* Cigarette Wars (2011)

In this CNBC original documentary, Correspondent Brian A. Shactman reports on an industry that continues to thrive despite all we know about the dangers of smoking. 50 million Americans, and nearly a billion people overseas, still light up every day. And as cigarette taxes continue to skyrocket in the United States, driving the price up to as much as $14 per pack, a crime wave is booming, with black market profiteers cheating the U.S. government out of $5 billion in cigarette tax dollars each year.

We follow American tobacco farmers as they endure one of the worst growing seasons in four decades, facing record drought and increased pressure from the anti-tobacco movement. Increasingly marginalized, these growers refuse to give up or give in, trading their overalls for suits and traveling overseas to sell American tobacco in emerging markets. Their efforts, and those of the tobacco industry, to sell their product in places like China, India, and Eastern Europe, have prompted accusations that they are exporting a public health crisis.

* Behind Closed Doors at Marriott (2012)

CNBC goes behind the scenes to tell the story of one of the largest hotel empires in the world. Marriott International spans 74 countries, 3700 properties, and 18 brands – from Courtyard to Marriott to Ritz-Carlton – and pulls off the massive feat of housing and feeding guests in more than 645,000 rooms each night. With extraordinary behind-the-scenes access, the documentary will explore the strange science of hotel pricing, explain why guests can pay wildly different prices for comparable rooms and profile an executive chef as he prepares a banquet for 2000 people. CNBC cameras examine the Ritz-Carlton's obsessive culture of customer service, and travel to India to witness Marriott's shrewd expansion into the developing world – all part of the story of an American, family-run dynasty that's thrived by walking the line between playing it safe and taking some calculated and hugely successful risks.