Despite the Affleck Taint, 'Finding Your Roots' Will Explore More Celebrities
One of the last TV shows you’d expect to find dusting itself off from a small, but embarrassing censorship scandal would be Finding Your Roots, Professor Henry L. Gates’s genealogy program on PBS.
But the third season of Finding Your Roots, which premieres Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, will be shaking off the awkward shadow of Ben Affleck even as it explores the ancestry of another couple dozen famous people.
Gates’s subjects this season will include the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Shonda Rhimes, Jimmy Kimmel, Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farrow, Julianne Moore, Norman Lear, Sen. John McCain, LL Cool J, Puffy Combs, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Gloria Steinem, and as always, they will learn startling things about the people who came before them.
It’s a strong lineup, and Gates has never been apologetic about focusing on famous people for this show. He’s always said that, quite frankly, it’s the most effective way to draw attention to the fascinating field of genealogy.
“When the viewers see what our researchers discovered about Oprah,” Gates said last year, “the hope is that they will be inspired to look into their own ancestry.”
Unspoken but understood is that more people will watch the show in the first place because they’re seeing Oprah, or some other movie or TV star. PBS may not have the ratings pressures of a commercial network, but in the ever-more crowded world of television, every network is looking for every way to lure a few more eyeballs.
Celebrities can come at a price, however, as Gates was reminded when his team looked into Affleck’s past and discovered one of his ancestors owned slaves.
Affleck asked Gates not to mention that ancestor in the segment that aired on Finding Your Roots. Gates, put in the awkward position of not wanting to offend a celebrity guest, agreed.
The segment aired without reference to that ancestor, which probably would have ended the matter except that WikiLeaks hacked and published some emails in which Gates talked about getting pressure from Affleck.
PBS, which like any other network doesn’t want to be seen editing information to suit the agenda of its subjects, conducted an internal review and found Gates “violated PBS standards” both by the decision and by not informing PBS about it beforehand.
But PBS likes the program and likes Gates, so it simply asked for assurances this wouldn’t happen again. PBS also asked that an independent genealogist be hired to review the information gathered by Gates’s staff.
Let’s assume all this was awkward for PBS, too, having to send the message that even someone as respected and popular as Gates can make a mistake.
Don’t expect that mistake to be repeated. But it does serve as a good reminder that hitching onto a celebrity’s fame isn’t always a free ride.
If Gates had been researching the ancestry of some random unfamous person, it’s hard to believe that person could have selectively pruned his or her family tree the way Affleck was allowed to.
(And perhaps as a reaction to the Affleck episode, Tuesday's premiere has Gates exporing the unsolved mysteries behind the family stories of political organizer Donna Brazile, actor Ty Burrell and artist Kara Walker as they learn how the legacy of slavery has shaped their identities.)
In any case, Gates apologized for putting the integrity of PBS programming into question. Affleck had apologized earlier, saying he had been “mortified” and “embarrassed” to find an ancestor owned slaves.
That might be the reaction many of us would have. The more salient question is why Affleck, or anyone, would feel tainted by what Great-Great-Granddad did. You’d think one of the key points of a genealogy show would be to show both throughlines and evolution in attitudes, action and behavior.
If we had to answer for the sins of all our ancestors, we’d spend our lives on the witness stand.
In Affleck’s case, because he’s famous, we have to hope his mortification was rooted in his personal sense of morality, not an instinctive effort to protect his brand. Whatever the case, it was a bad call, and it’s likely both he and Gates, in hindsight, see that.
But it’s not the kind of mistake that can kill a show, and Gates is right about the fascination and value of genealogy. There’s so much we can learn from the past, ancient and recent.