''Cannonball Run 2001: Race Across America'' or known simply as ''Cannonball Run 2001'', is an American

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 ...

series that was broadcast on the

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

from August 5 to September 2, 2001. It was inspired by the

Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash The Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, widely known as the Cannonball Baker or Cannonball Run, was an unofficial, unsanctioned automobile race run five times in the 1970s from New York City and Darien, Connecticut, on the Eas ...

, an outlaw road race of the 1970s which was the source for the famous 1981 film ''

The Cannonball Run ''The Cannonball Run'' is a 1981 action-comedy film directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong firm Golden Harvest, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in Panavision, it features an all-star ensemble cast, including Burt Reynolds ...

'' and its sequel, ''

Cannonball Run II ''Cannonball Run II'' is a 1983 American action comedy film starring Burt Reynolds and an all-star cast, released by Warner Bros. and Golden Harvest. The film is the second installment of the ''Cannonball Run'' trilogy and a sequel to ''The Ca ...

'' (1984). The show featured a series of five location-specific challenges along a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

-to-

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

course, as in the original race. Development of the series started without the participation of

Brock Yates Brock Yates (October 21, 1933 – October 5, 2016) was a prominent American journalist, TV commentator, TV reporter, screenwriter, and author. He was the longtime executive editor at ''Car and Driver'' magazine—and contributed to ''The Washingt ...

, organizer of the original Cannonball and holder of the trademark; indeed, the production company paid Yates for the use of the name just before the show debuted. Yates was not pleased with the series, as he felt it was fake and staged. In 2005, Yates teamed up with a Cannonball driver and film producer J Sanchez to produce a more authentic reality series called ''Cannonball: This Is Reality'' to run alongside the actual

One Lap of America The Brock Yates' One Lap of America is an annual motorsports event in the United States that has been held since 1984. It is the successor to the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an underground auto race of the 1970s. T ...

race. The project was shelved in 2006 due to lack of interest from networks.

Episode status

In 2023, New York-based film and television studio

FilmRise FilmRise is an American media company, headquartered in New York City, that operates a film and television studio and a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) network. As of November 2024, the FilmRise app has reported more than 31.5 milli ...

acquired the digital distribution and AVOD rights to the show, so it is made available for streaming online on their app and its partners,

The Roku Channel The Roku Channel is an over-the-top video streaming service available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the UK. The service was launched in 2017, and is owned and operated by Roku, Inc. It is the most popular free ad-supported streaming televisio ...

Tubi Tubi (stylized as tubi) is an American over-the-top ad-supported streaming television service owned by Fox Corporation since 2020. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In 2023, Tubi, Credible L ...

and

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

and its sister AVOD service,

Amazon Freevee Amazon Freevee (stylized as freevee and fv, also shortened as Freevee, formerly known as IMDb Freedive and IMDb TV, and sometimes spelled FV) is an American Free ad-supported streaming television, ad-supported video on demand, video-on-demand ( ...

References

External links

*
Cannonball Run 2001
at GRB Studios * USA Network original programming 2000s American reality television series 2001 American television series debuts 2001 American television series endings Television series by GRB Entertainment {{US-reality-tv-stub