Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020

Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 is an American television special that was simulcasted on the major television networks and online on May 16, 2020. Created by the XQ Institute, the LeBron James Family Foundation, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the special was curated by basketball player LeBron James in collaboration with high school students and educators across the United States, including the American Federation of Teachers. The broadcast included a variety of commencement addresses, celebrity performances and inspirational vignettes aimed at high school students, whose graduation ceremonies and proms were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, due to it causing the closure of most schools worldwide.^[2][3]

Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020
Genre	Benefit performance^[1]
Created by	XQ Institute LeBron James Family Foundation Entertainment Industry Foundation^[2]
Presented by	LeBron James
Country of origin	United States
Original languages	English Spanish
Production
Executive producers	LeBron James Brian Gott
Production location	Virtual
Running time	57 minutes
Production companies	SpringHill Entertainment Done and Dusted^[3]
Distributor	XQ Institute
Release
Original network	multi-network simulcast
Original release	May 16, 2020 (2020-05-16)

Appearances

• LeBron James, host
• Zendaya, actress
• Kevin Hart, actor
• Yara Shahidi, actress
• Kane Brown & Maren Morris, singer
• Timothée Chalamet, actor
• Rodney Robinson, educator
• Megan Rapinoe, athlete
• Bad Bunny, singer
• Kumail Nanjiani, actor (via Animal Crossing)
• Olivia Wilde, actor
• Malala Yousafzai, activist
• Lena Waithe, screenwriter
• Julianne Moore, actress
• Shaquille O'Neal, athlete
• Chris Harrison, television personality
• Dave Matthews, musician
• Loren Gray, singer
• The Dolan Twins, internet personalities
• Lana Condor, actress
• Liza Koshy, actress
• Pharrell Williams, singer
• Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

Students

Name	School	Location	Role
Priscilla Arceo	Santa Ana High School	Orange County, California
Justin "Jwalt" Walton	Oakland School for the Arts	Oakland, California
Ervin Odom	Akron Early College High School	Akron, Ohio
Shelbie Rash	Skyline High School	Mesa, Arizona
Jordan Lewis	Washington High School	Phoenix, Arizona
Halah Berglin	Williams Field High School	Gilbert, Arizona
Kayla Diaz	Franklin High School
Johnny Corte	Saguaro High School	Scottsdale, Arizona
Mason Whitaker	Ironwood Ridge High School	Oro Valley, Arizona
Parker Fowler	Greenway High School	Phoenix, Arizona
Morgann Kelly	Desert Vista High School
Lauren Grimm	Thunderbird High School
Caleb Fearing	Mojave High School	North Las Vegas, Nevada
Christian Johnson	Ron Brown College Preparatory High School	Washington, D.C.
Morgan Schragger	Hopewell Valley Central High School	Pennington, New Jersey	Introducing H.E.R.
Sydney Guine	Los Angeles County High School for the Arts	Los Angeles, California
Eliza Andrus	Ocean Township High School	Oakhurst, New Jersey	Introducing the Graduation Medley by Henry, Jonah, and Ben Platt
Ian Coursey	Our Lady of Good Counsel High School	Olney, Maryland
Emily Liang	Oakland High School	Oakland, California	Introducing YBN Cordae
Jordan Orion	Early College High School	Kileen, Texas
Aniyah Fisher	Kenwood Academy High School	Chicago, Illinois	Introducing the commencement by Barack Obama

Performances

Artist(s)	Song(s)
Students of the Class of 2020	"Star-Spangled Banner"
Dua Lipa	"Break My Heart"
Ben Platt Henry Platt Jonah Platt	Graduation Medley "Memories" / "Graduation (Friends Forever)" "In My Life" "See You Again" "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
Alicia Keys	"Underdog"
Chika Brandan "Bmike" Odums	"Crown"
H.E.R.	"Sometimes"
YBN Cordae	"Broke as F**k"
Jonas Brothers Karol G	"X"

Broadcast

The special was simulcasted on May 16, 2020, at 8pm EST on the major U.S. broadcast television networks ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, except PBS due to flex programming on member stations over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary.^[2] It was also simulcasted on television networks California Music Channel and The CW, on Spanish-language network Univision, and on cable networks CNN, Fox Business, Fox News, Freeform, and MSNBC.^[1][4] It was also available for streaming in platforms such as ABC News Live, Associated Press, Bleacher Report, Complex Networks, Facebook, FoxNow, Hulu, Instagram, NBC News Now, NowThis News, PeopleTV, The Roku Channel, Roland Martin Unfiltered, Reuters, Sirius XM, Snapchat, TikTok, USO, The Washington Post, and YouTube.^[3][1][4]

Viewership

United States

Network	Viewers (million)^[5]
ABC	2.233
NBC	2.203
MSNBC	2.003
CNN	1.879
CBS	1.836
FNC	0.977
Fox	0.659
The CW	0.367
Freeform	0.211

  Broadcast network

  Cable network

Total Viewership = 14.674

References

1. "GRADUATE TOGETHER: AMERICA HONORS THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2020, A Graduation Tribute to Our Nation's High School Seniors, to Air Saturday, May 16 at 8 P.M. ET/PT, 7 P.M. CT". BusinessWire. April 29, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
2. . Education Week. New York NY. Associated Press. April 30, 2020. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
3. Tapp, Tom (April 30, 2020). "LeBron James Leading Live All-Star 'Graduate Together' Tribute To Class Of 2020 Airing As Primetime TV Special". Deadline. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
4. King, John Paul (May 14, 2020). "America's Class of 2020 to 'Graduate Together' in special broadcast event". Los Angeles Blade. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
5. Metcalf, Mitch (May 19, 2020). . Showbuzz Daily. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 on Twitter  
• Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 on Instagram