About the show

Premieres Monday November 17 at 9pm/8c

In 1914, a team of American and German scientists set up camp on the shores of Russia's Black Sea. Their goal: to conduct an experiment involving one of nature's most spectacular phenomena -- a total eclipse of the sun. The results had the potential to explode 200 years of scientific conjecture, change forever the way scientists view the universe and launch the career of the most brilliant star in the scientific firmament -- Albert Einstein.

With the outbreak of World War I, explosions of a different kind rocked Europe and disrupted the team's efforts. Einstein-and the world-would have to wait years for a chance to unlock the secrets of the universe. The two-hour special EINSTEIN tells the fascinating story of how the greatest genius of our time struggled against all odds to fulfill his destiny while weathering a devastating war, a tumultuous personal life and betrayal by his peers.

This is the extraordinary history of Einstein's decades-long adventure to prove his Theory of General Relativity. It follows him as he struggles to find a job, to support a family, and to survive the horror of World War I. The ultimate outsider, he is living in the heart of Berlin as Germany invades its neighbors on all sides. His closest colleagues retool his scientific institution into a killing machine, inventing weapons of mass destruction. Horrified at what he sees as a betrayal of science, Einstein is transformed into a fervent man of peace.

Amidst the chaos of global violence, only a few scientists receive word of his revolutionary idea, and three teams of ambitious and competitive astronomers -- German, British, and American -- find themselves racing each other to the most remote areas of the globe. They are hunting for a ripple in space and time that Einstein said they would see -- inside a Total Solar Eclipse. But the Universe doesn't give up its secrets without a fight. When a blazing glimpse of Einstein's Universe is finally captured for the first time, the humble Albert Einstein explodes into a global icon unlike any other before or since.

While the iconic image of Einstein is that of a wild-haired, impish old man, he completed the bulk of his notable work by age 26. The Special Theory of Relativity, his work in quantum mechanics -- all this was the work of a young genius. And today, more than a century since the "Miracle Year" in which he published his breakthrough papers, Einstein's ideas remain a living, vibrant influence. They continue to push scientists farther, and deeper, into the universe than even he could have imagined.