The Greatest American

The Greatest American is a 2005 American television series hosted by Matt Lauer. The four-part series featured biographies and lists of influential persons in American history, and culminated in a contest in which millions in the audience nominated and voted for the person they believed is the "greatest American".
Format
The Greatest American is broken into four episodes. The first episode introduces the 25 finalists based on a vote conducted early in 2005. The second episode features biographies of the finalists and allows viewers to vote for the top five nominees. The third episode introduces the top five nominees with commentaries from celebrities. In the finale, viewers participate in another vote for the first 15 minutes before the greatest American, according to the series, is announced.
Production
Development
In January 2005, the Discovery Channel and AOL announced The Greatest American, a seven-hour-long miniseries, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Discovery Channel. On January 21, Discovery and AOL began conducting a vote to determine the greatest American based on, according to an Associated Press report, who "most influenced the way they think, work and live". Later in February, it was revealed that Matt Lauer would host the show. He took the role partly because of the debate the series could generate, similar to that surrounding the high ranking of Diana, Princess of Wales, in the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons. Voting continued until spring.
Jason Raff and Elyse Zaccaro served as executive producers of The Greatest American. Ann Coulter makes an appearance. Tom Westman also makes an appearance to voice his support for Benjamin Franklin, whom Ralph Archbold portrays in the series.
Voting
Nominees
The 100 nominees for the title of "greatest American" were unveiled on April 18, when over 500,000 votes had already been cast. Discovery's alphabetized list included:
Muhammad Ali
Maya Angelou
Susan B. Anthony
Lance Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Lucille Ball
Alexander Graham Bell
Barbara Bush
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
Laura Bush
Andrew Carnegie
Johnny Carson
Jimmy Carter
George Washington Carver
Ray Charles
César Chávez
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Bill Cosby
Tom Cruise
Ellen DeGeneres
Walt Disney
Frederick Douglass
Amelia Earhart
Clint Eastwood
Thomas Edison
John Edwards
Albert Einstein
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Brett Favre
Henry Ford
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Gates
Mel Gibson
Rudy Giuliani
John Glenn
Billy Graham
Alexander Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Hugh Hefner
Katharine Hepburn
Bob Hope
Howard Hughes
Michael Jackson
Thomas Jefferson
Steve Jobs
Lyndon B. Johnson
Michael Jordan
Helen Keller
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
John F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Martin Luther King Jr.
Rush Limbaugh
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Lindbergh
George Lucas
Madonna
Malcolm X
Phil McGraw
Marilyn Monroe
Michael Moore
Audie Murphy
Richard Nixon
Barack Obama
Jesse Owens
Rosa Parks
George S. Patton
Colin Powell
Elvis Presley
Ronald Reagan
Christopher Reeve
Condoleezza Rice
Jackie Robinson
Eleanor Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Babe Ruth
Carl Sagan
Jonas Salk
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Frank Sinatra
Joseph Smith
Steven Spielberg
James Stewart
Martha Stewart
Nikola Tesla
Pat Tillman
Harry S. Truman
Donald Trump
Harriet Tubman
Mark Twain
Sam Walton
George Washington
John Wayne
Oprah Winfrey
Tiger Woods
Wright brothers
Chuck Yeager
Finalists
By June, the 25 finalists were unveiled. In alphabetical order, the finalists include:
Muhammad Ali
Neil Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Walt Disney
Thomas Edison
Albert Einstein
Henry Ford
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Gates
Billy Graham
Bob Hope
Thomas Jefferson
John F. Kennedy
Martin Luther King Jr.
Abraham Lincoln
Rosa Parks
Elvis Presley
Ronald Reagan
Eleanor Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
George Washington
Oprah Winfrey
Wright brothers
Results
The American public cast a total of over 2.4 million votes through telephone lines, text messages, and email correspondence. The names with the most votes were:
Ronald Reagan
Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King Jr.
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Elvis Presley
Oprah Winfrey
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Billy Graham
Thomas Jefferson
Walt Disney
Albert Einstein
Thomas Edison
John F. Kennedy
Bob Hope
Bill Gates
Eleanor Roosevelt
Lance Armstrong
Muhammad Ali
Rosa Parks
The Wright Brothers
Henry Ford
Neil Armstrong
Broadcast
The first episode was broadcast on June 5, 2005, the second on June 12, the third on June 19, and the finale on June 26.
Reception
The list of the 100 nominees, many of whom were entertainers, inventors, industrialists and presidents, was criticized upon its unveiling. Ann DeFrange of The Oklahoman questioned the significance of the celebrities, as did David M. Shribman. Kevin McDonough of United Feature Syndicate called the list "fascinating in a depressing way, revealing the short attention spans and media-obsessed nature of our times".
Shortly after Ronald Reagan received the title of the greatest American, his son, Ron, told Discovery that his father's then-recent death was a possible factor and that "I'm sure he would be very honored to be in the company of these great gentlemen."
In the years following the 2005 broadcast, the list of nominees and the final rankings have elicited continuous re-evaluation and criticism. Andrew Manis believed that it would have been unlikely for Martin Luther King Jr. to land near fifth place had most of the audience "been fully aware of King's radically prophetic theology and social ethics", citing a conservative shift and the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s. Paul Kengor used The Greatest American to justify Reagan's popularity among the general public. Abshalom Jac Lahav said he was inspired by the top 100 nominees list to create the exhibit, The Great Americans, featuring 34 paintings of well-known and lesser-known subjects "dressed in anachronistic or symbolic costuming". In 2019, Susan Dunne of the Hartford Courant commented that the reputations of certain nominees, notably Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, and Michael Jackson, had changed negatively or positively since the 2005 broadcast.
References
Notes
Citations
Works cited
Books
Chapters
Journal articles
External links
Greatest American at IMDb
Discovery Channel original programming
American
Lists of American people
2005 American television series debuts
2005 American television series endings