PBS Announces A CAPITOL FOURTH (2010) Premiering July 4th 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. EST

This July 4, America's biggest and brightest birthday party celebrates 30 spectacular years on air.

The multi-award winning A CAPITOL FOURTH will be hosted by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Jimmy Smits, with unrivaled performances by some of the country's best-known musicians, including seven time Grammy Award-winning music legend Gladys Knight; multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM Award-winning country music superstar Reba McEntire; country music sensation Darius Rucker; singer David Archuleta (American Idol); actor and singer John Schneider; and renowned classical pianist Lang Lang with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Jack Everly.

A CAPITOL FOURTH will air live in HD from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home and to our service members around the world on the American Forces Network. A CAPITOL FOURTH can also be heard live in stereo over NPR member stations nationwide.

Bringing viewers the most spectacular fireworks display anywhere in the nation, the 30th annual broadcast of A CAPITOL FOURTH will capture the stunning pyrotechnics from every vantage point with 18 TV cameras stationed around the city - including the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument and across the Potomac River. In tribute to America's 234th birthday, the show will be capped off with a rousing rendition of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," complete with live cannon fire provided by the United States Army Presidential Salute Battery, an audience favorite and now A CAPITOL FOURTH tradition.