Several weeks ago, I wrote about the PBS decision to delay the next season of Finding Your Roots as a result of an internal investigation triggered by the Ben Affleck incident involving censorship of a slave-owning ancestor of his from a previously aired episode. Season 3 of the popular show, hosted and produced by Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was put on hold until certain measures were implemented.
This left avid genealogy and history buffs wondering when the series would resume. The good news is that it's sooner than we might have thought. Originally slated to begin airing in September of this year, it's now scheduled for January 2016.
Among the celebrities we can expect to see under the ancestral microscope early next year are Patricia Arquette, Lidia Bastianich, Richard Branson, Donna Brazile, Ty Burrell, LL Cool J, Mia Farrow, Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Jimmy Kimmel, Norman Lear, Maya Lin, Bill Maher, Julianna Margulies, John McCain, Julianne Moore, Azar Nafisi, Bill O'Reilly, Shondra Rhimes, Maya Rudolph, Gloria Steinem, Kara Walker, and Keenen Ivory Wayans.
Those needing a celebrity roots fix in the interim can watch the seventh season of TLC's Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA) which starts on July 26th and will feature Tom Bergeron, Bryan Cranston, Ginnifer Goodwin, J.K. Rowling, and Alfre Woodard.