"Leguizamo Does America" shows Latino stories drive audiences — and dollars
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John Leguizamo. Photo: MSNBC
"Leguizamo Does America" director Ben DeJesus tells Axios the show proves that telling Latinos' stories doesn't just make audiences "feel good" — it's "good business."
Why it matters: The first season of "Leguizamo Does America" was the most viewed MSNBC original in over two years on Peacock.
State of play: The road trip-style weekly MSNBC series follows host and executive producer John Leguizamo as he explores how Latinos are shaping history, culture and food in major U.S. cities.
- "For season two, I wanted to go deeper into America and put a magnifying glass on Latino exceptionalism, Latino ingenuity, and Latino genius," Leguizamo, who is of Puerto Rican and Colombian descent, said in a statement.
The big picture: The economic power of U.S. Latinos surpassed $4 trillion in 2023, according to a UCLA and Cal Lutheran report published this year.
- "Latinos are over 60 million here in the United States," DeJesus says. "So we are the mainstream, right? We're not just trying to say, well, help us please. We have something to offer, and from a business point of view, we think it makes a lot of sense as well."
Zoom in: In the show, Leguizamo, an Emmy-winning actor, visits the birthplace of sizzling fajitas with a congressman in San Antonio and trains with lucha libre wrestlers in Denver.
- He also toured Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Orleans and Raleigh with artists, chefs, activists and entertainers.
What we're watching: The Raleigh episode premieres at 9pm ET Sunday, with new episodes airing through August.
- Each episode is available to stream on Peacock the day after airing on MSNBC.
The bottom line: "I think more companies should be taking a closer look at how they tell our stories," DeJesus says, of Latinos. "We don't want to be just one of a few."
