John Leguizamo’s Hit Docuseries ‘Leguizamo Does America’ Renewed for Second Season at MSNBC
June 27, 2023
‘Leguizamo Does America’ Will Travel To New Cities For Season 2
The NBC News Studios-Produced Series is the Most-Watched MSNBC Original Series in Over Two Years On Peacock
JUNE 27, 2023 ? MSNBC Films and NBC News Studios’ critically acclaimed docuseries Leguizamo Does America, created and hosted by Emmy and Tony award-winning actor John Leguizamo, has been renewed for a second season. Produced by NBC News Studios, Leguizamo Does America will air on MSNBC and continue its travelogue format, with Leguizamo visiting a new set of destinations. The new cities, which Leguizamo will explore in season 2, will be announced at a later date.
The first season, which premiered on MSNBC on April 16, 2023 at 10pm, averaged more Adults 25-54 viewers than any previous MSNBC Films series and beat CNN in total weekly viewers during its six-episode run. On Peacock, Leguizamo Does America was the most-viewed MSNBC original in over two years.
Leguizamo, a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican and Colombian descent, has become one of Hollywood’s most outspoken and visible champions of Hispanic culture. Building on his 40-year career of lifting up Hispanic voices, the first season of Leguizamo Does America, directed by award-winning director Ben De Jesus, took Leguizamo’s characteristic edge, energy and wit to five major U.S. cities and one territory – New York City, Miami, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico – to showcase and explore each of their thriving Latino communities first hand. The hit six-part series on MSNBC was an enlightening travelogue with a sprinkling of politics that included celebrity guests like comedian George Lopez and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, as well as fascinating local heroes, young actors, community leaders, and more. The series connected with a broad multicultural audience that included Hispanic viewers, which comprised 13% of the series audience during the MSNBC broadcasts this year.
“I’m so excited for the opportunity to go deeper into America and keep exploring Latin excellence and go to the source of our happiness!” Leguizamo said. “More Latin legends dinners, more eating and laughter!”
“The team behind Leguizamo Does America created an illuminating series that is as savvy and clever as it is savory and colorful – told through the lens of one of the most iconic voices of the Latino community,” said Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC. “This show proves once again that there is an audience for diverse stories, and we are so excited MSNBC is its home for another season.”
“It’s been such an honor and pleasure to create, develop and produce this series with a partner as talented, brilliant and passionate as John Leguizamo,” said Liz Cole, president of NBC News Studios. “We’re especially proud to help put a spotlight on the Latino community’s rich culture and significant contributions to this country, working with a predominantly Latino editorial and production staff. We had an exciting first season with MSNBC Films, and we’re thrilled to collaborate with them again on season 2.”
Leguizamo has always drawn from his own Latino heritage for both his acting roles and his stand-up act, becoming one of Hollywood’s most famous Latino entertainers. Before Leguizamo Does America, it was his 2018 Tony-nominated one-man Broadway show, Latin History for Morons, where he highlighted some of Latin history’s many unsung heroes, which cemented Leguizamo as a powerful social commentator seeking to dissect, chronicle and celebrate the Latino experience. “I felt like our culture was always being excluded, so I tried to fill in that gap by writing my own stuff about Latinx people and the way I saw them,” Leguizamo said at the time.
Leguizamo is a featured speaker at this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival (June 24 – June 30, Aspen, CO.), a week-long program of the Aspen Institute in partnership with NBCUniversal News Group that brings together prominent journalists, innovators, artists, politicians and more to participate in educational seminars, discussions and panels. Leguizamo will lend his unique perspective to three panels that include “Investing in Next-Gen Innovators” on June 27, as well as “Flipping the Script on the Digital Divide” and “Leaders Inspiring America” on June 28.
NBC News Studios
NBC News Studios is a production company specializing in premium documentaries, docuseries, podcasts and scripted programs for platforms both inside and outside of NBCUniversal. Recent projects include, EveryBody, which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023; the SXSW feature, Diamond Hands: The Legend of Wall Street Bets; the Toronto Film Festival selection, Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11 and The Way I See It, the highest rated non-news program in MSNBC’s 27-year history and winner of the 2020 NY Film Critics Award for Best Documentary. NBC News Studios’ first scripted series The Thing About Pam, starring Renee Zellweger and produced with Blumhouse, was NBC’s top rated new show of the 2021-2022 season and the network’s top digital launch ever. Studios first original podcast, Letters from Sing Sing, reached number one on the Apple charts and was a 2023 Webby Awards honoree.
MSNBC Films
MSNBC Films, a division of MSNBC, produces and acquires documentary features and short films for distribution across the NBCUniversal News Group platforms. MSNBC Films collaborates with top filmmakers to deliver a variety of thought-provoking films that reveal the humanity beyond the headlines, combining the extraordinary journalism of NBCUniversal News Group. For more information, please visit https://www.msnbc.com/films.
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