Who Do You Think You Are USA

8:30pm Friday, September 21 on Prime

Reality Series

Steve Buscemi wants to know if there are any shady characters in his ancestral past: he’s no stranger to the darker side of life given the characters he tends to play. Steve will uncover the story of his maternal great great grandfather, Ralph B. Montgomery but in doing so uncovers some disturbing facts: a tarnished Civil War service, with the charge of desertion.

8:30pm Friday, September 14 on Prime

Reality Series

Lionel Richie

Lionel was incredibly close to his grandmother, yet he knows almost nothing about her ancestry and that there is a mystery surrounding the identity of her father. Lionel solves the mystery of Adelaide’s paternity, and will unravel the story of his great grandfather, John Louis Brown – tracking his life from slavery to freedom, through the optimism of Reconstruction, and the disillusionment and broken promises of the Jim Crow era, charting almost 100 years. Lionel’s journey takes him from his childhood neighbourhood at Tuskegee to Nashville, Tennessee, where John Louis Brown sowed the seeds of the civil rights movement. Tracing J.L. Brown’s later life leads Lionel to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he uncovers a photograph of his great grandfather. Later, a surprising document provides a clue to the identity of John Louis Brown’s parentage.

8:30pm Friday, September 7 on Prime

Reality Series

Kim Cattrall

Kim’s family doesn’t have a single picture of her grandfather – her mother and aunts were abandoned in poverty by him and don’t have any idea where he went. Kim sets out on a journey to track down the mysterious relative. What she discovers isn’t easy to accept: he left his wife and children, committed bigamy by marrying again without a divorce, and fled to Australia, where Kim discovers he had three more children, leaving his original wife and children to fend for themselves. Kim’s heartbreaking return to her mother and aunts to reveal where her journey took her and what she found out will melt the coldest of hearts.

8:30pm Friday, August 31 on Prime

Reality Series

Rosie O’Donnell

Rosie lost her mother when she was only 10 years-old and wants to reconnect with her by tracing her roots. Her journey takes her first to Jersey City and New York, where she uncovers the tragic story of her great grandfather’s mysterious first wife. Back on the trail of her mother’s Irish heritage, she discovers that her family came from Ireland to the U.S. via Canada. In Ireland, Rosie discovers that her ancestors survived the Potato Famine but that harsh poverty drove them to seek refuge in a local workhouse. While there, they were saved by a benefactor who arranged passage for the truly needy to a new life in the New World.

8:30pm Friday, August 24 on Prime

Reality Series

Tim McGraw

As a child, Tim had no idea who his father was. When he found out it was Tug McGraw, the famous baseball player, he convinced Tug to accept him as his son. Tug lost his battle to cancer in 2004, but Tim is determined to learn more about his paternal family. Tim’s journey reveals that his ancestors were living beyond the frontier in 1776, risking life and limb as some of the first western settlers. Tim lives on a Nashville ranch of 800 acres, tiny compared to the 140,000 acres his ancestor Jost Hite managed to claim in colonial Virginia. The claim was praised by Tim’s historical hero, George Washington. Tim discovers that the young Hite pulled himself out of abject poverty to become one of the most influential landowners in the Shenandoah Valley – a story which mirrors Tim’s, who grew up poor and worked his way to fame and success.

8:30pm Friday, August 17 on Prime

Reality Series

Vanessa Williams

In this new series, American celebrities trace their ancestry, discovering secrets and surprises from their past. Tonight, Vanessa Williams discovers she’s related to David Carll, who served in an African-American regiment through the Civil War. At the National Archives in Washington, DC, Vanessa uncovers an unbelievably rare tintype photograph of her ancestor. Vanessa traces David Carll’s journey to South Carolina, where she learns that he fought bravely for the Union Army, enduring terrible conditions and risking his life and freedom. Vanessa also finds that she is related to William A. Fields, listed as a school teacher in 1880, and Fields subsequently served in the Tennessee National Assembly, before KKK intimidation and violence caused no African-American to serve again for nearly 100 years.