ABC News Plans Two ‘Soul of a Nation’ Primetime Specials
ABC News will expand its recent “Soul of a Nation” series with two primetime specials designed to commemorate the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death and Juneteenth.
“After Floyd: The Year that Shook the World – A Soul of a Nation Special,” will air Tuesday, May 25 from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and will attempt to chronicle the events around Floyd’s death and consider how the nation moves forward from it. Tamron Hall and T.J. Holmes will co-anchor the program, said Marie Nelson, senior vice president of integrated content strategy for ABC News, in an interview.
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ABC News will present a celebration of Juneteenth on Friday, June 18, between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., marking the second year in a row that the Disney news unit will produce a special to honor the holiday.
Additional details for each special are expected to be announced in weeks to come.
ABC News designed the original series in hopes of generating bigger multicultural audiences, said Nelson. “This was really something that we saw as a real moonshot for the company, but it was super important in terms of thinking about how we develop content that will help us grow culturally diverse audiences in a new way.” According to ABC News, the first season of the series, delivered an audience that was 59% Black, indigenous or people of color. Nearly half of the series average audience was Black. Episodes remain available via the ABC app and Hulu.
“We have just delivered our season two ask to the network, and we remain very hopeful that they will feel proud of what we have been able to deliver for them,” Nelson said.
“Soul of a Nation” was executive produced by Eric Johnson and Robe Imbriano. Chantre Camack served as executive editorial producer. James Adolphus was series director and Marie Nelson is the series creator Johnson is executive producer. Catherine McKenzie is co-executive producer and Melia Patria is supervising producer for the “Soul of a Nation” specials.
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