Ann Curry Explains How the Live ‘Chasing the Cure’ Aims to Help

We all know someone — or maybe you are someone — challenged with an undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or uncured illness. What if you could connect with others who have similar symptoms, as well as doctors who have treated similar cases?

Journalist Ann Curry is making this a possibility as host of the new live series Chasing the Cure (premieres Thursday, August 8, 9/8c, TNT and TBS; there’s also a 24/7 digital platform, chasingthecurelive.com).

“Technology, medicine, journalism, and television storytelling are all in a disruptive period,” Curry says. “Never before has it been possible for strangers to communicate with each other, and help each other, [the way they can] today.”

The series invites patients, as well as their family members, to the show’s unique circular set, where they will interact with Curry and a group of doctors.

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“I will introduce you to these stories and patients,” Curry explains. “For the 90 minutes that we’ll be in broadcast, there will be live material coming in. The doctors will be in charge of analyzing the data and will say, ‘This one is promising; push this forward.’ Then I will be able to address it to the rest of the panel, and to the rest of the country.”

Some of the patients featured include a girl who was a promising soccer star but became ill and gained more than 100 pounds for seemingly no reason, a woman whose debilitating headache has lasted for years, and a cancer survivor with a terrible side effect from treatment.

“You’re dealing with very desperate people, and you don’t want to let them down,” says the former Today anchor. “There is no promise. There is only the effort.”

Chasing the Cure, Live Series Premiere, Thursday, August 8, 9/8c, TNT and TBS