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.

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.

Nominees
The 100 nominees for the title of "greatest American" were unveiled on April 18, 2005, 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:


 * 1) Ronald Reagan
 * 2) Abraham Lincoln
 * 3) Martin Luther King Jr.
 * 4) George Washington
 * 5) Benjamin Franklin
 * 6) George W. Bush
 * 7) Bill Clinton
 * 8) Elvis Presley
 * 9) Oprah Winfrey
 * 10) Franklin D. Roosevelt
 * 11) Billy Graham
 * 12) Thomas Jefferson
 * 13) Walt Disney
 * 14) Albert Einstein
 * 15) Thomas Edison
 * 16) John F. Kennedy
 * 17) Bob Hope
 * 18) Bill Gates
 * 19) Eleanor Roosevelt
 * 20) Lance Armstrong
 * 21) Muhammad Ali
 * 22) Rosa Parks
 * 23) The Wright Brothers
 * 24) Henry Ford
 * 25) 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, including finalist Lance Armstrong, had changed negatively since the 2005 broadcast, while nominee Alexander Hamilton's reputation had improved significantly.