The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

last updated 8 January 2015

Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel

Former New Orleans Saints defensive back Steve Gleason, now 35 and fighting for his life, gives a frank interview explaining why he suspects that football may be part of the reason he’s developed Lou Gehrig’s disease. Other scheduled segments include a profile of Super Bowl–winning coach Jon Gruden and a look at Cirque du Soleil’s performers, many of whom were once Olympic athletes. Tuesday, Aug. 21, at 9 p.m., HBO

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From the producers of Deadliest Catch comes a new docuseries that follows miners based in Nome, Alaska, who in their search for gold dare to venture beneath the 4 feet of ice covering the Bering Sea. Alaska is also the setting for a second new Discovery series, Yukon Men, which follows at 10 and chronicles several families’ struggle for survival in the remote town of Tanana. Friday, Aug. 24, at 9 p.m., Discovery

Jeb Bush and Condoleezza Rice will be among the featured speakers when the GOP convenes in Tampa to confer its presidential nomination on Mitt Romney. C-SPAN will provide live, gavel-to-gavel coverage, while on PBS Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff will anchor special editions of NewsHour starting at 8 p.m. nightly. CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC will also report throughout the four days, and ABC, CBS, and NBC will offer prime-time updates. Monday–Thursday, Aug. 27–30

The first hour of this overview of military aviation history, “Airplane to Air Force,” explores the Wright brothers’ efforts to enlist the U.S. Army in their post–Kitty Hawk development of the airplane. The second hour, “Air Force to Air Power,” moves on to World War II, when the introduction of radar and fighter aces made war from the air both effective and massively destructive. Thursday, Aug. 30, at 9 p.m., Military Channel

In the baroque gardens of Vienna’s Imperial Schönbrunn Palace, the young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel leads the Vienna Philharmonic in a program built around the theme “Dances & Waves.” Selections to be performed include the polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, “Salome’s Dance” from Richard Strauss’s Salome, and works by Borodin, Debussy, and Johann Strauss. Friday, Aug. 31, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings