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