PBS' 'Finding Your Roots' to Return After Ben Affleck Slavery Scandal

PBS

PBS’ “Finding Your Roots” is returning to air after an April scandal involving Ben Affleck and censorship caused the publicly funded station to investigate its own series.

The third season of the docuseries will feature 28 new episodes, starring Julianne Moore, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Senator John McCain, Norman Lear, Shonda Rhimes and others discovering their roots. It is scheduled to premiere Jan. 5.

The public TV network started an investigation after it was reported that Affleck requested the program not reveal his ancestor owned slaves. Affleck’s request was revealed in the WikiLeaks archive of a leaked conversation between Sony Entertainment Chairman Michael Lynton and the show’s host and producer Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr.

“Based on the internal review that we had done on that one particular episode, we decided put some safeguards in place,” Beth Hoppe, chief programming executive for PBS, told TheWrap Monday. “We work very closely with professor Gates and his whole team to look at that situation and to make sure that we didn’t have any issues going forward.”

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Hoppe said that the production has added a fact-checker and a researchers as well as an independent genealogist to review the genealogy work on the show.

The public broadcaster also reviewed its editorial guidelines for the show with Gates.

“One of the things that Professor Gates did immediately was apologize to PBS for not discussing the situation with us,” Hoppe said. “It clearly states in our guidelines that that would be the appropriate thing to do.” She added that she was confident in the editorial integrity of the show going into its third season.

Hoppe also told TheWrap that at no point did PBS interview Affleck or his representatives as part of its review process.

Also Read: 21 Times Hollywood Tackled Race Issues Before Baltimore Riots (Photos)

In June, PBS decided to delay future seasons of “Finding Your Roots” after the investigation determined that the episode violated network standards.

“PBS and WNET have determined that the series co-producers violated PBS standards by failing to shield the creative and editorial process from improper influence, and by failing to inform PBS or WNET of Mr. Affleck’s efforts to affect program content,” PBS said in a statement at the time.

In August, PBS boss Paula Kerger told reporters at the TCA summer press tour that she was “hopeful” that the third season would be possible after producers have put additional research and fact-checking resources in place.

PBS also Monday announced the rest of its winter-spring slate — including the four-hour Ken Burns-produced documentary “Jackie Robinson,” set to premiere in two parts April 11 and 12.

“Finding Your Roots” returns Tuesday, Jan. 5 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS.

21 Times Hollywood Tackled Race Issues (Photos)

Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.
Harpo Films/ Plan B Entertainment
Dear White People (2014) - This biting satire follows four black college students making their way in "post-racial" America.
Homegrown Pictures
12 Years a Slave (2013) - Chiwetel Ejiofor led the 2014 Best Picture winner, which is a true story about a freeborn black man who spent over a decade in slavery in the pre-Civil War South.
Fox
Django Unchained (2012) - Quentin Tarantino's controversial Oscar winner follows a freed slave who fights to liberate his wife from a brutal plantation owner.
The Weinstein Co.
Gran Torino (2008) - Clint Eastwood plays a grizzled Korean War veteran who reluctantly takes his young Hmong neighbor under his wing.
Warner Bros.
Crash (2004) - 2006's Best Picture Winner traces the intersecting lives of people of different races in present day Los Angeles.
Bob Yari Productions
American History X (1998) - Edward Norton plays the leader of a violent neo-Nazi gang who reevaluates his life when he sees his little brother going down the same path.
New Line
A Time to Kill (1996) - Based on the best-selling John Grisham novel, Samuel L. Jackson plays a man on trial for murdering the two white supremacists who raped his daughter who turns to an untested lawyer played by Matthew McConaughey.
Warner Bros.
Schindler's List (1993) - Steven Spielberg's unflinching look at the Holocaust through the eyes of a man who saved thousands of Polish Jews.
Universal
Malcolm X (1992) - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington teamed up for the true story of the inflammatory Nation of Islam leader.
Warner Bros.
School Ties (1992) - Brendan Fraser led this all-star cast (which included Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) in which he played tbe only Jewish student at an exclusive 1950's prep school.
Paramount
Boyz n the Hood (1991) - John Singleton's hard-hitting look at life in South Central Los Angeles saw Cuba Gooding Jr. trying to avoid the pitfalls of life in the ghetto.
Columbia Pictures
Dances with Wolves (1990) - Kevin Costner won multiple Oscars for this tale of a Civil War soldier who comes to identify with an oppressed native tribe in the American West.
Orion Pictures
Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee's searing portrait of a day in the life of a mostly black Brooklyn neighborhood during an intense heat wave.
Universal
Mississippi Burning (1988) - The true story of the disappearance of three civil rights protesters in 1960's Mississippi and the FBI agents who investigated.
Orion Pictures
The Color Purple (1985) - Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for Best Actress in this story of a black woman at the turn of the century fighting for her place in society.
Amblin
Blazing Saddles (1974) - Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor collaborated on this hysterical look at a black sheriff taking charge of a frontier town.
Warner Bros.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - Sidney Poitier stars in this groundbreaking film about a white woman who brings her black fiancee home to meet her parents.
Columbia Pictures
In the Heat of the Night (1967) - Sidney Poitier again challenged conventions when he portrayed a black detective investigating a murder in a rural Southern town.
United Artists
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Gregory Peck cemented his place in film history as Atticus Finch, a white lawyer defending a black man accused of rape, in the adaptation of Harper Lee's masterpiece.
Universal
Birth of a Nation (1915) - Considered the first true narrative film, it attracted widespread criticism for its portrayal of African Americans and its glorification of the KKK.
D.W. Griffith

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The film industry has never shied away from the controversial topic

Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.

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