By Rick Gables
The highly anticipated 10-episode series Cheap Old Houses, starring hosts Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein, will premiere Monday, Aug. 9, with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV. The series is inspired by the Finkelstein’s uber popular Instagram feed, which racks up millions of views with images of surprising property bargains that are architecturally intact and available for under $150,000. In each episode, cameras will follow the couple as they tour low-priced older houses across America and ultimately choose which ones to feature on their famous site. During each walk through, Ethan and Elizabeth will share stories of the homes’ historical significance and architectural uniqueness. They will rely on Elizabeth’s background as a historic preservationist as well as the couple’s shared passion for saving old property gems. They also will visit beautifully restored homes formerly featured on their popular Instagram account.
Premium network EPIX will premiere the new series Chapelwaite on Sunday, Aug. 22, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Starring Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire and set in the 1850s, the series follows Captain Charles Boone (Brody), who relocates his family of three children to his ancestral home in the small, seemingly sleepy town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine after his wife dies at sea. However, Charles will soon have to confront the secrets of his family’s sordid history, and fight to end the darkness that has plagued the Boones for generations. Hampshire plays Rebecca Morgan, an ambitious young woman who left Preacher’s Corner to attend Mount Holyoke College, and has returned home with an advance to write a story for the new and prestigious Atlantic Magazine. Her writer’s block lifts when Boone arrives in town with his children, and despite her mother’s protests, Rebecca applies to be a governess of the infamous Chapelwaite manor and the Boone family, so she can write about them. In doing so, Rebecca will craft the next great gothic novel, while unraveling a mystery that has plagued her own family for years.
In remembrance of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania 20 years ago, National Geographic Channel will premiere 9/11: One Day in America over four consecutive nights, starting Sunday, Aug. 29, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This visceral and powerful series chronicles the events of that day, at times minute by minute, through gripping first-person narratives of the first responders and survivors who were there.