Searching for lost history in an abandoned Appalachian frontier homestead.

Jay and his team search for treasures in an abandoned cotton gin.

Jay and the crew visit a 19th-century beer castle where they hope to find lost treasures of brewery baron Capt. Pabst.

An abandoned Gothic church is scheduled to be demolished.

The search for riches in an historic abandoned bank that was built to hold the fortunes of America's oil barons.

The historic Majestic Hotel in Hot Springs, Ark., was frequented for its luxury spas.

An abandoned paper factory the size of several football fields contains an assortment of historic items.

Marble from this factory was used in the building of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Jefferson Memorial.

Jay, Dan and Mark explore an entire abandoned village.

A trek through a spooky Masonic retirement home reveals a treasure trove of automotive relics.

The Old MacDonald farm includes a farmhouse, barn and mill that contain many historic items.

Historic treasures in a shuttered silk mill that's been abandoned since 1957.

The abandoned Scranton Lace Factory, founded in 1897, flourished for more than 100 years.

George Wyant and Tim Saylor get down and dirty in this series, which profiles the metal detector enthusiasts and homespun historians as they travel the country uncovering lost pieces of history. From bullets at historic battlegrounds to family heirloom rings and silver coins, the items -- "the juice" or "sweet nectar," as they call it -- often have little monetary value, but then again, Wyant and Saylor don't spend countless hours in a field or on a beach looking to strike it rich. It's the thrill of the hunt, they say, of not knowing what their next quest will unearth, that keeps them digging for more.

The old Dolly Parton hit "9 to 5" isn't a tune worth humming for the blue-collar pioneers featured in "Filthy Riches." The series spotlights ingenious Americans who skirt a conventional workplace in favor of making a living in the deep rivers, soggy mud flats and wild backwoods of the U.S. Ray Turner, for example, has been catching eels in Delaware for 30 years. He uses a self-made smokehouse in the woods to cook the critters and sell them. Billy Taylor and his sons hunt for prized ginseng root in the Appalachians. Taylor, a fully licensed wild ginseng dealer, promotes sustainability by planting its berries. In Maine, Jim Campbell and Andy Johns make the coastal mud flats their office, as they dig for valuable bloodworms to sell to fishermen. And Greg Dahl and Albert DeSilva are burl hunters. A burl is a hard, unwieldy outgrowth on a tree, usually at the trunk. Burls have value because of the spectacular patterns found in them when cut open.

Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman explores the meaning of life, God, and many big questions in between in an effort to understand how religion has evolved and shaped society. A different divine subject is covered in each hourlong episode, titles of which include "Creation," "The Devil Inside," "Afterlife," "Apocalypse," and "Who Is God?" To explore these topics, host and narrator Freeman visits nearly 20 cities in seven countries to see some of the world's greatest religious sites, among them Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, India's Bodhi Tree, Mayan temples in Guatemala, and the pyramids of Egypt, and he immerses himself in religious experiences and rituals. "In some places I found answers, and others led to more questions. The constant through it all is that we're all looking to be part of something bigger than us. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we certainly are," Freeman says.

Meeting people from all cultures whose lives are shaped by different fundamental forces.

From the producers of the multiple-award-winning miniseries "The Men Who Built America," National Geographic Channel chronicles competitions in innovation that pit history's brightest minds in the race to lay claim to the future. For them, the greatest challenge wasn't beating the odds -- it was beating their adversaries. From Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates to William Hurst vs. Joseph Pulitzer, each hourlong episode focuses on a specific rivalry, delving into fierce power struggles, deceit, fluke timing and raw ambition out of which great ideas turned into reality. The conflicts play out through re-enactments that feature interviews with modern-day visionaries like Bill Nye, Steve Wozniak, Jack Welch, Steve Wynn and Michio Kaku.

"It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)," sang R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, and it's a proclamation that must resonate with the people profiled in this series. That's because they are all preparing for doomsday, whether it's caused by a natural disaster, a financial collapse or a nuclear winter, and their plan is to outlast and outlive any apocalyptic scenario. The series goes inside America's "prepping" subculture and introduces otherwise ordinary folks who are stockpiling food, water, weapons and whatever else they think is necessary in the event basic services should falter and society turns chaotic and violent. Also, each prepper's plan is reviewed by the consulting firm Practical Preppers, which analyzes its potential effectiveness in case the prepper's worst fears become reality.

Julia Child melded TV and food 50 or so years ago. Now with scads of celebrity chefs, cooking shows, and networks devoted to it, cuisine is even more popular. National Geographic Channel's six-hour miniseries salutes its history, science and culture. Each episode tackles a central theme: revolutionaries, meat, sugar, seafood, junk food, and grains -- with stories and reflections by a smorgasbord of chefs, authors, scientists, etc. Interviewees include Padma Lakshmi, Nigella Lawson, Simon Majumdar, Rachael Ray, Marcus Samuelsson, Anna Boiardi and Graham Elliot.