''America's Greatest Makers'' is a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show that aired in 2016 on TBS. Twenty-four teams of Makers compete for a $1 million prize. The judging panel consists of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

CEO

Brian Krzanich Brian Matthew Krzanich (born May 9, 1960) is an American engineer who was CEO of Intel from May 2013 to June 2018. Krzanich joined Intel as an engineer in 1982 and served as chief operating officer (COO) before being promoted to CEO in May 2013. ...

, Kevin Pereira, and Carol Roth. It was produced by Emmy-award winning producer

Mark Burnett James Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a British television producer who has won thirteen Emmy Awards including ten Primetime, one Sports Emmy Award and two Daytime Emmy Awards. His other accolades include five Producers Guild of America A ...

and

MGM Television Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, formerly known as MGM/UA Television, is the television studio arm of the American film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), specializing in broadcast syndication and the production and distribution of television sh ...

. A second season was announced in 2017 but canceled soon after casting. Guest judges include:

Kenny Smith Kenneth Smith (born March 8, 1965) is an American sports commentator and former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Jet", he played in the NBA from 1987 to 1997 as a member of the Sacramen ...

Mayim Bialik Mayim Chaya Bialik ( ; born December 12, 1975) is an American actress, author, and former game show host. From 1991 to 1995, she played the title character of the NBC sitcom ''Blossom (American TV series), Blossom''. From 2010 to 2019, she play ...

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

, Massimo Banzi and

Mike Rowe Michael Gregory Rowe (born March 18, 1962) is an American television host and narrator. He is known for his work on the Discovery Channel series '' Dirty Jobs'' and the series '' Somebody's Gotta Do It'' originally developed for CNN. He hosted ...

. The show also had an in-depth second screen presence on their website with video segments hosted by

Cara Santa Maria Cara Louise Santa Maria (born October 19, 1983) is an American science communicator. She hosts the podcast ''Talk Nerdy'' and co-hosts ''The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe'' podcast, and was a co-host of TechKnow on Al Jazeera America. Santa M ...

and guest correspondent

Chris Hardwick Christopher Ryan Hardwick (born November 23, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, television and podcast host, writer, and producer. He hosted '' Talking Dead'', an hourlong aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series '' ...

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC (also simply known as Nerdist) is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast ( The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a net ...

. The show included 24 teams with design, hardware, software and business mentors. Design mentors included: Imaan Naeem, Aubrey Shick, and Kurin Tu. Mechanical/hardware mentors included: Nahid Alam, Shallu Bhalla, James Crocker, Norvin Cuentas, Alex Juern and Greg Spilman. Software mentors included: Oliver Chen, Michael DiGioia, Mike Duong, David Fickel, Dan Hugo, Bryan Levin, Pirooz Najafi, and Prem Seelin. Business mentors included Andre Marquis and Mark Searle from UC Berkeley. Anubha Sacheti and Team Grush won the show.

Season 1: Teams, inventions and eliminations

Season 1 episodes

Episode 1

The series premiere aired on April 5, 2016, on TBS. It aired at 9 pm PDT/EDT (8 pm Central). The episode was part 1 of 2, featuring 12 teams of makers as they presented their inventions to the judges and guest judge

. Of the 12 teams, 4 were eliminated leaving 7 spots open for the next 12 teams that would present their

invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...

s in episode 2.

Episode 2

This episode aired on April 12, 2016, and was a continuation of Episode 1 where the final 12 teams presented their ideas to the judges and guest judge Kenny Smith. Of the 12 teams 5 were eliminated. This meant that 15 teams were moving onto the "Make or Break" round. In this stage the teams will compete against each other in groups of three, with $100,000 on the line every week for the winning team. After the five weeks of this round, we will end up with 5 finalists who make it to the final round and the chance to win $1,000,000

Episode 3

Episode 3 was the first round of the "Make or Break" stage, and aired on April 19, 2016.

was a guest judge. VENN and Telekinesis were eliminated, and Grush, with a smart toothbrush, won the round and moved on to the finals.

Episode 4

The second round of the "Make or Break" stage aired on April 26, 2016. Massimo Banzi, cofounder of

Arduino Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...

, was a guest judge. ASEAH's Delta Glove which automatically identifies and tracks the kind of exercise its user performs won the round and $100,000, and moved on to the finals. WithMe and Tabor were eliminated.

Episode 5

In the third "Make or Break" round, team NWTN competed with HerdDogg and SlapBand, and walked away the winner. The show aired on May 3, 2016.

Episode 6

The fourth "Make or Break" round aired on May 10, 2016.

was a guest judge. The episode pitted Aurora Dreamphones, PowerBobber and MotivateMe against each other. PowerBobber won the round and $100,000, and joined NWTN, Grush and ASEAH in the finals.

Episode 7

The fifth and final "Make or Break" round aired on May 17, 2016, with

again as a guest judge. The final winner of this stage was team HandsOn, which beat out Zackees Fashion Glow Jewelry and Collarator, and advanced as the last contender to the final round.

Episode 8

Episode 8 was the finale of the first season. It aired on May 24, 2016. In the finale, the 5 winners of the previous 'Make or Break' rounds - Grush, NWTN, ASEAH, PowerBobber and HandsOn - competed against each other for the grand prize of $1,000,000. The teams all presented their inventions one last time to the panel of judges, which included special judges Kenny Smith and Mike Rowe. The winner of season one's grand prize was Grush. Team Grush- Dr. Anubha Sacheti, Ethan Schur and Yong Jing Wang.

References

{{TBSNetwork Shows 2016 American television series debuts 2016 American television series endings TBS (American TV channel) original programming 2010s American reality television series Hacker culture DIY culture Television series by MGM Television