AMERICAN INVENTOR - ABOUT THE SHOW

American Inventor gives a once in a lifetime opportunity to aspiring inventors to truly live the American Dream. By fighting it out to win $1m for the best new invention and hottest new retail product, we’ll see some madcap and harebrained ideas presented to the panel of business critics.

Remember Cabbage Patch Kids? The George Foreman Grill? Post-It notes? The Rubik’s Cube? All it took was a germ of an idea. Will one of these budding inventors and entrepreneurs design the next big thing?

We'll witness the tears, the drama and of course the highs and lows of the judging process as each inventor lays their hopes and aspirations on the line in a bid to get their ingenuity noticed. For some, the risks are overwhelming. Having staked their life savings, and even their homes on a lifelong dream, will the gamble finally pay off?

The expert judges feature one of the UK’s best known entrepreneurs and panellist on Dragon’s Den, Peter Jones, who's created his own multi-million pound business empire. Peter’s co-judges in season one include advertising guru Ed Evangelista, consumer strategist Mary Lou Quinlan and CEO of a major think tank Doug Hall.

After casting calls in six major cities across the US, the show’s judging panel narrowed down the competition to six finalists, featuring everything from the wacky to the heartwarming. Each finalist is then given $50,000 to develop their product, refine it and take it to the next level, culminating in a national vote to decide the winning invention.

This series is going to make the American dream come true for one person, taking his/her idea, vision and creativity and helping to turn it into a mass produced product, but in the end it will be up to America to call in and vote on which invention is worthy of the $1m prize.