women must act as nightclub and social-media bait: an off-duty and glammed-up Carter (Taraji P. Henson), the ferociously trigger-happy Shaw (Sarah Shahi, hilariously playing against her natural beauty) and Reese's favorite fixer, the alluring Zoe Morgan (recurring co-star Paige Turco). A CBS contact refers to them as "Finch's Angels," and if they want to spin themselves off, that would be fine by me. A scene where the three ladies of the evening compare their weaponry is a riot. So's a later scene in which Shaw reflects on her disdain for relationships. (When I asked Shahi if Shaw has a soft side, she wasted no time in barking a "No.")

Tue, Oct 8, 2013

The Tuesday Playlist: Ladies' Night on POI, Frontline Tackles NFL Concussion Crisis

The Tuesday Playlist: NBC Falls Out Of Love

Way to squander a Voice lead-in, NBC. Turns out America wasn't ready to waste another night of the broadcast week on a ridiculously padded dating show, so after this week, Ready for Love (Tuesday, 9:01/8:01c) goes into reality limbo — and honestly, if scripted duds can get yanked without notice, why should lousy competition-reality shows be exempt when shunned like this one was? On the plus side, with The Voice about to end its enjoyable "battle" rounds and move next week into the "knockout" phase, the expanded Tuesday edition will be joined April 30 by the clever supernatural thriller Grimm, given a well-deserved reprieve from the Friday trenches for the rest of the season. (Part of me wishes NBC would invest more heavily in Hannibal and give it a shot in this wide-open Tuesday time period, but Grimm is probably a better fit.) Want more TV news and reviews? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

Tue, Apr 23, 2013

The Tuesday Playlist: NBC Falls Out Of Love

The Weekend Playlist: Finales (Girls, Banshee) and March Madness

Things get awfully bloody on Friday with the explosive first-season finale of Cinemax's violent noir Banshee (10/9c), in which shootouts and long-simmering feuds leave such a gory trail that it almost puts to shame a new episode of Starz' reliably visceral Spartacus: War of the Damned (9/8c)."I must admit, you have an admirable knack for survival," understates the lethal ...

Fri, Mar 15, 2013

The Weekend Playlist: Finales (Girls, Banshee) and March Madness

ESPN's 30 For 30 Tracks Down a Dark Olympic Legacy

Long before the cases of Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds and Marion Jones engendered public indifference about performance-enhancing drugs, steroids were a dirty little secret of the sports world. Suspicions were prevalent in Olympic circles, but rarely discussed above a whisper. That changed in 1988 when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was busted for the anabolic steroid stanozolol days after winning the gold medal and setting a world record in the 100-meter dash at the Seoul Olympics. His spectacular rise to the top of his sport and his cataclysmic fall are chronicled in 9.79*, this week's entry in ESPN's Emmy-nominated documentary series 30 for 30 (Tuesdays, 8/7c).

Tue, Oct 9, 2012

ESPN's 30 For 30 Tracks Down a Dark Olympic Legacy

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010

Dancing with the Stars8/7c ABC Many had predicted that high-scoring Audrina Patridge would make it all the way to the elite Final 3 this season. However, last week one of this show's "shocking exits" occurred, leaving the judges stunned and Audrina out in the cold. Will this week's eliminated star be another early favorite following in her footsteps? But before anyone exits, Taylor Swift and Rod Stewart both make return appearances to the show's stage, and the cast of Broadway's Mary Poppins does a tap-dance number. — Jennifer SankowskiRead on for previews of Biggest Loser, 30 for 30, Mysteries at the Museum, America's Election Headquarters: The 2010 Midterms, Kathy Griffin: Whores on Crutches and Running Russell Simmons.

Tue, Nov 2, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010

Disgraced Olympian Marion Jones Let Off Easy in ESPN Documentary

America loves a comeback story and few can compete with the tumultuous rise, fall and return of Marion Jones. Once a media darling, the disgraced Olympic sprinter lost the five medals she won at the 2000 Summer Games after admitting she used performance-enhancing drugs. When Jones had previously lied about that to federal investigators (as well as her role in a check-fraud case), she was sentenced to six months in prison. After a difficult incarceration that included a demoralizing seven-week stint in solitary confinement, she was ...

Mon, Nov 1, 2010

Disgraced Olympian Marion Jones Let Off Easy in ESPN Documentary

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010

No Ordinary Family8/7c ABC For the last few weeks, JJ's super brain has been a secret to his parents, and mostly used for academic pursuits (or learning Hebrew to impress a girl). But can it help him succeed at sports? Tonight he goes out for the football team by using the X's and O's as variables in math equations, but the undersized JJ finds out the hard way that the game is more than just physics: It's physical. Meanwhile, a case of mistaken identity makes Jim look like the culprit of a crime he's trying to prevent. — Joe FriedrichRead on for previews of Millionaire Matchmaker, Parenthood, 30 for 30, Scream 2010, Frontline and Mad Mel: The Rise and Fall of a Hollywood Icon.

Tue, Oct 19, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010

ESPN's 30 For 30 Revisits the Rivalry of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

Sports rivalries aren't always defined by wins, losses and hostility. OK, maybe they are when it comes to Duke and Carolina, the Yankees and Red Sox, and Ohio State and Michigan. But the story of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert is as much about friendship as it is about Grand Slam titles. The duo waged a tennis tug of war that dominated their sport for much of the 1970s and '80s, but they also shared an off-court bond that rarely received any media attention...

Tue, Sep 14, 2010

ESPN's 30 For 30 Revisits the Rivalry of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010

Sons of Anarchy10/9c FX When we left Charming last December, Ethan Zobelle (Adam Arkin) was leaving as well, and as Season 3 begins, Gemma's hot-footin' out of town herself: Stahl (Ally Walker) framed her for the murder of gunrunner Edmund Hayes, so she's a fugitive. Gemma will seek out her dad (Hal Holbrook), a retired preacher, tonight. But the new season's biggest story line promises to be the kidnapping of Jax's son, Abel. SAMCRO members are pretty sure that Hayes' father, Cameron, took the boy, but they don't know where he is. Nor do they know if the boy is dead or alive.Read on for previews of Rachel Zoe Project, America's Got Talent, White Collar, The View, 30 for 30 and My Trip to Al-Qaeda.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010

Memphis Beat10/9c TNT The crime show's 10-episode inaugural season comes to a close with music-loving sleuth Dwight Hendricks trying to hit the right notes regarding an important, unresolved case from his past. Cut to a seedy pocket of Memphis, where an enigmatic man with amnesia is found with a bullet wound. Dwight digs into the mystery man's apparently shady past...and explores the possibility that he might be connected to the unsolved beating death of a little girl. Can Dwight heat up this cold case? Meanwhile, a financially troubled Lt. Rice considers a change in career.Read on for previews of Jefferson, 30 for 30, Shaq Vs., Covert Affairs, POV and Rescue Me.

Tue, Aug 24, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010

Tonight's Hot List: Thursday, July 29, 2010

Jersey Shore10/9c MTV The Situation, Snooki and the rest of the "GTL" crew are back for a second season of TV's guiltiest pleasure. But this time, they're leaving the Jersey Shore behind and taking their fake tans and fist pumps down south to Miami, where more debauchery is sure to occur. Before long, the drama picks up where it left off, with former flames Ronnie and Sammi getting into a flight in a club after she accuses him of flirting with other girls. Doesn't sound like much has changed.Read on for previews of Royal Pains, On the Road with Austin & Santino, 30 for 30, the X Games, CSI and Project Runway.

Thu, Jul 29, 2010

Tonight's Hot List: Thursday, July 29, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Hawthorne9/8c TNT Star and executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith's character-driven hospital drama opens its second season. This new nurse verse begins with a harsh reality: Richmond Trinity goes out of business completely, prompting several staff members to land employment at a decaying hospital set in a run-down neighborhood. There, series protagonist Christina Hawthorne promptly clashes with the nursing supervisor. And the change is a bitter pill to swallow for Tom as well: He must relinquish his administrative post.Read on for previews of Memphis Beat, Deadliest Catch, Primetime: Mind Games, Downfall, the World Cup and 30 for 30.

Tue, Jun 22, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Ask Matt: True Blood Boiling Over? And More!

Please send all questions to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter at @RoushTVGuideMagQuestion: Welcome back! This question is a two-parter. I'm in love with True Blood. It's so often described as lurid, melodramatic, overripe, etc. But the glory of the show is that it's all of those things while also containing moments of startling humor or tenderness, where we actually find ourselves caring about the characters, be they supernatural or just plain natural. That tension is what makes....

Mon, Jun 21, 2010

Ask Matt: True Blood Boiling Over? And More!

Tonight's TV Hot List: Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Top Chef: Washington, D.C.9/8c BravoThe culinary competition series rocks the vote when it relocates to Washington, D.C., for its seventh season. A town marked by its fiery divisive politics gets hotter when 17 new food fighters square off in heats for top-chef honors and a $125,000 prize. In the opener, the chefs must prepare food fare that best represents themselves and their home region, plating their meals at the National Cherry Blossom festival. While one contestant will flower to a win, another will wilt and fade away. Series incumbents Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons return in their usual roles, while chef Eric Ripert serves as a new series judge.Read on for previews of TV's Greatest Surprises: A Paley Center for Media Special, Hot in Cleveland, In Plain Sight, 30 for 30, Fabulous Beekman Boys and Mythbusters Top 25 Moments.

Wed, Jun 16, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Lost9/8c ABC Sadly, we must scratch Sayid, Sun and Jin from the list of candidates to succeed Jacob. That leaves Jack, Sawyer and Hurley, who, along with Kate, are back on the beach and awaiting the final battle with the Locke Monster, whose motives become clear (or at least as clear as things get on Lost) in this episode. Speaking of battles, expect background on the epochal Jacob-Man in Black tilt. And Allison Janney becomes part of the Lost universe, playing a character listed as "Woman."Read on for previews of The Good Wife, Biggest Loser, Justified, Dancing with the Stars, 30 for 30 and Frontline/World.

Tue, May 11, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Biggest Loser: Couples8/7c NBC The always-popular makeover episode shows the six remaining contestants receiving new looks to show off to family and friends. After a $1000 shopping spree, the players head to the salon for a visit with stylist to the stars Jonathan Antin. But the pampering isn't over yet after the reunions with loved ones, the gang gets a front-row seat for an inspirational performance by Ashanti.Read on for previews of Lost, Dancing with the Stars, Glee, 30 for 30, NCIS: Los Angeles and Broad Street Bullies.

Tue, May 4, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Hills10/9c MTV In past seasons, the off-camera lives of the ladies have seemed far more interesting than the ones portrayed on the show. But this season, MTV promises to cover the topics that have filled the tabloids, including Heidi's numerous plastic surgeries and Kristin's rumored drug problem. In fact, both are addressed in the sixth — and final — season premiere, which finds Heidi — and her brand new face — heading home to Colorado, and Kristin celebrating the Super Bowl in Miami, where her hard partying becomes a concern to her cast mates.Read on for previews of American Idol, The Good Wife, Dancing with the Stars, 30 for 30 and 90210.

Tue, Apr 27, 2010

Tonight's TV Hot List: Tuesday, April 27, 2010