On Inauguration Eve, FRONTLINE Chronicles How Crisis and Tragedy Prepared Joe Biden to Become America’s Next President

President Biden
 Tues., Jan. 19, 2021
Streaming at 7/6c at pbs.org/frontline & in the PBS Video App
Airing at 10/9c on PBS and on YouTube
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As the country continues to grapple with the fallout from the siege of the Capitol by violent pro-Trump rioters, Joe Biden is set to be sworn in as America’s 46th president on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

Biden will take office at a moment of profound national crisis in a deeply divided country: In addition to the chaos of the Capitol attack and the undermining of the election by President Trump, more than 370,000 Americans are dead from the coronavirus, and a reckoning over racism in the wake of George Floyd’s killing is ongoing.

How will Biden navigate the substantial challenges that lie ahead? The night before his inauguration, the FRONTLINE documentary President Biden will offer powerful insights.

President Biden premieres Tues., Jan. 19, 2021 on PBS stations (check local listings) and will be available to stream on FRONTLINE’s website, YouTube and the PBS Video App. The film is from veteran chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk, who with his team has made five installments of The Choice and nearly 20 documentaries about the Trump and Obama eras.

Drawn from The Choice 2020, FRONTLINE’s acclaimed dual biography of Biden and Trump, President Biden tells the story of how crisis and tragedy prepared Joe Biden to become America’s next president. In the film, those who know Biden best describe the searing moments that shaped the President-elect and what those challenges reveal about how he will govern a nation confronting multiple crises.

Meeting these challenges “will test every bit of what Joe Biden has learned over nearly 50 years in public office,” says Dan Balz of The Washington Post.

For the full story, watch President Biden starting Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. The documentary premieres that night at 10/9c on PBS stations (check local listings) and YouTube. It will be available to stream at pbs.org/frontline and on the PBS Video App beginning at 7/6c.

The program will be followed the next week, Tues., Jan. 26, 2021, with Trump’s American Carnage, a documentary special also from Kirk and his team that traces the outgoing president’s incitement of division, violence and ultimately insurrection throughout his time in office.

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Credits

President Biden is a FRONTLINE production with Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd. The director is Michael Kirk. The producers are Michael Kirk, Mike Wiser, Jim Gilmore and Philip Bennett. The writers are Michael Kirk and Mike Wiser. The reporter is Jim Gilmore. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 95 Emmy Awards and 24 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.

FRONTLINE Press Contact: frontlinemedia@wgbh.org, 617.300.5312