America Divided | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Created by |
|
Starring | |
Theme music composer | J. Period |
Composer | Paul Brill |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 12 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producers |
|
Running time | 34–59 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Release | |
Original network | Epix |
Original release | September 30, 2016 – May 25, 2018 |
America Divided is an American documentary television series, created by Solly Granatstein, Lucian Read, and Richard Rowley, that premiered on September 30, 2016, on Epix.
America Divided in Season One explored "critical societal issues from the criminal justice system and education, to housing and heroin, to threats facing American democracy itself." In Season Two, the series will "again go cross-country to investigate the forces driving us apart and introduce viewers to ordinary people engaged in extraordinary efforts to overcome our country's racial, class, gender, religious and partisan divides." [1]
On January 16, 2016, it was announced that Epix had given the production a series order. The series was created by Solly Granatstein, Lucian Read, and Rick Rowley, all of whom executive produce alongside Norman Lear, Shonda Rhimes, Common, Jon Kamen, Justin Wilkes, Dave O'Connor, Mark S. Greenberg, Jocelyn Diaz, Ross Bernard, and Jill Burkhart. Co-executive producers include Nicole Dow, Derek Dudley, and Brent Miller. Rebecca Teitel and Jesse Williams are senior producers with Abby Ellis and Leah Thomas as producers. Production companies involved with the series include RadicalMedia and Freedom Road Productions. [2]
On July 25, 2017, it was announced at the annual Television Critics Association summer press tour that Epix had renewed the series for a second season consisting of four episodes. Production companies Divided Films, RadicalMedia, and Act III Productions were expected return to produce the second season. Series creators Solly Granatstein, Lucian Read and Richard Rowley will return for Divided Films, as will Jon Kamen and Justin Wilkes for RadicalMedia and Norman Lear and Brent Miller of Act III Productions. At the time it was reported that Lear and Jesse Williams would continue to act as executive producers and correspondents. [1] [3]
Alongside the initial series announcement, it was reported that correspondents for the first season would include Common, America Ferrera, Zach Galifianakis, and Amy Poehler among others. [2]
On February 26, 2018, it was announced that Gretchen Carlson, Diane Guerrero, Nick Offerman, Jussie Smollett, and Martin Sensmeier would serve as correspondents in season two. [4] [5]
On September 14, 2016, the Initiative on Business and Public Policy at the Brookings Institution hosted a conversation on housing policy in the Falk Auditorium that featured an early screening of the first season episode A House Divided. Following the screening, IBPP Policy Director Aaron Klein held a one-on-one conversation with Norman Lear who then was joined by a panel that included Lisa Rice of the National Fair Housing Alliance and Mark Calabria of The Cato Institute. [6]
On September 20, 2016, the series held its official premiere at the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater in Los Angeles, California. Following a screening of the series' first episode, a question-and-answer session was held moderated by Vanity Fair 's Krista Smith and featuring Norman Lear and Jesse Williams. [7]
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 8 | September 30, 2016 | November 18, 2016 | |
2 | 4 | May 4, 2018 | May 25, 2018 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Correspondent | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "The System" | Common | September 30, 2016 |
2 | 2 | "A House Divided" | Norman Lear | October 7, 2016 |
3 | 3 | "Something in the Water" | Rosario Dawson | October 14, 2016 |
4 | 4 | "The Class Divide" | Jesse Williams | October 21, 2016 |
5 | 5 | "The Epidemic" | Peter Sarsgaard | October 28, 2016 |
6 | 6 | "Out of Reach" | America Ferrera | November 4, 2016 |
7 | 7 | "Democracy for Sale" | Zach Galifianakis | November 11, 2016 |
8 | 8 | "Home Economics" | Amy Poehler | November 18, 2016 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Correspondent | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
9 | 1 | "Washington's War on Women" | Gretchen Carlson | May 4, 2018 |
10 | 2 | "Who Controls the Land" | Martin Sensmeier | May 11, 2018 |
11 | 3 | "There Has to be a Better Way" | Diane Guerrero / Nick Offerman | May 18, 2018 |
12 | 4 | "Whose History?" | Jussie Smollett | May 25, 2018 |
Director Lucian Read drew a connection between the alleged assault of actor Jussie Smollett and the episode of America Divided about lynching which he directed; Smollett narrated and appeared in the episode. Epix released a statement in February 2019 saying "with respect to the sensitivities around recent events... Epix is no longer making available the episode of America Divided featuring Jussie Smollett." [8]
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital. The series premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The show's title is an allusion to Gray's Anatomy, a classic human anatomy textbook. Writer Shonda Rhimes developed the pilot and served as showrunner, head writer, and executive producer until stepping down in 2015. The series is filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality.
Shonda Lynn Rhimes is an American television producer and screenwriter, and founder of the production company Shondaland. As of 2023, she is one of the richest women entertainers in America, with a net worth of $250 million.
Jussie Smollett is an American actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in The Mighty Ducks (1992). From 2015 to 2019, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire.
Aloma Wright is an American actress, widely known for her roles as Laverne Roberts on the NBC/ABC comedy series Scrubs (2001–2009), Maxine Landis on the NBC daytime drama series Days of Our Lives (2008–2015), Mildred Clemons on the ABC drama series Private Practice (2011–2013), Gretchen Bodinski on the USA Network drama series Suits (2015–2019), and Viola in Tyler Perry's Young Dylan.
Krista Vernoff is an American television screenwriter, executive producer and director. She is best known for running the television medical drama Grey's Anatomy and its spin-off Station 19 (2019–2023). She has also served as executive producer and writer for the US version of Shameless. Other works as producer-writer for television include Charmed and Wonderfalls.
On Our Own is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1994 until April 14, 1995. The series stars Ralph Louis Harris and six real life siblings: Jazz, Jocqui, Jake, Jojo, Jurnee, and Jussie Smollett.
Solly Granatstein is an American television producer and director, formerly with CBS 60 Minutes, NBC News and ABC News. He is co-creator, along with Lucian Read and Richard Rowley, of "America Divided", a documentary series about inequality, and was co-executive producer of Years of Living Dangerously Season 1. He is the winner of twelve Emmys, a Peabody, a duPont, two Polks, four Investigative Reporters and Editors awards, including the IRE medal, and virtually every other major award in broadcast journalism. He is also the screenwriter, with Vince Beiser, of The Great Antonio, an upcoming film, developed by Steven Soderbergh and Warner Brothers.
Scandal is an American political thriller television series starring Kerry Washington. Created by Shonda Rhimes, it aired on ABC from April 5, 2012, until April 19, 2018, for 124 episodes over seven seasons. Kerry Washington's character, Olivia Pope, is partially based on former George H. W. Bush administration press aide Judy Smith, who serves as a co-executive producer.
Empire is an American musical drama television series created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong for Fox that ran from January 7, 2015, to April 21, 2020. It is a joint production by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television. Although it is filmed in Chicago, the show is set in New York. The series centers on the fictional hip hop music and entertainment company Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders' family as they fight for control of it. It stars Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Bryshere Y. Gray, Jussie Smollett and Trai Byers as members of the Lyon Family, along with a supporting cast including Grace Byers, Kaitlin Doubleday, Gabourey Sidibe, Ta'Rhonda Jones, Serayah, Malik Yoba and Vivica A. Fox.
Peter Nowalk is an American television writer and producer. He is best known as the creator of the legal thriller, How to Get Away with Murder.
Shondaland is an American television production company founded by television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes. She founded it to be one of the production companies of her first series, the medical drama Grey's Anatomy in 2005. It has since gone on to produce Rhimes's other creations, Grey's spinoff Private Practice and the political drama Scandal, and her other productions—the short-lived Off the Map, the Viola Davis-starring legal thriller How to Get Away with Murder, and the crime thriller The Catch—all of which are co-produced with ABC Studios and air on ABC. As of 2017, it has a partnership affiliation with Netflix, and before that Disney-ABC.
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is the 9th episode and mid-season finale of the fifth season of the American political thriller television series Scandal. It takes its title from the 1944 song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" written by Frank Loesser.
Drop the Mic is an American musical reality competition television series that premiered on October 24, 2017, airing on TBS for its first two seasons before moving to TNT for its third season on January 23, 2019. The show is based on a recurring segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
The 47th Image Awards, was presented by the NAACP, commemorating roles, talents, and achievements of people of color in film, television, music and literature during the 2015 calendar year. This ceremony was hosted for the third time by Anthony Anderson on the TV One network.
Get Shorty is an American comedy-drama television series, based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. Created by Davey Holmes, it premiered on August 13, 2017, on Epix. It stars Chris O'Dowd, Ray Romano, Sean Bridgers, Carolyn Dodd, Lidia Porto, Goya Robles, Megan Stevenson, Lucy Walters, and Sarah Stiles. It has aired for three seasons, consisting of twenty-seven episodes. In December 2018, it was renewed for a third season, which began airing on October 6, 2019. Although no further seasons have been commissioned, MGM+ has not officially cancelled the show.
The Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television is awarded annually by the Producers Guild of America (PGA) at the Producers Guild Awards ceremonies recognizing the individual's outstanding body of work in television. The award category was instituted in 1989 and first awarded at the 1st Producers Guild Awards.
Guess Who Died is an American comedy television pilot created by Norman Lear and Peter Tolan and starring Hector Elizondo, Holland Taylor, Beth Lacke, Adrian Martinez, and Christopher Lloyd. The pilot was directed by Adam Bernstein and written by Lear and Tolan, both of whom also executive produced alongside Brent Miller. Commissioned by NBC for the 2018–19 television season, the pilot was ultimately passed over and not picked up to series. Had the production been given a series order, it would have marked Lear's first original sitcom production in over twenty years.
Brent Miller is an American television and film producer best known for the Netflix series One Day at a Time and the documentary feature. He serves as President of Production for Act III Productions.
Jessica Pressler is an American journalist and contributing editor at New York magazine. Her 2015 article "The Hustlers at Scores", was nominated for a National Magazine Award, and was later made into a feature film called Hustlers in 2019. She also wrote a story about Anna Sorokin that was later developed into the mini-series Inventing Anna released by Netflix in 2022.