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The Best Episodes of CNN Presents

Every episode of CNN Presents ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of CNN Presents!

CNN Presents is an American documentary program on CNN weekends. The program used to be replaced with CNN Special Investigations Unit, which features the same documentary format, but differs from it in a number of

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 1 - The First 100 Days
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - The First 100 Days

    S2001:E1

    The administration of President George W. Bush in substance and style.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 2 - A Dream Deferred
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    #2 - A Dream Deferred

    S2001:E2

    The HIV/AIDS epidemic has struck Africa with horrific force -- more 3.8 million people infected in 2000. Many of these people will die within a decade. CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault takes a look at the lives of six South Africans who illuminate the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping the continent.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 3 - Terminal Count
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Terminal Count

    S2001:E3

    CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien takes a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make the space shuttle fly.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 4 - Downsizing.com
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    #4 - Downsizing.com

    S2001:E4

    In 1999, CNN took a look at some of the people of California's Silicon Valley participating in and benefiting from the roaring economic boom fueled by technology. Now, as companies lay off workers and entrepreneurs fold their businesses, CNN returns to see how some have fared.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 5 - Asylum in America
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    #5 - Asylum in America

    S2001:E5

    Thousands of people seek asylum in America each year, fleeing racial, religious, political or other types of persecution in countries around the world. For the first time, cameras were allowed to record the closed and confidential asylum proceedings inside the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 6 - Exodus from Africa
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    #6 - Exodus from Africa

    S2001:E6

    African journalist Sorious Samura fled the violence in his country in search of a better life and later returned to document the violence there in the award-winning documentary "Cry Freetown." Samura has now turned his focus on the arduous trek that Africans are making and why they risk their lives for an uncertain future.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of CNN Presents

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  7. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 7 - Proving Ground
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    #7 - Proving Ground

    S2001:E7

    The annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race is a great Australian tradition -- a days-long event across dangerous, often stormy seas -- that is nicknamed "Hell on High Water." But in 1998, no one anticipated the disaster that led to the deaths of six of the competing sailors.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 8 - Killing Pablo
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    #8 - Killing Pablo

    S2001:E8

    CNN's Mike Boettcher takes a close look at the top-secret the United States played in the manhunt for the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 9 - Northern Ireland: Dying for Peace
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    #9 - Northern Ireland: Dying for Peace

    S2001:E9

    Three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland have left more than 3,000 people dead, pitted Catholic against Protestant and turned neighbor against neighbor. CNN's Nic Robertson examines the battle for peace with a look at the most controversial politician in the U.K.: IRA commander-turned-peacemaker Martin McGuinness.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 10 - America's Best: Artists and Entertainers
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    #10 - America's Best: Artists and Entertainers

    S2001:E10

    Admire them or envy them, there's something deeply fascinating about the small group of people who are simply the best at what they do. CNN and TIME have joined forces to examine America's best, focusing first on 21 artists and entertainers.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 11 - Gridlock
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    #11 - Gridlock

    S2001:E11

    With U.S. air travel rife with delays and congestion, CNN's Leon Harris takes a look at how the air traffic system works and ways it can be improved.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 12 - Urban Combat
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    #12 - Urban Combat

    S2001:E12

    The U.S. Army believes the wars of the future are likely to be fought in cities. CNN Presents takes a look at soldiers in the 101st Airborne as they train for an urban battlefield.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 13 - America's Best: Science and Medicine
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    #13 - America's Best: Science and Medicine

    S2001:E13

    In the second installment of America's Best, CNN and TIME looked at the brilliant individuals, combining passion and obsession, who are still pushing the boundaries of of science and medicine, often by questioning or ignoring the conventional wisdom. CNN Presents profiled pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, AIDS researcher Anthony Fauci, neurobiologist Patricia Goldman-Rakic, paleontologist Andrew Knoll and climatologist Lonnie Thompson.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 14 - Wasted
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    #14 - Wasted

    S2001:E14

    Most people who drink alcohol imbibe without a problem. But at least 8 million American adults meet the clinical definition of alcoholism and millions more abuse alcohol or occasionally engage in risky drinking, inflicting damage upon society and themselves.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 15 - Beneath the Veil
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    #15 - Beneath the Veil

    S2001:E15

    Since the Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan in 1996, the group has imposed its harsh version of Islamic law on the country. In "Beneath the Veil," journalist Saira Shah traveled to Afghanistan to see the effects of the Taliban's rule on her father's homeland.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 16 - America's Best: Society and Culture
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    #16 - America's Best: Society and Culture

    S2001:E16

    A CNN-Time collaboration identifying the people who are simply the best in America.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 17 - The Struggle for Islam
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    #17 - The Struggle for Islam

    S2001:E17

    With international attention focused on Osama bin Laden, an Islamic extremist who thinks he can rid the Muslim world of U.S. presence, most of the world, especially the West, is now asking how a religion can be used to justify acts of a terrorist?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 18 - Investigating Terror
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    #18 - Investigating Terror

    S2001:E18

    How could the 19 suspected hijackers -- and whoever may have helped them -- hide in plain sight in the weeks and months before September 11, fooling everyone to such deadly effect? Investigators from the United States and throughout the world are now faced with that question and many more as they try to trace the trail of terrorism.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 19 - Somalia: Black Hawk Down
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    #19 - Somalia: Black Hawk Down

    S2001:E19

    In the early 1990s, the United States became part of a multi-national military force that aimed to get humanitarian aid to Somalia. The ambitious humanitarian mission ended in bullets, missiles and death.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 20 - Air Insecurity
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Air Insecurity

    S2001:E20

    How safe are U.S. skies?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 21 - Dying to Tell the Story
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Dying to Tell the Story

    S2001:E21

    A picture is worth a thousand words. Is it worth a single life?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 22 - Soldiers of God
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #22 - Soldiers of God

    S2001:E22

    Afganistan's battle against Soviet occupation.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 23 - Unholy War
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - Unholy War

    S2001:E23

    Months before September 11, Saira Shah traveled to Afghanistan to record the impact of the Taliban's harsh rule for her documentary "Beneath the Veil." She recently returned to Afghanistan to see how the U.S. airstrikes are affecting the average Afghan.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 24 - Babies on the Brink
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Babies on the Brink

    S2001:E24

    About one out of every nine babies in the United States is born prematurely. Cutting-edge technology is giving doctors the chance to save babies as tiny as 1 pound, but it comes with a price because as many as 80 to 90 percent suffer lasting disabilities.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. CNN Presents Season 2001 Episode 25 - Return to Freetown
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - Return to Freetown

    S2001:E25

    In the award-winning "Cry Freetown," African journalist Sorious Samura documented the horrific suffering that a brutal civil war inflicted upon his homeland of Sierra Leone. He now revisits his country after a peace agreement called for RUF child soldiers to return to their homes and families.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"The First 100 Days" is the best rated episode of "CNN Presents". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 4/29/2001. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "A Dream Deferred".