The documentary series, an outgrowth of USA Network’s CHARACTER PROJECT initiative, will follow Brokaw as he travels across Highway 50 documenting the lives of Americans living along this transcontinental road that connects the Pacific to the Atlantic.  Brokaw will capture the stories of real everyday people and explore how their lives are being impacted economically, politically and culturally during these extraordinary times.

Co-produced by Peacock Productions, the documentary will premiere as a one-hour primetime special in January 2010 on USA Network timed to the first anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration.  The announcement was made by Bonnie Hammer, president, NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions.

Beginning this spring, Brokaw will broadcast updates on his travels in “Dispatches From The Road,” short vignettes featuring the people and places he will visit on his Highway 50 road trip. These accounts will be televised in primetime on USA Network, as well as on the Today Show, MSNBC and NBC Nightly News.

"HIGHWAY 50 promises to be an amazing chronicle of real-life stories along the 'backbone of America'," said Hammer.  "Tom Brokaw is the perfect partner for what's undeniably a passion project for all concerned."

“I’m thrilled to work with USA on this exciting, eye-opening series on real American characters,” said Brokaw. “From the determined fishermen in Chesapeake Bay to the green energy visionaries in Sacramento, you will see the changing face of a nation.”

Brokaw will embark on his journey into a new American Era as he travels across the United States along Highway 50, traversing 12 states and documenting the lives of Americans during these historic and challenging times.  Along the way, he will meet, befriend and immerse himself in the personal lives of ordinary and extraordinary people to reveal uniquely American stories of hardship and hope, as well as struggle and survival.  Each story will have an epilogue, to discover where these people were when Brokaw first met them, and how their lives have changed since the historic election of Barack Obama.

The documentary was inspired by the series of photographs captured along this historic route by renowned Scottish-born photographer David Eustace for USA Network’s CHARACTER PROJECT. Eustace traveled the entirety of Highway 50 in the summer of 2008 and photographed the diverse people and places he encountered on his 3000-mile journey. His photographs will be featured in the upcoming USA Network book, American Character: A Photographic Journey, for which Brokaw penned the foreword.

CHARACTER PROJECT is USA Network’s ongoing artistic initiative committed to celebrating America’s characters – the extraordinary people, from all walks of life, who make this country unique. The project was inspired by USA’s “CHARACTERS WELCOME” brand, and was developed with the support of Aperture Foundation.  During the summer of 2008, USA Network assembled a group of 11 world-class photographers and sent them out to capture the character of America today.  The subjects they photographed are as varied as the country itself, from high school football players in Texas and organic farmers in the Northwest, to musicians in Michigan and parades in New York.

The book, born from CHARACTER PROJECT, American Character: A Photographic Journey, will be published by Chronicle Books in March 2009. The collected works will also be displayed in a series of gallery exhibitions visiting seven American cities: New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. 

By Missy Lee

Missy Lee is the publisher, editor and chief reporter for ILoveTelevision.com. Prior to starting ILoveTelevision.com she worked for TV-Now.com and the late Tony Bray. After living in LA and covering all things entertainmentfor a number of years, she moved back to her home state of Tennessee.

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