The Greatest American

*The Greatest American*
The Greatest American
Presented by	Matt Lauer
Country of origin	United States
Production
Executive producer	Jason Raff
Original release
Network	Discovery Channel
Release	June 5, 2005

The Greatest American was a four-part American television series hosted by Matt Lauer in 2005. The show featured biographies and lists of influential persons in U.S. history, and culminated in a contest in which millions the audience nominated and voted for the person they felt was the "greatest American". The competition was conducted by AOL and the Discovery Channel and reported on by the BBC.

Nominations

Nominations were accepted through January 31, 2005. The seven-hour-long series was broken into four episodes: The first episode counted down the top 100 and introduced the top 25 nominees in alphabetical order. The second episode featured biographies of the top 25 nominees as well as commentaries from influential people such as celebrities and politicians. The third episode, called "The Great Debate", introduced the top five nominees and pitted the studio audience supporters of each of the nominees and a person selected to represent each of the top five candidates against a panel of three celebrities. In the finale the top five "Greatest Americans" were announced as well as what percentage of the votes each had received. Votes were taken through a toll free (if calling from a land line) phone number, through text messages from cell phones, and through online voting. Voters were allowed to vote three times per voting method, so anyone had a chance of voting at least nine times. The three states with the most votes being received were California, Texas, and Florida (ranked 1st, 2nd, and 4th in population).

Top 25

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3. Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights activist who promoted non-violent activism and equality.

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6. George W. Bush
is the current president, and was at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks; he lowered taxes during his first term.

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Alphabetical list

On April 18, 2005, AOL and The Discovery Channel announced the top 100 nominees.

The remaining 75 nominees:

Facts about The Greatest American

Men: 85 (the Wright brothers are given a single entry)
Women: 15
Living nominees: 42
African Americans: 16
White Americans: 83
Nominees by area: (halves are awarded if a nominee exceeded in two areas e.g. Eisenhower is under Military and U.S. Presidents)
- Television, Cinema and Radio: 23
- U.S. Presidents: 14.5
- First Ladies: 5
- Other Political Figures: 15.5
- Science: 9.5
- Sports: 8.5
- Music: 5
- Business and Industry: 5
- Aviators and Astronauts: 5
- Military: 4
- Literature: 3
- Religion: 2
- Publishers: 1
Several of the 100 had considerable links to other countries:
- Einstein was born in Germany, but had to flee the country when the Nazis rose to power. At various times of his life was also a citizen of Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, and the US. He was also offered the presidency of Israel at one point.
- Alexander Graham Bell lived in Scotland for the first 23 years of his life, immigrated to Canada, and later died and was buried there.
- Andrew Carnegie was also born in Scotland
- Mel Gibson lived for about 10 years in Australia starting at about age 12 before returning to the US.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up in Austria and immigrated to the U.S. aged 21
- Nikola Tesla (Никола Тесла) was a Serb born in the Austrian Empire and immigrated to the U.S. aged 28
- Bob Hope was born in England, immigrated to the U.S. in 1908 aged 5, and became a U.S. citizen at age 17.

References

External links