IME reveals the 2020 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The issue has 8 worldwide covers, each highlighting a member of the TIME100: immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, performer The Weeknd, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, COVID-19 frontline nurse Amy O'Sullivan, actor Gabrielle Union and athlete Dwyane Wade, performer Megan Thee Stallion, President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen, and Black Lives Matter founders Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.
The TIME100 often includes surprising pairings of the list members and the guest contributors TIME selects to write about them. The seventeenth annual list includes: Denzel Washington on Michael B. Jordan, Derek Jeter on Patrick Mahomes, Common on Angela Davis, Ted Cruz on Tsai Ing-wen, Oprah Winfrey on Tyler Perry, Taylor Swift on Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Elizabeth Warren on Ady Barkan, Stevie Wonder on Yo-Yo Ma, Maya Moore on Naomi Osaka, Leonardo DiCaprio on Nemonte Nenquimo, Cyndi Lauper on Billy Porter, Deepika Padukone on Ayushmann Khurrana, Lena Waithe on Michaela Coel, Ayanna Pressley on Kamala Harris, Tilda Swinton on Bong Joon Ho, Kim Kardashian West on JoJo Siwa, Melinda Gates on MacKenzie Scott, Ronan Farrow on Julie K. Brown, Timothy Geithner on Jerome Powell, Jennifer Garner on Greg Berlanti and many more.
Of the 2020 TIME100 list, TIME CEO and editor in chief Edward Felsenthal writes, "This year's list looks far different than any of us could have predicted just six months ago. The TIME 100 has always been a mirror of the world and those who shape it. While you will certainly find people who wield traditional power on this year's list—heads of state, CEOs, major entertainers—it also includes many extraordinary, lesser-known individuals who seized the moment to save lives, build a movement, lift the spirit, repair the world.... Their work challenges each of us to wield our own influence toward a world that is healthier, more resilient, more sustainable and just."
Of this year's list, Felsenthal continues, "As a rule, the TIME 100 focuses on the living, but looming large over this year's list is the impact of individuals such as Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, whose killings galvanized a reckoning around police brutality and systemic racism; Aimee Stephens, whose case led to a historic Supreme Court decision protecting the rights of LGBTQ Americans; and Li Wenliang, the Wuhan physician who tried in vain to warn Chinese officials about the coronavirus and later died of it. The issue also includes a memorial to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including the tribute that fellow Justice Antonin Scalia wrote when she was on the TIME 100 in 2015."
For the first time, TIME revealed the annual TIME100 list with an hour-long special television event on ABC. Produced in partnership with P&G, the TIME100 broadcast special is created by TIME's Emmy award-winning television and film division TIME Studios along with industry leading global storyteller Done + Dusted, and is presented with exclusive premier sponsor Citi, signature sponsor Toyota Venza, and signature sponsor Smirnoff. Watch the show on demand on ABC.com.
On September 23, 24 and 25, TIME will host TIME100 honorees for a three-part series of TIME100 Talks, TIME's series of virtual conversations that convenes influential leaders across fields to encourage cross-disciplinary action toward a better world, presented in partnership with TIME100 exclusive premier sponsor Citi, signature sponsor Smirnoff, and supporting sponsor AT&T.