''America's Greatest Makers'' was a

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show that aired in 2016 on TBS. Twenty-four teams of Makers competed for a $1 million prize and the judging panel consisted of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

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

Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a television producer who is the former Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group. He is best known for creating and producing the reality shows ''The Apprentice'', '' Survivor'', ''The Voice'', and ''Sh ...

and

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

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

, Mayim Bialik,

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program '' Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greate ...

, 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 hosts ''Talking Dead'', an hourlong aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series '' The ...

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC 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 network of podcasts, a premium conte ...

. 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 novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

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. Mayim Bialik 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 open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed under ...

, 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 dollars. 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