New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers


New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers was a weekly television programme first shown on Prime Television New Zealand on 6 October 2005. 430 notable New Zealanders were ranked by a panel to determine the 100 most influential in New Zealand history. There were six episodes to present the list, and a final episode, screened live on 17 November 2005, showed the rankings of the top ten of these people as a result of votes collected from the public via text and internet..
Diana Wichtel, reviewing the show in the New Zealand Listener, described it as "surprisingly watchable", but commented that the format was "history as striptease, with the programme counting down over the weeks to the big winner." Scott Kara, writing in The New Zealand Herald, called it "educational but not dull". Another review described it as "history... as an Idol-style talent search".
Joseph Romanos, one of the panellists, produced a book later in 2005 containing profiles of the same 100 people. The book was revised for a 2008 edition.

Panel

The show's rankings were produced by merging the ratings of eight panellists, who are all well-known New Zealanders:
  1. Ernest Rutherford – physicist
  2. Kate Sheppard – suffragette
  3. Sir Edmund Hillary – mountaineer and explorer
  4. Sir George Grey – Governor and Premier
  5. Michael Joseph Savage – politician
  6. Sir Āpirana Ngata – Māori politician
  7. Hone Heke – Māori chief
  8. Dr Frederick Truby King – founder of Plunket Society
  9. William Hobson – co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi
  10. Jean Batten – aviatrix
  11. Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes – heart surgeon
  12. Sir Peter Snell – runner
  13. William Pickering – space scientist
  14. Sir Peter Jackson – film maker
  15. Janet Frame – writer
  16. Te Rauparaha – Māori leader
  17. Sir Colin Meads – All Black
  18. Dame Whina Cooper – Māori leader
  19. Katherine Mansfield – writer
  20. Thomas Brydone and William Soltau Davidson – refrigeration pioneers
  21. Richard Pearse – aviation pioneer
  22. Te Whiti o Rongomai – pacifist Māori leader
  23. Richard Seddon – Premier and Prime Minister of New Zealand
  24. Sir Te Rangi Hīroa – Māori leader
  25. Sir Julius Vogel – politician
  26. Maurice Wilkins – scientist Nobel laureate
  27. Helen Clark – politician
  28. Mabel Howard – politician
  29. Sir Bernard Freyberg – lieutenant-general
  30. Sir Harold Gillies – plastic surgeon
  31. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – opera singer
  32. Sir Keith Park – air chief marshal
  33. Professor Alan MacDiarmid – Nobel laureate chemist
  34. Sir Peter Blake – yachtsman
  35. Dr C.E. Beeby – educationalist
  36. Jack Lovelock – athlete
  37. Dr John Bedbrook – biotechnologist
  38. James K. Baxter – poet
  39. Dr Fred Hollows – eye surgeon
  40. Sir Murray Halberg – athlete and philanthropist
  41. Neil Finn – musician
  42. Edward Gibbon Wakefield – colony founder
  43. David Lange – politician
  44. Sir Robert Muldoon – politician
  45. Thomas Edmonds – industrialist
  46. Colin McCahon – painter
  47. Colin Murdoch – inventor
  48. Sir Archibald McIndoe – plastic surgeon
  49. Rev Samuel Marsden – missionary
  50. Peter Fraser – politician
  51. John Clarke – comedian
  52. Ettie Rout – campaigner for safe sex
  53. Arthur Lydiard – popularised jogging
  54. Kupe – discoverer of Aotearoa
  55. Te Puea Herangi – Māori leader
  56. Sir John Walker – runner
  57. Tim Finn – musician
  58. John A. Lee – politician
  59. Sir James Wattie – industrialist
  60. Sir Bill Hamilton – inventor
  61. Norman Kirk – politician
  62. Bill Gallagher – inventor
  63. Dr Michael King – historian
  64. Frances Hodgkins – painter
  65. George Nepia – All Black
  66. Sir James Fletcher – industrialist
  67. Mother Aubert – nun
  68. Charles Heaphy – explorer
  69. A.H. Reed – publisher
  70. Frank Sargeson – writer
  71. Sir Roger Douglas – politician
  72. Dr Matthew During – scientist
  73. Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki – warrior
  74. Hongi Hika – warrior chief
  75. Sir David Low – cartoonist
  76. Kate Edger – women's pioneer
  77. Dame Marie Clay – educationalist
  78. Rewi Alley – sinophile
  79. Thomas Rangiwahia Ellison – rugby union captain
  80. Rua Kenana Hepetipa – prophet
  81. Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana – prophet
  82. Aunt Daisy – broadcaster
  83. Charles Upham – soldier
  84. Ralph Hotere – artist
  85. Sir Richard Hadlee – cricketer
  86. Billy T James – comedian
  87. Sir Keith Sinclair – historian
  88. Charles Goldie – painter
  89. John Minto – activist
  90. Rudall Hayward – film maker
  91. Witi Ihimaera – writer
  92. John Te Rangianiwaniwa Rangihau – Māori language promoter
  93. Dave Dobbyn – songwriter
  94. Russell Coutts – sailor
  95. Jonah Lomu – All Black
  96. Peter Mahon – lawyer
  97. Georgina Beyer – transgender politician
  98. A J Hackett – bungy jumping pioneer
  99. Denny Hulme – Formula One driver
  100. Russell Crowe – actor
On the final programme, the 101st on the list was revealed:
101. Sir Mountford "Toss" Woollaston – painter

Public rankings

  1. Ernest Rutherford – scientist
  2. Kate Sheppard – suffragette
  3. Edmund Hillary – explorer and humanitarian
  4. Charles Upham – war hero
  5. Billy T James – comedian
  6. David Lange – prime minister
  7. Āpirana Ngata – politician
  8. Colin Murdoch – inventor of the disposable syringe
  9. Rua Kenana Hepetipa – prophet
  10. Roger Douglas – politician and economist

    Other editions

Other countries have produced similar shows; see Greatest Britons spin-offs