As you may have heard, Oprah has her own television channel now. You can find a variety of interesting and thought provoking programs there. Sometime this year, 2011, there will be a brand new genealogy related show called “Searching For…”, which helps real people find lost loved ones.
OWN, which stands for Oprah Winfrey Network, is a conglomeration of the many different media enterprises that Oprah is involved in. One of these endeavors is a television network, with a series of hand picked, thought provoking, programs appearing on it. Naturally, there are shows staring some of the people that Oprah helped to make famous. You can find shows with Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura Berman, Dr. Oz, and Suze Orman. Gayle King will have a show on the OWN network, which seems to be spun from Gayle’s radio show. You can also find programs focusing on medical mysteries, miracles, the birth of babies, and ways to better use the space in your home. If you miss the Oprah Winfrey Show, you can tune in to OWN on Fridays, and catch some “behind the scenes” video of that show from the past 25 years.
For genealogists, the most interesting program on OWN will be one called “Searching For…”. This show is going to start sometime in 2011, but there doesn’t seem to be any information about a specific date to expect the show to begin just yet. I cannot help but wonder if this show is destined to compete with the already popular celebrity genealogy show called “Who Do You Think You Are?”, which is on NBC. That show is getting ready to start season two in February of this year.
While both shows dabble in genealogy, there are key differences between them. The NBC genealogy show focuses on the family tree of celebrities, and takes viewers on a journey with the celebrity to places that are relevant to that celebrity’s family tree. Each show features a different celebrity, who does not know ahead of time where he or she will travel to, or what interesting news will be revealed about his or her ancestors.
The genealogy show on OWN will be presented as a documentary series. It follows the work of Pam Slaton, who is a professional investigative genealogist. The show focuses on people like you and me, who are not celebrities. A client comes to Pam asking for her help in finding a lost loved one. The show reveals joyful reunions, or painful rejections, depending what actually happens after the client and the lost loved one are reunited. Pam has an 85% success rate in finding people for her clients, and has been doing investigative genealogy for about 20 years. To me, this sounds like a show that genealogists will find fascinating!
Image by Paula Bailey on Flickr