The Rev. Al Sharpton has been quietly forming his own media company to launch a nationally syndicated Sunday-morning TV show that will focus on education, he told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. “Education Superhighway,” scheduled to premiere Sept. 26, consists of news and roundtable discussions primarily about education. Guests already lined up include Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and president of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten.
The 30-minute show is already cleared in 150 markets, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The civil rights advocate will premiere it Thursday at the Congressional Black CaucusFoundation’s 40th Annual Legislative Conference.
Sharpton’s media company, ESH Holdings (named after the series’ initials) will produce the TV show as well as a planned print magazine.
Sharpton said that if there is anything controversial about his new show it will come from those who “want education to remain mediocre.”
“If Newt Gingrich and I could tour the country together … at the request of President Obama, and they are like oil and water … then that shows that this is one issue that all Americans should unite over,” Sharpton said. “Newt and I don’t agree on anything at all — not even that today is Monday — but we do agree that we have an education problem.”
