The Greatest American
Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Greatest American
| The Greatest American | |
 | |
| Run time | 1 hour |
| Host | Matt Lauer |
| Executive Producer | Jason Raff |
| Country | United States |
| Network | Discovery Channel |
| First aired | June 5, 2005 |
The competition was conducted by AOL and the Discovery Channel.
Nominations were accepted through January 31, 2005. The 7-hour long series was broken into 4 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 5 nominees and pitted the studio audience supporters of each of the nominees and a person selected to represent each of the top 5 candidates against a panel of 3 celebrities. In the finale the top 5 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).
The four-part interactive television event that aired on the Discovery Channel was hosted by Matt Lauer. It was produced by NBC News Productions and Jason Raff.
The Top 25
- Ronald Reagan- 24.0% - named "Greatest American"
- Abraham Lincoln - 23.5%
- Martin Luther King, Jr. - 19.7% - named "Greatest African American"
- George Washington - 17.7%
- Benjamin Franklin - 14.9%
- George W. Bush - named "Greatest Living American"
- Bill Clinton
- Elvis Presley - named "America's Greatest Entertainer"
- Oprah Winfrey - named "Greatest Woman in American history"
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Billy Graham
- Thomas Jefferson
- Walt Disney
- Albert Einstein - named "Greatest American Scientist" & "Greatest Jewish American"
- Thomas Alva Edison
- John F. Kennedy
- Bob Hope
- Bill Gates
- Eleanor Roosevelt - named "America's Greatest First Lady"
- Lance Armstrong - named America's "Greatest Athlete"
- Muhammed Ali
- Rosa Parks
- The Wright Brothers
- Henry Ford
- Neil Armstrong
Alphabetical list
On April 18,2005, AOL and The Discovery Channel announced the top 100 nominees.The remaining 75 nominees:
- Maya Angelou
- Susan B. Anthony
- Lucille Ball
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Barbara Bush
- George H. W. Bush
- Laura Bush
- Andrew Carnegie
- Johnny Carson
- Jimmy Carter
- George Washington Carver
- Ray Charles
- César Chávez
- Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Bill Cosby
- Tom Cruise
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Frederick Douglass
- Amelia Earhart
- Clint Eastwood
- John Edwards
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Brett Favre
- Mel Gibson
- Rudy Giuliani
- John Glenn
- Alexander Hamilton
- Tom Hanks
- Hugh Hefner
- Katharine Hepburn
- Howard Hughes
- Michael Jackson
- Steve Jobs
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Michael Jordan
- Helen Keller
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Robert F. Kennedy
- Rush Limbaugh
- Charles Lindbergh
- George Lucas
- Madonna
- Malcolm X
- Phil McGraw
- Marilyn Monroe
- Michael Moore
- Audie Murphy
- Richard M. Nixon
- Barack Obama
- Jesse Owens
- George S. Patton
- Colin Powell
- Christopher Reeve
- Condoleezza Rice
- Jackie Robinson
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Babe Ruth
- Carl Sagan
- Jonas Salk
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Frank Sinatra
- Joseph Smith, Jr.
- Steven Spielberg
- James Stewart
- Martha Stewart
- Nikola Tesla
- Pat Tillman
- Harry Truman
- Donald Trump
- Harriet Tubman
- Mark Twain
- Sam Walton
- John Wayne
- Tiger Woods
- Chuck Yeager
Facts about The Greatest American
- Number of males on list: 85 (the Wright brothers are given a single entry)
- Number of females on list: 16
- Number of living nominees: 42
Comments and criticisms
Many viewers and media commentators have criticized the shortlist as being extremely androcentric, with only a handful of female politicans, athletes, innovators and entertainers making the cut. Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey are the only three females in the Top 25. Much criticism has been made of the overselection of entertainers and a bias towards recent times at the expense of those who lived in the 18th or 19th centuries. Others have complained about the selection of Ronald Reagan as the Greatest American, beating Abraham Lincoln, often called the Greatest President. There have also been objections to many candidates being eligible because of the country in which they were born. For example, Albert Einstein, Bob Hope and Arnold Schwarzenegger are placed in the Top 25, were born in Germany, United Kingdom and Austria respectively. Some feel this disqualifies them from the list because they are not "Americans."
Alexander Graham Bell also appeared on the Canadian version of the show, The Greatest Canadian, and the original British program, Great Britons, where he ranked ninth and fifty-seventh place respectively. The scientist, inventor, and founder of the Bell Telephone Company was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847, before moving to Brantford, Ontario in 1870. Three years later, Bell relocated to Boston, Massachusetts to continue his research into vocal physiology. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States, though he maintained an estate and laboratory in Canada, conducting research in aviation, among other things. He died and was buried in Canada, though his tombstone bears the prominant line "citizen of the United States." Thus, all three countries make a claim to him.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.