Four Months of Celebrity Roots on Air in 2012 #BHM

Having worked on Who Do You Think You Are? as well as three of the PBS series, I thought I would take a moment to address the frequently raised question of which show came first. Who Do You Think You Are? is a British import due to enter its ninth season in the U.K. It first aired in 2004 and had spread to several other countries before finally gaining a foothold in the American market in 2010. Earlier efforts had been made to bring the show to the U.S., but it took the stewardship of Lisa Kudrow and her production partner, Dan Bucatinsky, to make that a reality.

As to the series spearheaded and hosted by Dr. Gates on PBS, they include African American Lives (2006), African American Lives 2 (2008), Faces of America (2010), and now, Finding Your Roots. That's if we exclude 2007's special, Oprah's Roots. Those with especially long memories might also remember two seasons of a genealogy series called Ancestors that ran on PBS in 1997 and 2000, but this show did not involve celebrities.