The WORST episodes of Finding Your Roots

#1 - Where Did We Come From?

Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/19/2022

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. journeys with Erin Burnett, Amy Carlson and André Leon Talley, three guests from diverse backgrounds, as they meet the ancestors who laid the groundwork for their success.

#2 - Anchormen

Season 9 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/28/2023

#3 - Anchored to the Past

Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/20/2021

Guests: Gretchen Carlson and Don Lemon. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. examines how journalists Gretchen Carlson and Don Lemon were able to overcome biases in their careers, drawing parallels to relatives who met profound challenges of their own.

#4 - Criminal Kind

Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/25/2020

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Laura Linney and journalists Lisa Ling and Soledad O’Brien—telling them stories of tricksters, scoundrels, and outright criminals, who nevertheless laid the groundwork for their success.

#5 - Science Pioneers

Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/4/2020

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces the family trees of Francis Collins, Shirley Ann Jackson, and Harold E. Varmus — three pioneering scientists who’ve made dramatic contributions to our understanding of the world, all the while knowing little about their own ancestry.

#6 - Ancient Roots

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/18/2014

Tina Fey, George Stephanopoulos and David Sedaris, three quintessential voices in American life, descend from ancestors that were part of the wave of Greek immigrants that flooded America’s shores in the early decades of the 20th century.

#7 - Secret Lives

Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/17/2023

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps comedians Carol Burnett and Niecy Nash decode scandals hidden within their roots, exposing secrets that their ancestors concealed and celebrating the virtue of accepting one’s relatives—whoever they may be.

#8 - The Brick Wall Falls

Season 10 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/13/2024

Guests: Danielle Brooks, Dionne Warwick. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps musician Dionne Warwick & actor Danielle Brooks break down barriers imposed by the slave system to learn the names of their ancestors who endured unimaginable ordeals—but emerged to forge families that thrived.

#9 - War Stories

Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/10/2020

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Julianne Moore, comedian Bill Hader, and painter Kehinde Wiley, revealing how their ancestors’ military service left an indelible mark both on their families and on their country.

#10 - Fashion's Roots

Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/13/2020

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. steps into the world of fashion and meets three icons of style — Diane Von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, and RuPaul Charles — introducing ancestors who were just as audacious as they are.

#11 - Secrets & Lies

Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/28/2020

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps actors Sigourney Weaver, Justina Machado, and Amy Ryan unearth surprising revelations about their family histories, forever altering how they see themselves.

#12 - The Eye of the Beholder

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/2/2019

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shares the family histories of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, iconoclastic performance artist Marina Abramović and painter Kehinde Wiley. These visionary artists find their identities challenged—and affirmed.

#13 - Funny Business

Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/19/2017

Garrison Keillor, Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari, three guests who have found fame mining their family stories for comedy learn about ancestors who overcame immense suffering.

#14 - In the Blood

Season 10 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/2/2024

Guest: Michael Douglas, Lena Dunham. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Michael Douglas & writer-director Lena Dunham. Both are the children of famous artists, but their family trees contain a cast of fascinating characters whose lives were forgotten—until now.

#15 - Songs of the Past

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/22/2022

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. accompanies Broadway stars Leslie Odom, Jr. and Nathan Lane as they meet a cast of inspiring ancestors hidden in the branches of their family trees.

#16 - Breaking Silences

Season 6 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/5/2021

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the family secrets of journalist Gayle King, film director Jordan Peele, and comedian Issa Rae, introducing them to ancestors who raise profound questions about the shape and meaning of their family trees.

#17 - Hard Times

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/26/2019

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the family stories of filmmaker Michael Moore and actors Laura Linney and Chloë Sevigny—three people whose distant ancestors overcame great hardships in ways that resonate with their lives today.

#18 - Kevin Bacon - Kyra Sedgwick

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/8/2012

What do Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have in common? They are both famous actors and both descend from prominent American families that have been in this country since its inception. But they share something else, too: both had ancestors who were early opponents of slavery. Bacon's Quaker ancestors repudiated slavery long before the rest of the country, in 1780. And Sedgwick's ancestor Theodore Sedgwick argued the freedom case of Elizabeth Freeman, also known as "Mumbet," in 1781 -- which helped bring an end to slavery in Massachusetts. We reveal this fact - and many others - to Sedgwick and Bacon in this episode, and learn quite a bit about slavery in the North in the process.

#19 - Viewers Like You

Season 10 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/9/2024

Guests: Selected "Finding Your Roots" viewers. After a nationwide search, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. meets 3 everyday Americans who are haunted by deep family mysteries. Gates unravels these mysteries, allowing his guests to understand themselves—and their families-—as never before.

#20 - The Pioneers

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/23/2016

Discover how Neil Patrick Harris, Gloria Steinem and Sandra Cisneros are connected to pioneers who broke new ground and paved the way for their modern day descendants to continue shaping our culture.

#21 - And Still I Rise

Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/21/2023

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals the unexpected family trees of activist Angela Y. Davis and statesman Jeh Johnson, using DNA and long-lost records to redefine notions of the black experience—and challenge preconceptions of America’s past.

#22 - On Broadway

Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/27/2021

Guests: Audra MacDonald and Mandy Patinkin. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigates the family histories of Broadway stars Audra MacDonald and Mandy Patinkin, discovering ancestors whose struggles laid the groundwork for their success.

#23 - Roots in Politics

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/12/2019

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the diverse family histories of politicians Paul Ryan, Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio. They each see a shared vision of the great American melting pot reflected in their ancestors’ stories.

#24 - Sanjay Gupta - Margaret Cho - Martha Stewart

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/6/2012

Sanjay Gupta, Margaret Cho and Martha Stewart are children of first- or second-generation immigrants.

#25 - Visionaries

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/2/2016

Discover how the ancestors of business mogul Richard Branson and architects Maya Lin and Frank Gehry took audacious risks to create opportunities, and how their luck, ingenuity and chutzpah was passed on to these three visionaries.