The WORST episodes of Finding Your Roots
Every episode of Finding Your Roots ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Finding Your Roots!
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the 12th and latest series from the renowned cultural critic and Harvard scholar. In this 10-part series, Professor Gates continues the quest he begun in African American Lives 1 and 2 and Faces of America delving into the genealogy and genetics of an all new group of famous Americans. The series combines history and science in a fascinating exploration of race, family, and identity in today's America. Each hour features a different pair of celebrity guests, who are bound together by an intimate, sometimes hidden link, whether it be as old friends, through long-lost relatives, or even through a common ancestral past.
#2 - 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.
#3 - 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.
#4 - 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.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#5 - 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.
#6 - 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.
#7 - 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.
#8 - Larger Than Life
Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2025
Research into the ancestry of singer Lea Salonga and actress Amanda Seyfried reveals relatives who survived heart-wrenching ordeals.
#9 - 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.
#10 - Moving on Up
Season 11 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/1/2025
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of actor Sheryl Lee Ralph & historian Lonnie Bunch.
#12 - Michelle Rodriguez - Adrian Grenier - Linda Chavez
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/20/2012
#13 - Puritans and Pioneers
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/17/2017
Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and William H. Macy, three mainstays of modern-day Hollywood discover family legacies that predate the United States itself.
#14 - War Stories
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/9/2016
Senator John McCain and Oscar winning actresses Julianne Moore and Patricia Arquette sit down with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to look at the military service in their families.
#15 - Dreamers One and All
Season 11 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/2025
Exploring the ancestry of actress Sharon Stone and model Chrissy Teigen includes travelling across Europe and Thailand.
#16 - 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.
#17 - 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.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#18 - 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.
#19 - 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.
#20 - No Laughing Matter
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/19/2019
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shows comedians Seth Meyers, Tig Notaro and Sarah Silverman that their family trees are filled with people whose struggles laid the groundwork for their success. Gates also reveals to each one news of an unexpected DNA cousin.
#21 - We Come From People
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/28/2014
Nas learns about his slave ancestors; Angela Bassett discovers that her family history includes an emancipation story; and Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, learns about the free people of color in her family's past
#23 - 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.
#24 - Homecomings
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/7/2020
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps actor Sterling K. Brown, comedian Sasheer Zamata and musician Jon Batiste discover the unexpected places their ancestors once called home, providing new insight into the people and places that made them who they are today.
#25 - Reporting on the Reporters
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/22/2019
Journalists Christiane Amanpour, Ann Curry and Lisa Ling that the stories within their own family trees are every bit as compelling as the news stories they have been covering for the world.