Henry Louis Gates Jr. Reveals How Stars Get on Finding Your Roots: ‘We Have a Long Waiting List’ (Exclusive)

WITH Searching for your roots in its tenth season, the PBS show now finds itself in the enviable position of not having to worry about the stretch of booking celebrity guests.

“We have a long waiting list,” says Henry Louis Gates Jr. for PEOPLE. “We could Searching for your roots every week for a year and we still don’t get to all the people we have on the waiting list.”

Since its premiere in 2012, the popular docu-series has revealed the family trees of many celebrities, often with surprising results. Edward Norton found out that he and Julia Roberts are genetic relatives, Kerry Washington revealed that she was conceived through a sperm donor, and Viola Davis revealed that she is related to Anita Hill. Only this season, Better call Saul star Bob Odenkirk realized he was related to European royalty and was an eleventh cousin of King Charles.

Searching for your roots’ Henry Louis Gates Jr. says Jodie Foster babysat his two daughters but ‘didn’t want to take the money’ (Exclusive)

David Buchan/Variety/Penske Media via Getty

Gates now explains the guests of the show in two ways.

“Sometimes people contact us and ask if they can be in the series, and often they are middle-aged people with children,” he says. “Before they have children, they are not particularly interested. But when they have children, they want to know where they come from. They want to know who their ancestors are.”

He continues, “Another way is to have huge white boards in our production offices and we all just send out candidates. Maybe I’m watching the Emmys or the Grammys or the Oscars or I go to the movies and I’m like, ‘Hey, I heard this person. I heard they were filming.’ Or, ‘I saw them in this movie. I saw them on Broadway. Why don’t we ask them?”

How a family secret about his white ancestor paved the way for Henry Louis Gates Jr Searching for your roots (Exclusive)

PBS

And now, after Gates noticed an increase Searching for your roots The desire of fans to see themselves on the program, the opportunity to relive family history is not only for celebrities.

“People stop me and say, ‘Look, we love your show, but what about me? What about the average person?'” he shares. “I ended up pleading with the producers and saying, ‘We need to talk about this request.'”

Producers took Gates’ feedback to heart, allowing viewers to sign up. Approximately 9,000 people submitted videos, which were narrowed down to 10. After months of deliberation, three people were selected for an episode that will air later this season.

“We couldn’t pick one. We were tied, so we picked three,” says Gates, adding, “It turns out that the stories of non-celebrities are just as compelling, just as emotional, and just as challenging.”

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Searching for your roots airs Tuesdays at 8:00 PM ET on PBS.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education