Jennifer Nettles to Lead New PBS Series AMERICAN ANTHEMS

Across the country, in every community, unsung heroes are quietly working to improve the lives of others. Their inspiring efforts often receive little fanfare-until now.

American Anthems, a new six-episode series from PBS, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Academy and Emmy Award-winning series creator Believe Entertainment Group, celebrates these everyday heroes with surprise songs from Grammy Award winner Jennifer Nettles and today's biggest COUNTRY MUSIC stars. Currently in production, American Anthems premieres this summer on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS Video app.

Each episode of American Anthems will follow a different featured country star, including Nettles and other award-winning major artists, as they meet a local hero and learn about the transformative experience that inspired their commitment to making a positive change in their community.

Then, working with an award-winning songwriter, the country star will secretly turn the hero's story of kindness, hard work and perseverance into an epic original song. At the end of the episode, THE HERO will be surprised with a once-in-a-lifetime performance of the emotional anthem by the artist while surrounded by family and friends.

Among the six heroes honored on American Anthems are a father who started a nonprofit to help families of cancer patients while undergoing cancer treatment himself and a former police officer who founded an organization that supports survivors of sexual abuse after struggling to recover from her own attack. Viewers will also meet a service-oriented young woman whose nonprofit provides free laundry days in low-income areas. Helping others is one way that she manages her Bipolar disorder.

"All heroes may not wear capes, but they all deserve their own anthems-a musical tribute to say thank you to those heroes who walk among us every day," said Nettles.

Directed by two-time COUNTRY MUSIC Association Award winner Wes Edwards, American Anthems is a co-production of NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Believe Entertainment Group. Dan Goodman is the executive in charge for Believe Entertainment Group. Brenda Brkusic Milinkovic is the executive in charge for NBCUniversal Syndication Studios. Bill Gardner is the executive in charge for PBS. Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning composer Bill Sherman serves as executive music producer for the series. Support for American Anthems is provided by Chick-fil-A.