This American Life is an American television series based on the radio program of the same name. Like the radio program, the series is hosted by Ira Glass. The series premiered on March 22, 2007. Two seasons of the show have aired on Showtime. The second season finale aired on September 3, 2008,[1] and Showtime aired one final episode in May 2009.[2]
In September 2009, Glass announced that he and the other creators of the show had "asked to be taken off TV", largely in part to the difficult schedule required to produce a television program.[3] He went on to state that the show is officially "on hiatus", but would like to do a television special at some point in the future.[3] From January 10 to April 4, 2011, Current TV re-aired the series in its entirety.[4]
Adaptation for television[edit]
The television version of This American Life is a twofold shift in media from public radio to commercial television. The TAL staff had already attempted to move their program to television once before in 1999. Even though two different networks offered to screen a pilot, the TAL staff ultimately decided that it would be too difficult to make a television show that reflected its already successful weekly radio show. In 2002, Showtime offered to shoot a pilot, to which the TAL staff eventually agreed. In 2007, the first episode, "Reality Check", aired on television. When the staff was asked why the show moved to a commercial television station, Showtime, instead of public television (i.e., PBS), it responded that Showtime invited them to do a television show while PBS did not.[5] This American Life still runs weekly on public radio distributed by the program's producers through Public Radio Exchange (formerly distributed by Public Radio International, which was merged into PRX in 2018).