PBS, BBC and Multichoice Partner with The Earthshot Prize to Air Its Annual Awards Ceremony to be Filmed at MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Featuring Exclusive Performances by Annie Lennox, Billie Eilish, Chloe x Halle and Ellie Goulding
Catherine O’Hara, Clara Amfo, Daniel Dae Kim, Sir David Attenborough, Rami Malek and Shailene Woodley Announced as Hosts and Presenters
BOSTON, MA and LONDON, U.K.; November 28, 2022 – The Earthshot Prize, the global environmental prize founded by Prince William in 2020, today announced its performer and presenter line up for the second annual awards ceremony to be taped in Boston on Friday, December 2.
Award-winning broadcaster, podcaster and television presenter Clara Amfo returns for a second year to co-host the awards alongside actor, producer and director Daniel Dae Kim. The five Winners of The Earthshot Prize will be announced by a line-up of presenters including The Princess of Wales; Academy Award-Winning actor Rami Malek; actor, screenwriter and comedian Catherine O’Hara and actor and advocate Shailene Woodley. Each winning solution will be awarded £1 million in prize funding to help support and scale their innovations, with the potential to repair our planet.
The ceremony will also feature natural historian and Member of The Earthshot Prize Council, Sir David Attenborough. The Prince of Wales will deliver remarks at the end of the ceremony.
This year’s awards will feature unforgettable performances from Singer-Songwriter and activist Annie Lennox; Grammy award-winning Singer-Songwriter Billie Eilish accompanied by her brother and creative partner, FINNEAS; R&B duo Chloe x Halle and platinum selling artist and activist Ellie Goulding.
Clara Amfo said: “What an honour to return for a second time to host The Earthshot Prize awards, this time from America! I was so inspired by last year's Winners, and I’m looking forward to celebrating and sharing the incredible work of the 2022 Finalists with the world."
Ellie Goulding said: “I am a big supporter of the Prince of Wales’ passion for the environment and share in The Earthshot Prize’s mission to protect and restore our planet. I am particularly excited for viewers around the world to learn about the innovative solutions presented by this year’s cohort of Finalists.”
Daniel Dae Kim said: “I’m honoured to be co-hosting this year’s Earthshot Prize. The ground-breaking, innovative work of the 2022 Finalists leaves me inspired and hopeful that we can solve the significant challenges facing us today. Whether it's taking care of our planet or healing our communities, each of us can and must step up to do our part. Thank you to this year’s Finalists for leading the way.”
Annie Lennox said: "The urgent need to protect and restore our Earth’s damaged environmental systems is essential for future survival. The objective of The Earthshot Prize is powerful in terms of building a ‘Waste-Free World’ and ‘Reviving Our Oceans.’ I’m therefore honoured to lend my voice in support of this ambitious mission.”
Rami Malek said: “The fifteen Finalists of this year's Earthshot Prize are deeply inspiring. They are dedicating their lives to building solutions that will repair our planet, and I can’t wait to present an award to one of the incredible Winners for 2022.”
Catherine O’Hara said: “Repairing our planet is one of the most important things we can do in our lifetimes. The passion and ambition of this year’s Earthshot Finalists is much needed in a world of such turmoil, and I am truly honoured to play a role in helping them share their work with the world.”
Shailene Woodley said: “It is an honour to be a presenter at this year’s Earthshot Prize Awards. The Finalists are extraordinary, and I am thrilled to play a part in helping to spotlight their incredible solutions and the inspiring work they do every day.”
PBS, BBC and Multichoice will be the exclusive broadcast homes for this year’s event, which will celebrate the chosen climate entrepreneurs and environmental innovators with story-telling and extraordinary performances. Produced by BBC Studios, this year’s event will be recorded at MGM Music Hall at Fenway.
“PBS is honored to be able to present this event to U.S. audiences and spotlight the work of those making a difference in the fight to stem climate change.,” said Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS. “We applaud the work of The Earthshot Prize and support its mission to take on this critically important challenge with urgency and optimism.”
“I’m excited that the BBC is once again working with Prince William to bring The Earthshot Prize to British viewers,” said Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, BBC. “Last year’s ceremony won a BAFTA for Best Live Event: it was a festival of hope and human ingenuity, filled with big-name stars and brilliant musical acts. This year’s will be every bit as spectacular. There couldn’t be a better time to showcase surprising new solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems.”
“We are honoured to be able to make a meaningful contribution to create a sustainable future through our broadcast partnership with The Earthshot Prize. This partnership will enable us not only to educate communities across our 50 markets in Africa on climate change, but to also encourage innovators to pitch their solutions, inspire other corporates to join the fight against climate change and to motivate governments to prioritize climate change as part of their national agendas and of course to celebrate the 15 incredible finalists of 2022, proudly including two from Africa,” said Imtiaz Patel, MultiChoice Group Executive Chairman.
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” challenge that pioneered space travel in the 1960s, The Earthshot Prize is an ambitious global environmental prize which aims to discover and scale the best solutions to help repair our planet within the remainder of this decade.
Every year, The Earthshot Prize will find and reward solutions to five “Earthshot” goals – Protect and Restore Nature; Clean Our Air; Revive Our Oceans; Build A Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate. These winning solutions will have the greatest impact on the biggest environmental challenges facing our planet and winners and finalists will have access to a global support network to scale their work.
The ceremony will air on Sunday, December 4 at 5:30pm GMT on BBC and will begin streaming from The Earthshot Prize YouTube channel later that evening. In the U.S., it will begin streaming at 2:00pm EST on Monday, December 5 onPBS.org and the PBS App and at 8:00pm EST on the PBS YouTube channel. Across Africa, the ceremony will premiere on Multichoice channels on Monday, December 5 at 17:00 WAT. PBS will also broadcast the event on Wednesday, December 14 at 8:00pm EST (check local listings). (All times subject to change).
The Earthshot Prize ceremony is produced by BBC Studios Events Productions. The Executive Producer for BBC Studios is Mark Sidaway, Creative Director is Claire Popplewell and the award show will be directed by Julia Knowles.
About The Earthshot Prize
Founded by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2020, The Earthshot Prize is a global environmental prize to discover, accelerate and scale ground-breaking eco-solutions to repair and regenerate the planet. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot, which united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon, The Earthshot Prize aims to catalyze an Earthshot challenge to urgently encourage and scale innovative solutions that can help put the world firmly on a trajectory towards a stable climate, where communities, oceans and biodiversity thrive in harmony by 2030. The five challenges are: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate.
The Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism but championing inspiring leadership and helping to scale incredible cutting-edge solutions. It will discover 50 winners over 10 years with the power to repair the planet. More than a prize, The Earthshot Prize works in partnership with a Global Alliance of Partners to support the scaling of the solutions discovered and selected each year.
The Global Alliance Founding Partners are a group of leading global organizations and philanthropists which act as strategic funding partners to the Prize, including Aga Khan Development Network, Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Breakthrough Energy Foundation, Coleman Family Ventures, DP World in partnership with Dubai EXPO 2020, Eleven Eleven Foundation, Holch Povlsen Foundation, Jack Ma Foundation, Legado Para A Juventude, Marc and Lynne Benioff, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Rob & Melani Walton Foundation.
Global Alliance Partners are non-profit environment and sustainable development organisations that bring expertise, global reach and serve as nominating organisations each year. For full list see website: Global Alliance - Earthshot Prize
Global Alliance Members are some of the world’s largest and most influential companies and brands who will support The Earthshot Prize, implement ambitious changes within their businesses and accelerate the advancement of the solutions of Prize Finalists and Winners. They are: Arup, Bloomberg L.P., Deloitte, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hitachi, Ingka Group (IKEA), Microsoft, The Multichoice Group, Natura &Co, Safaricom, Salesforce, Unilever, Vodacom Group, Walmart.
About PBS
PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 120 million people through television and 26 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirms that PBS’s premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on Twitter.
About BBC Studios
BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with profits (EBITDA) of £226 million on sales of £1.6bn (21/22). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, its activities span content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries across both its own productions, and programmes and formats made by high-quality UK independents, with three-quarters of its revenues from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple and Netflix. Around 2,400 hours of award-winning British programmes made by the business are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC.com, BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, has 139 million unique browser visits each month.
About Multichoice Group
MultiChoice Group (MCG), which listed in the Main Board of the JSE on 27 February 2019, is one of the fastest-growing video entertainment providers globally, delivering entertainment products and services to 22.1m households across 50 countries on the African continent. Its track record of more than 30 years is reflective of a commitment to provide audiences with only the best local, sport and international content.
MCG’s strong partnerships with distributors, installers and telecommunication companies, along with its well-established payment solutions, competitive pricing and choice of viewership packages continue to secure its place in the global market, while also providing solutions unique to the African market. Its direct-to-home (DTH), digital terrestrial television (DTT) and over-the-top (OTT) solutions enable the business to stay relevant and aligned to changing consumer habits while capturing new markets.
Content is at the very core of the business. MCG aims to deliver quality content anywhere, anytime and on any device through a comprehensive video entertainment offering at different price points. As pioneers in African video entertainment, MCG plays an important role in making information and entertainment easily accessible to Africans.
MCG aims to secure content rights in a manner that is cost-effective and reflective of the diversity of its audiences. Its substantial portfolio includes award-winning local content (a key
differentiator in its service offering), a leading sport offering (including production capabilities) and access to international content, which is all shared on the group’s platforms: DStv, GOtv, Showmax, M-Net and SuperSport.
MCG has superior technology capability through the security solutions that Irdeto, its technology company, brings to the group. These solutions enable MultiChoice to protect its investment, create new offerings and combat cybercrime. With 50 years’ expertise in software security, Irdeto’s software security solutions and cyber services protect over 5bn devices and applications for some of the world’s best brands.
About MGM Music Hall at Fenway:
Located at the intersection of Lansdowne and Ipswich Streets in Boston, the MGM Music Hall at Fenway is a brand new, state-of-the-art, multi-purpose performing arts center that occupies 91,500 square feet on four levels and can accommodate up to 5,000 guests in an intimate setting with versatile seating options. Opened in August 2022, MGM Music Hall at Fenway is owned by Fenway Sports Group Real Estate and operated by Fenway Music Company – a joint venture between Fenway Sports Management & Live Nation. For additional information, visit www.MGMFenwayMusicHall.com.
CONTACTS
For The Earthshot Prize: earthshotprize2022@fgsglobal.com
For PBS: DKCEarthshotPrize@dkcnews.com
For BBC Studios: Tara.Davies@bbc.co.uk
For Multichoice: Litlhare.Moteetee@Multichoice.co.za