PASADENA, Calif. -- Two years ago Discovery Channel had a hit with the documentary series "Planet Earth" -- and it has been trying to replicate it ever since, including with "Nature's Most Amazing Events" in 2009.

The network hopes to score again with "Life," an 11-part co-production with the BBC that will air 8-10 p.m. Sundays March 21 through April 18.

"If 'Planet Earth' set the stage, 'Life' introduces you to the stars and their bizarre and fascinating behaviors," said Discovery Channel president Clark Bunting. Episodes focus on birds, marine invertebrates, fish, hunting mammals, insects, plants, primates and reptiles and amphibians.

Sir David Attenborough, the voice of BBC natural history programs for decades, narrated the British version of "Life." Discovery replaces him for the U.S. airing with narration by Oprah Winfrey, who will launch a Discovery-backed channel, OWN, next year.

Nature program purists may balk, but it's an obvious marketing move designed to draw more viewers to the American airing of the program. And it's not like Winfrey has a terrible voice. But Bunting dodged questions about the replacement, which only served to prolong TV critics' queries.

"After hearing a little of the read, we decided this is the person who can really bring life to 'Life,' " Bunting said. That makes it sound like Winfrey had to audition for this gig. Really?

He also spoke of "the quality and timbre" of her voice and how Winfrey can "open the editorial," which sounds like it means an ability to make the program more accessible to non-nature junkies. Bunting said Winfrey was "a huge fan" of "Planet Earth" before finally copping to the marketing value of attaching Winfrey's brand name to the program.

"Obviously she's a well-known personality, and clearly with OWN [she] is a part of the Discovery family but it clearly was her voice, and commitment," Bunting said. "It is something she's totally passionate about."

BBC executive producer Mike Gunton supported the change in narrators: "She has a real talent for delivering narration for this kind of content."

"We are not stupid: Jane Austen is catnip to our audience," said "Masterpiece" executive producer Rebecca Eaton. "Unfortunately, she only wrote six books and she's dead."

A new production of "Emma" airs over three Sundays beginning Jan. 24.

Also coming in the current season of "Masterpiece Classic," a new version of "The Diary of Anne Frank," which premieres on April 11, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Eaton said research found "a large percentage of younger people did not know the Holocaust happened or who Adolf Hitler was," which led "Masterpiece" to go forward with a new production of the familiar story.

"Besides, this is a very different 'Diary of Anne Frank' that shows Anne in all her feistiness, all her rebelliousness as a regular girl who did not like her mother and sister," Eaton said.

This summer "Masterpiece Mystery!" will include new stories in series featuring the detectives Wallander, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and Inspector Lewis as well as three new "Foyle's War" episodes.

Titles for fall's "Masterpiece Contemporary" will be announced later this year.

Over the past four years PBS has added and removed children's series in a concerted effort to schedule educational curricular content, according to PBS president Paula Kerger.

"Now, obviously the children's programming also needs to be entertaining because kids control the remote, and if we don't make programs that are engaging and fun, they're not going to watch it," she said. "But we also felt that the unique place we hold in the broadcast spectrum in terms of children's programming is really looking at programs that are based on key literacy skills."

Kerger mentioned "Berenstain Bears" as one program that went away.

"[It] was a very sweet show, but we felt that we could take the time period that we had available for it and put other programs in," she said, including "Super Why!," which research has shown has greater long-term impact on its viewers. "We have an opportunity to deliver programs that, in addition to being enjoyable and nice and fun, also have educational content embedded in them that helps children enter school ready to learn with basic literacy skills, with letter recognition, with basic math skills, I think that's a better use of the spectrum that we control."

Kerger said PBS reaches an inordinate number of children in low-income homes, making its educational mission all the more crucial.

"For us, it's critically important that we make use of the time that we have in our broadcast schedule to have the kinds of programs that I'm describing that really do have education at its heart," Kerger said. The decision to remove "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" from the weekday lineup was unrelated, she said, and had more to do with plans by Family Communications (now The Fred Rogers Company) to create a new preschool series, which is in development.

The late Yvonne Zanos will continue to appear on KDKA-TV's airwaves in the monthly antiques appraisal show "Hidden Treasures." All the episodes were recorded last summer, long before her death from ovarian cancer last week. The next episode airs Monday at 7:30 p.m.

"She loved to be out in public meeting people at events like this one," wrote KDKA-TV general manager Chris Pike in an e-mail. He said anchor Ken Rice will record an introduction to air at the start of the program, which will be dedicated to her memory. Remaining episodes in the 2009-10 season will also acknowledge her passing.

WTAE and the Southwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross will hold a telethon today from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., taking donations from viewers who call 412-243-6000. The station will not pre-empt programming but will promote the fundraising effort during cut-ins and local newscasts.

TNT has renewed "Men of a Certain Age" for a second season. ... Discovery Kids will become "The Hub" when it's re-launched this fall as a joint venture between Discovery and toymaker Hasbro. ... TLC is developing a new series for "Jon and Kate Plus 8" star Kate Gosselin, but a network executive said no format has been chosen. ... Science Channel is joining with Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television for a six-part program airing in 2011 about "Rebuilding Ground Zero." ... Erica Hill has been named news anchor for CBS's "The Early Show," replacing Russ Mitchell, who becomes a national correspondent for CBS. Hill will also continue as co-anchor of Saturday's edition of "The Early Show."

Coverage from the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., continues in the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. You can also get updates by following TV news from the Post-Gazette on Twitter and/or Facebook. I'm registered as RobOwenTV on both social media sites.

I plan to live blog coverage of the Golden Globes Sunday at 8 p.m. at post-gazette.com/tv.

In today's online TV Q&A, there are responses to questions about "Lost," "Two and a Half Men" and local snow coverage.

In this week's Tuned In podcast I chat with Candy Havens of FYI Television and Scott Pierce of the Deseret News at the 2010 Television Critics Association winter press tour. Topics include the Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien kerfuffle, Simon Cowell leaving "American Idol" and upcoming midseason shows on the broadcast networks. Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.

TV columnist Rob Owen's Tuned In+ is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.