In addition to revealing the celebrity guests to be featured in the new season, Gates also made a promise that “Finding Your Roots” would not be among the PBS programming disappearing from the airwaves in light of Congress’ recent decision to recapture over $1 billion in federal funds for public broadcasting, including the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR) and hundreds of local and regional radio and TV stations.
“It’s especially important to all of us at ‘Finding Your Roots’ that our viewers know, despite the loss of federal funding for public television, our show and PBS are not going anywhere,” Gates said in his statement. “We encourage everyone to support PBS by becoming a member of your local PBS station if you aren’t already, and continuing to spread the word about the great work PBS is doing.”
The 12th season of “Finding Your Roots” is a production of McGee Media, Inkwell Media and Kunhardt Films in association with WETA, a PBS member TV station in Washington, D.C. In addition to Gates, Dyllan McGee and Peter Kunhardt serve as executive producers. Sabin Streeter is the senior producer; Natalia Warchol, the series producer; Deborah Clancy Porfido, the supervising producer; Kevin Burke, the producer; and Robert L. Yacyshyn, the line producer. Streeter, Krista Whetstone and Warchol are directors.