Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. Ten seasons have been broadcast. Its tenth season premiered on January 2, 2024.
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 10 | March 25, 2012 | May 20, 2012 | |
2 | 10 | September 23, 2014 | November 25, 2014 | |
3 | 10 | January 5, 2016 | March 8, 2016 | |
4 | 10 | October 3, 2017 | December 19, 2017 | |
5 | 10 | January 8, 2019 | April 9, 2019 | |
6 | 16 | October 8, 2019 | February 25, 2020 | |
7 | 10 | October 13, 2020 | May 4, 2021 | |
8 | 10 | January 4, 2022 | April 19, 2022 | |
9 | 10 | January 3, 2023 | April 4, 2023 | |
10 | 10 | January 2, 2024 | April 9, 2024 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr." | March 25, 2012 | |
2 | 2 | "John Lewis and Cory Booker" | March 25, 2012 | |
Georgia Congressman John Lewis and then Newark Mayor Cory Booker meet each other before they explore their family heritages. | ||||
3 | 3 | "Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada" | April 1, 2012 | |
4 | 4 | "Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon" | April 8, 2012 | |
Married couple Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon discover that they share distant ancestry. | ||||
5 | 5 | "Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl and Yasir Qadhi" | April 15, 2012 | |
All three guests, Rick Warren, Angela Warnick Buchdahl and Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, are religious leaders in their respective faiths. | ||||
6 | 6 | "Robert Downey Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal" | April 22, 2012 | |
Robert Downey Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal both descend from European-American immigrants. Robert's father, Robert Downey Sr., acts as the episode's unofficial third guest, sitting with Professor Gates as he reads his son's book of life. | ||||
7 | 7 | "Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons" | April 29, 2012 | |
Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons trace their genealogical backgrounds into slavery and, with the help of DNA analysis, back to Africa. | ||||
8 | 8 | "Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta" | May 6, 2012 | |
Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta are all the offspring of first or second generation immigrants. | ||||
9 | 9 | "John Legend and Wanda Sykes" | May 13, 2012 | |
John Legend and Wanda Sykes [1] explore their rich and extensive free negro heritages. Margarett Cooper also makes an appearance in this episode, appearing only a year before her death in 2013. [2] In keeping with the theme of the episode, Cooper seeks help from Gates to answer long-held questions about her free heritage. | ||||
10 | 10 | "Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier and Linda Chavez" | May 20, 2012 | |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
11 | 1 | "In Search of our Fathers" | September 23, 2014 | |
12 | 2 | "Born Champions" | September 30, 2014 | |
13 | 3 | "Our American Storytellers" | October 7, 2014 | |
14 | 4 | "Roots of Freedom" | October 14, 2014 | |
Celebrity guests: Ben Affleck, Khandi Alexander and Ben Jealous. This episode has been withdrawn from all forms of distribution by PBS (see Ben Affleck controversy). | ||||
15 | 5 | "The Melting Pot" | October 21, 2014 | |
16 | 6 | "We Come From People" | October 28, 2014 | |
17 | 7 | "Our People, Our Traditions" | November 4, 2014 | |
18 | 8 | "The British Invasion" | November 11, 2014 | |
19 | 9 | "Ancient Roots" | November 18, 2014 | |
20 | 10 | "Decoding Our Past Through DNA" | November 25, 2014 | |
Celebrity guests: Jessica Alba and Governor Deval Patrick (also appearing are Anderson Cooper, Valerie Jarrett and more). Gates' relationship to Wilmore Mail is described. |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
21 | 1 | "The Stories We Tell" | January 5, 2016 | |
22 | 2 | "The Irish Factor" | January 12, 2016 | |
23 | 3 | "In Search of Freedom" | January 19, 2016 | |
24 | 4 | "Tragedy + Time = Comedy" | January 26, 2016 | |
25 | 5 | "Visionaries" | February 2, 2016 | |
26 | 6 | "War Stories" | February 9, 2016 | |
27 | 7 | "Family Reunions" | February 16, 2016 | |
Celebrity guests: Sean Combs and LL Cool J | ||||
28 | 8 | "The Pioneers" | February 23, 2016 | |
29 | 9 | "The Long Way Home" | March 1, 2016 | |
30 | 10 | "Maps of Stars" | March 8, 2016 | |
Celebrity guests: Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman |
Garrison Keillor was scheduled to appear in the season finale, "Funny Business". His segment was edited out of the episode after reports of inappropriate workplace behavior by him were made public. [3]
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
31 | 1 | "The Impression" | October 3, 2017 | |
Comedy writer Larry David and Senator Bernie Sanders discover their Jewish-American heritage and find that they have more in common than they think. Celebrity guests: Larry David and Bernie Sanders | ||||
32 | 2 | "Unfamiliar Kin" | October 10, 2017 | |
Actor Christopher Walken discovers that he had relatives back in Germany who stayed when Adolf Hitler rose to power; singer Carly Simon discovers that she has ancestry that her grandmother kept hidden; and former Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen finds out that his paternal grandfather was not all that he seemed. Celebrity guests: Christopher Walken, Carly Simon and Fred Armisen | ||||
33 | 3 | "Puritans and Pioneers" | October 17, 2017 | |
34 | 4 | "The Vanguard" | October 24, 2017 | |
35 | 5 | "Immigrant Nation" | October 31, 2017 | |
36 | 6 | "Black Like Me" | November 7, 2017 | |
37 | 7 | "Children of the Revolution" | November 14, 2017 | |
38 | 8 | "Relatives We Never Knew We Had" | November 21, 2017 | |
Celebrity guests: Téa Leoni and Gaby Hoffmann | ||||
39 | 9 | "Southern Roots" | December 12, 2017 | |
40 | 10 | "Funny Business" | December 19, 2017 | |
The series was renewed for a fifth season which premiered on January 8, 2019. [4] [5]
No. overall | No. in season | Title [6] | Original air date [6] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
41 | 1 | "Grandparents and Other Strangers" | January 8, 2019 | |
Former Saturday Night Live cast member (and star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine) Andy Samberg searches for his mother's long-lost parents; Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin stumbles upon a family secret about the man he called "Grandpa Louis". Celebrity guests: Andy Samberg and George R. R. Martin | ||||
42 | 2 | "Mystery Men" | January 15, 2019 | |
Celebrity guests: Felicity Huffman and Michael K. Williams | ||||
43 | 3 | "Reporting on the Reporters" | January 22, 2019 | |
44 | 4 | "Dreaming of a New Land" | January 29, 2019 | |
45 | 5 | "Freedom Tales" | February 5, 2019 | |
Celebrity guests: S. Epatha Merkerson and Michael Strahan | ||||
46 | 6 | "Roots in Politics" | February 12, 2019 | |
47 | 7 | "No Laughing Matter" | February 19, 2019 | |
48 | 8 | "Hard Times" | February 26, 2019 | |
49 | 9 | "The Eye of the Beholder" | April 2, 2019 | |
50 | 10 | "All in the Family" | April 9, 2019 | |
On July 29, 2019, it was announced that the sixth season would premiere on October 8, 2019. [8] The season, which spanned from October 2019 to January 2021, explored the ancestry stories of Jon Batiste, Sterling K. Brown, RuPaul, Jeff Goldblum, Terry Gross, Anjelica Huston, Gayle King, Justina Machado, Marc Maron, Melissa McCarthy, Queen Latifah, Jordan Peele, Nancy Pelosi, Zac Posen, Issa Rae, Isabella Rossellini, Amy Ryan, Eric Stonestreet, Diane von Fürstenberg, Sigourney Weaver, Jeffrey Wright and Sasheer Zamata.
No. overall | No. in season | Title [6] | Original air date [6] [8] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
51 | 1 | "Hollywood Royalty" | October 8, 2019 | |
Celebrity guests: Anjelica Huston, Mia Farrow and Isabella Rossellini (the segments with Mia Farrow originally aired in season 3) | ||||
52 | 2 | "Off The Farm" | October 15, 2019 | |
Celebrity guests: Melissa McCarthy and Eric Stonestreet | ||||
53 | 3 | "Homecomings" | January 7, 2020 | |
54 | 4 | "This Land is My Land" | January 14, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Queen Latifah and Jeffrey Wright | ||||
55 | 5 | "Beyond The Pale" | January 21, 2020 | |
56 | 6 | "Secrets and Lies" | January 28, 2020 | |
57 | 7 | "Science Pioneers" | February 4, 2020 | |
58 | 8 | "Slave Trade" | February 11, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Ava DuVernay, S. Epatha Merkerson and Questlove (these profiles originally aired in seasons 4 and 5) | ||||
59 | 9 | "Italian Roots" | February 18, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Jimmy Kimmel, Marisa Tomei and John Turturro (these profiles originally aired in seasons 3, 4 and 5) | ||||
60 | 10 | "Criminal Kind" | February 25, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Laura Linney, Lisa Ling and Soledad O'Brien (these profiles originally aired in seasons 3 and 5) | ||||
61 | 11 | "Fashion's Roots" | October 13, 2020 | |
62 | 12 | "DNA Mysteries" | October 20, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Téa Leoni and Joe Madison (these profiles originally aired in seasons 4 and 5) | ||||
63 | 13 | "War Stories" | November 10, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Kehinde Wiley, Julianne Moore and Bill Hader (these profiles originally aired in seasons 3 and 5) | ||||
64 | 14 | "Flight" | November 17, 2020 | |
Celebrity guests: Lupita Nyong'o, Lidia Bastianich and Scarlett Johansson (these profiles originally aired in seasons 3 and 4) | ||||
65 | 15 | "Breaking Silences" | January 5, 2021 | |
66 | 16 | "Coming to America" | January 12, 2021 | |
No. overall | No. in season | Title [6] [9] | Original air date [6] [9] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
67 | 1 | "To the Manor Born" | January 19, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Glenn Close and John Waters | ||||
68 | 2 | "Against All Odds" | January 26, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Andy Cohen and Nina Totenberg | ||||
69 | 3 | "No Irish Need Apply" | February 2, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Jim Gaffigan and Jane Lynch | ||||
70 | 4 | "The Shirts on their Backs" | February 9, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Tony Shalhoub and Christopher Meloni | ||||
71 | 5 | "Write My Name in the Book of Life" | February 16, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Kasi Lemmons and Pharrell Williams | ||||
72 | 6 | "Country Roots" | February 23, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Clint Black and Rosanne Cash | ||||
73 | 7 | "The New World" | April 13, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: John Lithgow and Maria Hinojosa | ||||
74 | 8 | "Anchored to the Past" | April 20, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Gretchen Carlson and Don Lemon | ||||
75 | 9 | "On Broadway" | April 27, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Audra McDonald and Mandy Patinkin | ||||
76 | 10 | "Laughing on the Inside" | May 4, 2021 | |
Celebrity guests: Lewis Black and Roy Wood Jr. |
No. overall | No. in season | Title [6] [10] | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
77 | 1 | "Hidden in the Genes" | January 4, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Rebecca Hall and Lee Daniels | ||||
78 | 2 | "Activist Roots" | January 11, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Anita Hill | ||||
79 | 3 | "Children of Exile" | January 4, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: David Chang and Raúl Esparza | ||||
80 | 4 | "Things We Don't Discuss" | January 25, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Pamela Adlon and Kathryn Hahn | ||||
81 | 5 | "Mexican Roots" | February 1, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Melissa Villaseñor and Mario Lopez | ||||
82 | 6 | "Fighters" | February 8, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Terry Crews and Tony Danza | ||||
83 | 7 | "Incredible Journeys" | February 15, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Lena Waithe and John Leguizamo | ||||
84 | 8 | "Songs of the Past" | February 22, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Leslie Odom Jr. and Nathan Lane | ||||
85 | 9 | "Watchmen" | April 12, 2022 | |
Celebrity guests: Regina King and Damon Lindelof | ||||
86 | 10 | "Where Did We Come From?" | April 19, 2022 | |
No. overall | No. in season | Title [6] [11] [12] | Original air date [6] [11] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
87 | 1 | "Hidden Kin" | January 3, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Edward Norton and Julia Roberts | ||||
88 | 2 | "Salem's Lot" | January 10, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Claire Danes and Jeff Daniels | ||||
89 | 3 | "Secret Lives" | January 17, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Carol Burnett and Niecy Nash | ||||
90 | 4 | "Far From Home" | January 24, 2023 | |
91 | 5 | "Rising from the Ashes" | January 31, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Brian Cox and Viola Davis | ||||
92 | 6 | "Lost and Found" | February 7, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Tony Gonzalez and Joe Manganiello | ||||
93 | 7 | "Chosen" | February 14, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: David Duchovny and Richard Kind | ||||
94 | 8 | "And Still I Rise" | February 21, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Angela Davis and Jeh Johnson | ||||
95 | 9 | "Anchormen" | March 28, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Jim Acosta and Van Jones | ||||
96 | 10 | "Out of the Past [12] " | April 4, 2023 | |
Celebrity guests: Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry-Housley |
No. overall | No. in season | Title [6] [13] [14] | Original air date [6] [13] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
97 | 1 | "Born to Sing" | January 2, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Ciara and Alanis Morissette | ||||
98 | 2 | "Forever Young" | January 9, 2024 | |
Celebrity guest: Valerie Bertinelli and Brendan Fraser | ||||
99 | 3 | "Fathers and Sons" | January 16, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Wes Studi and LeVar Burton | ||||
100 | 4 | "Buried Secrets" | January 23, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Sammy Hagar and Ed O'Neill | ||||
101 | 5 | "Hold the Laughter" | January 30, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Bob Odenkirk and Iliza Shlesinger | ||||
102 | 6 | "Far and Away" | February 6, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Sunny Hostin and Jesse Williams | ||||
103 | 7 | "The Brick Wall Falls" | February 13, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Danielle Brooks and Dionne Warwick | ||||
104 | 8 | "Mean Streets" | February 20, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Tracy Morgan and Anthony Ramos | ||||
105 | 9 | "In the Blood" | April 2, 2024 | |
Celebrity guests: Michael Douglas and Lena Dunham | ||||
106 | 10 | "Viewers Like You" | April 9, 2024 | |
After a nationwide search, Professor Gates solves deep mysteries for three everyday Americans. |
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion, which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
Harriet Rene "Khandi" Alexander is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She began her career as a dancer in the 1980s, and was a choreographer for Whitney Houston's world tours from 1988 to 1992.
Wanda Yvette Sykes is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is also known for her recurring roles on CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–10), and HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001–2011). She received Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nominations for her roles in ABC's Black-ish (2015–2022), and Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2020). She currently stars in the Netflix original series The Upshaws (2021–), the HBO Max comedy series The Other Two (2019–2023), and The Good Fight (2021).
Gloria Elizabeth Reuben is a Canadian-American actress, producer, and singer. She is well-known for her role as Jeanie Boulet on the medical drama ER, for which she was twice nominated for an Emmy Award, and for portraying Elizabeth Keckley in the 2012 Steven Spielberg–directed film Lincoln.
Ming Hao Tsai is an American chef, restaurateur, and television personality. Tsai's restaurants have focused on east–west fusion cuisine, and have included major stakes in Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts from 1998 to 2017, and Blue Dragon in the Fort Point Channel area of Boston.
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in The West Wing (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–15), and as U.S. District Court Clerk Tina Krissman on the ABC show For the People (2018–19).
Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal is an American screenwriter and director. She is the mother of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.
African American Lives is a PBS television miniseries hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., focusing on African American genealogical research. The family histories of prominent people of African American descent are explored using traditional genealogic techniques as well as genetic analysis.
Iliza Vie Shlesinger is an American stand-up comedian, actress and television host. She was the 2008 winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing and went on to host the syndicated dating show Excused from 2011 to 2013. She has hosted the TBS game show Separation Anxiety.
Faces of America is a four-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television television series hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.. The series originally aired February 10 to March 3, 2010 from 8–9 p.m. ET. In Australia, this program aired on SBS One each Sunday at 7:30pm from 9 -30 January 2011.
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage.
Vice is a documentary television series created and hosted by Shane Smith of Vice magazine. It covers topics using an immersionist style of documentary filmmaking on Showtime. It premiered on April 5, 2013, on HBO. The show's second season aired in 2014 and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is a trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He rediscovered the earliest known African-American novels and has published extensively on the recognition of African-American literature as part of the Western canon.
Melissa Anne Villaseñor is an American comedian and actress. First garnering attention for her stand-up shows and impressions, Villaseñor found wider success when she was hired to join the cast of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live ahead of the show's 42nd season in 2016. She then departed SNL at the end of the 47th season in 2022, after six seasons as a cast member.
The 2019–20 network television schedule for the five major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the prime time hours from September 2019 to August 2020. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series canceled after the 2018–19 season.
The 2020–21 network television schedule for the five major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the prime time hours from September 2020 to August 2021. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series canceled after the 2019–20 television season.
The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo is an American late-night talk show hosted by the Muppet character Elmo. It is a spin-off of Sesame Street and was developed exclusively for the HBO Max streaming service. The series, consisting of 13 episodes, debuted on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. The first three episodes were available at launch, after which new episodes were premiered weekly. Each episode runs for 15 minutes. In March 2021, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on September 30, 2021, when the show moved to the service's Cartoonito section. However, in August 2022, the series was removed from HBO Max. The series aired on PBS Kids from February 10, 2023, to May 10, 2024.
"Carl Carlson Rides Again" is the fourteenth episode of the thirty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 742nd episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on February 26, 2023. The episode was directed by Mike Frank Polcino and written by Loni Steele Sosthand.