NBC News’ Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb to Host ‘Inspiring America: The 2022 Inspiration List’ Airing Across NBC, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC and NBC News NOW on May 7 and 8
Broadway Legend Rita Moreno; Olympians Nathan Chen, Erin Jackson, and Mikaela Shiffrin; Fashion Icon Christy Turlington Burns; and More to Headline This Year’s Inspiration List
Plus – Special Editions of ‘Inspiring America’ Episodes to Air Across NBCU News Group Podcasts
April 22, 2022 – NBCUniversal News Group’s division-wide, multiplatform franchise Inspiring America will return the week of May 2, highlighting the stories of individuals who have made an impact on their communities and industries this past year.
The inspiring stories will air across TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Noticias Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC News NOW, NBCLX, and will also be featured on NBCNews.com/InspiringAmerica throughout the week.
The week-long series will culminate with the second annual television event, Inspiring America: The 2022 Inspiration List, airing on Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8 hosted by NBC Nightly News’ Lester Holt, along with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, as they recognize the honorees on The 2022 Inspiration List.
The one-hour primetime event will highlight the honorees’ remarkable stories and feature interviews and reporting from anchors and journalists from across NBC News, Noticias Telemundo, MSNBC and CNBC, including José Díaz-Balart, Craig Melvin, and Shepard Smith.
Inspiring America: The 2022 Inspiration List will air across NBCU News Groups’ television and streaming networks on:
- NBC at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. MT / 7:30 p.m. PT on Saturday May 7
- MSNBC at 10 p.m. ET Saturday May 7
- CNBC at 11 p.m. ET Saturday May 7
- Telemundo at 12 a.m. ETSunday, May 8 (Inspirando a América)
Encores will stream on:
- TODAY All Day at 6 p.m. ET Sunday, May 8
- NBC News NOW at 9 p.m. ET Sunday, May 8
It will also be available on demand on:
- The MSNBC Hub on Peacock.
New this year, NBC News Audio will produce special Inspiring America episodes across many of the networks’ flagship podcasts including Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast, Into America with Trymaine Lee and Making Space with Hoda Kotb along with the showcasts of NBC Nightly News, TODAY, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
Encompassing a diverse mix of extraordinary individuals and newsmakers, The 2022 Inspiration List includes:
- Rita Moreno: The Broadway and Hollywood legend and EGOT winner is still acting, singing, dancing and inspiring at 90 years old. But her inspirational journey to stardom and being a universal role model was filled with pain and self-doubt until she realized the key to being able to do everything she wanted was to learn to be herself.
- The Olympians: Sometimes falling down can inspire us to reach for the greatest heights. That’s what three of this year’s Olympians did. Gold Medalists Nathan Chen and Erin Jackson, and muti-medal winner Mikaela Shiffrin, showed themselves, America, and the world, how to overcome the adversity of crushing defeat by using it to drive themselves to their greatest successes.
- Katharine Hayhoe: An evangelist in the truest sense of the word, Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist determined to rally even the most skeptical to join the battle to save humanity from climate change. She combines her deep knowledge of climate science with her enthusiasm for teaching others with her deep faith as an evangelical Christian. The combination makes her a powerhouse in the global effort to take on the most urgent cause of our time, or maybe any time.
- Christy Turlington Burns: After facing potentially life-threatening complications during childbirth, fashion industry icon Christy Turlington Burns had an awakening. She asked herself: if giving birth is difficult in her privileged circumstances, what must it be like for women all around the world, especially in the world’s poorest and most difficult corners? So she started a non-profit—Every Mother Counts—and now travels the world bringing support to pregnant women and raising money for the cause.
- Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell is busy launching humanity on a vast new adventure: interplanetary travel – and eventually settlements — beyond Earth. Shotwell has inspired a generation of engineers and adventurers – many of them women — to join her on a journey to take all of us to the stars.
- Americans Helping Ukrainians: Among the Americans we’ll meet is California Pastor Phil Metzger, who almost single-handedly organized a massive effort among his parishioners to give shelter to thousands of Ukrainian refugees coming across the Mexican border into the U.S. In doing so, Metzger’s parish inspired a legion of other Americans who have now embraced total strangers from the other side of the world with open arms – and open hearts.
Follow updates on Twitter #InspiringAmericaNBC.
Inspiring America originated as a series on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt six years ago.
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