Finding Your Roots (2012)

Name: Finding Your Roots
Genre: Biography, Documentary, History
Rating: 8.7
Cast: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Biography · Documentary · History

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

IMDb rating: 8.7 (2,145 votes)
Episode average: 7.7 -1.0 vs IMDb
Seasons: 12
Language: EN
Type: TV series

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Ratings refreshed Oct 3, 2026 · 12 seasons indexed

Cast

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Self - Host

Seasons

Season 1 (2012)

7.80 avg 10 episodes 8.0 → 7.7 54 min avg

Season 1 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis	8.0	67
2	Cory Booker and John Lewis	7.9	71
3	Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada	7.9	54
4	Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick	7.9	65
5	Angela Buchdahl/Rick Warren/Yasir Qadhi	6.9	44
6	Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal	7.9	56
7	Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons	8.0	51
8	Sanjay Gupta/Margaret Cho/Martha Stewart	8.0	45
9	John Legend/Wanda Sykes/Margarett Cooper	7.8	53
10	Michelle Rodriguez/Adrian Grenier/Linda Chavez	7.7	43

Season 2 (2014)

7.62 avg 10 episodes 7.8 → 7.6 53 min avg

Season 2 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	In Search of Our Fathers: Stephen King, Gloria Reuben and Courtney B. Vance	7.8	47
2	Born Champions	7.5	40
3	Our American Storytellers	7.5	45
4	Roots of Freedom	7.1	38
5	The Melting Pot	7.6	38
6	We Come from People	7.9	43
7	Our People, Our Traditions	7.8	30
8	The British Are Coming	7.6	38
9	Ancient Roots	7.8	40
10	Decoding Our Past Through DNA	7.6	42

Season 3 (2016)

7.82 avg 10 episodes 7.6 → 7.9 52 min avg

Season 3 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Stories We Tell	7.6	45
2	The Irish Factor	7.6	44
3	In Search of Freedom	7.9	50
4	Tragedy + Time = Comedy	7.9	43
5	Visionaries	7.7	30
6	War Stories	7.9	43
7	Family Reunions	8.0	43
8	The Pioneers	7.9	39
9	The Long Way Home	7.8	34
10	Maps of the Stars	7.9	39

Season 4 (2017)

7.90 avg 10 episodes 7.9 → 7.5 52 min avg

Season 4 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Impression	7.9	74
2	Unfamiliar Kin	8.0	60
3	Puritans and Pioneers	7.9	44
4	The Vanguard	7.9	46
5	Immigrant Nation	7.8	48
6	Black Like Me	8.0	53
7	Children of the Revolution	7.8	47
8	Relatives We Never Knew We Had	8.1	48
9	Southern Roots	8.1	46
10	Funny Business	7.5	38

Season 5 (2019)

7.80 avg 10 episodes 8.0 → 7.8 52 min avg

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Grandparents and Other Strangers	8.0	72
2	Mystery Men	7.9	42
3	Reporting on the Reporters	8.0	49
4	Dreaming of a New Land	7.9	45
5	Freedom Tales	7.9	51
6	Roots in Politics	7.2	38
7	No Laughing Matter	7.8	47
8	Hard Times	7.9	52
9	The Eye of the Beholder	7.6	33
10	All in the Family	7.8	45

Season 6 (2019)

7.74 avg 16 episodes 7.7 → 7.9 52 min avg

Rebound

Season 6 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Hollywood Royalty	7.7	58
2	Off the Farm	7.6	52
3	Homecomings	7.9	51
4	This Land Is My Land	7.9	52
5	Beyond the Pale	7.9	47
6	Secrets & Lies	7.8	46
7	Science Pioneers	7.7	42
8	Slave Trade	6.8	48
9	Italian Roots	7.8	41
10	Criminal Kind	7.9	41
11	Fashion's Roots	7.8	44
12	DNA Mysteries	7.6	44
13	War Stories	7.7	45
14	Flight	7.9	41
15	Breaking Silences	8.0	42
16	Coming to America	7.9	40

Season 7 (2021)

7.90 avg 10 episodes 8.0 → 7.6 52 min avg

Season 7 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	From the Manor Born	8.0	49
2	Against All Odds	7.8	48
3	No Irish Need Apply	7.7	47
4	The shirts off their backs	8.0	54
5	Write My Name in the Book of Life	8.0	45
6	Country Roots	8.0	37
7	The New World	8.0	46
8	Laughing on the Inside	8.0	42
9	On Broadway	7.9	43
10	Anchored to the Past	7.6	34

Season 8 (2022)

7.71 avg 10 episodes 7.9 → 7.2 52 min avg

Bad finale

Season 8 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Hidden in the Genes	7.9	49
2	Children of Exile	8.0	62
3	Activist Roots	7.5	39
4	Things We Don't Discuss	7.9	46
5	Mexican Roots	7.7	43
6	Fighters	7.9	42
7	Incredible Journeys	7.6	40
8	Songs of the Past	7.8	45
9	Watchmen	7.6	31
10	Where Did We Come From?	7.2	36

Season 9 (2023)

7.90 avg 10 episodes 7.9 → 7.8 52 min avg

Season 9 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Hidden Kin	7.9	63
2	Salem's Lot	7.8	53
3	Secret Lives	7.9	73
4	Far From Home	7.9	52
5	Rising from the Ashes	7.9	48
6	Family: Lost and Found	8.0	55
7	Chosen	8.1	58
8	And Still I Rise	7.9	34
9	Anchormen	7.8	35
10	Out of the Past	7.8	39

Season 10 (2024)

7.85 avg 10 episodes 7.6 → 7.8 52 min avg

Season 10 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Born to Sing	7.6	58
2	Forever Young	7.9	56
3	Fathers and Sons	7.9	59
4	Buried Secrets	7.9	44
5	Hold the Laughter	7.9	52
6	Far and Away	7.6	39
7	The Brick Wall Falls	7.9	37
8	Mean Streets	8.0	45
9	In the Blood	8.0	33
10	Viewers Like You	7.8	34

Season 11 (2025)

7.57 avg 10 episodes 7.5 → 7.9 52 min avg

Season 11 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Larger Than Life	7.5	43
2	La Famiglia	7.1	32
3	Stranger Than Fiction	7.7	29
4	Dreamers One and All	7.8	39
5	Family Recipes	7.2	25
6	Latin Roots	7.8	22
7	The Ties That Blind	7.8	31
8	The Butterfly Effect	7.8	29
9	Moving on Up	7.1	23
10	Finding My Roots	7.9	41

Season 12 (2026)

6.21 avg 10 episodes 6.6 → 6.7 52 min avg

Season 12 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	American Dreams	6.6	40
2	Great Migrations	5.6	31
3	Caribbean Roots	6.5	33
4	The Road We Took	6.3	32
5	Love & Basketball	5.7	31
6	Westward Bound	6.2	30
7	Family Harmonies	6.1	30
8	Artistic Roots	6.4	38
9	Song of the South	6.0	24
10	Rags to Riches	6.7	23

Finding Your Roots (2012)

Cast

Seasons

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