Tavis Smiley adds four hourlong specials to PBS lineup

Tavis Smiley will do several primetime specials in addition to his regular weekly PBS show starting in January, his production company announced yesterday (PDF). The programs will be titled Tavis Smiley Reports. The first of the four hourlong programs, on Jan. 27, 2010, will go behind the scenes with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The March 31 episode will dissect one of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s pivotal speeches, delivered one year before his assassination. In the third, Smiley joins director Jonathan Demme on a visit to New Orleans and reports on its ongoing challenges after Hurricane Katrina. The fourth will be announced next year. Smiley’s late-night PBS talk show, Tavis Smiley, kicks off its seventh season on Jan. 11. He also has a radio talker distributed by Public Radio International.