One of TV’s most legendary miniseries will be getting a reboot when the History cable channel remakes Roots.
According to Deadline, History has acquired the rights to the original 12-hour miniseries from 1977, which set the template for “event”; programming when it racked up record ratings during its eight-night run and wound up kicking off a miniseries boom in the late 1970s.
This new miniseries, which will run eight hours, will draw from the original miniseries as well as Alex Haley’s book, Roots: The Saga Of An American Family.
“We would like to revive that cultural icon for a new audience,” said History EVP and GM Dirk Hoogstra.
As Deadline points out, not only is the miniseries format enjoying a resurgence thanks to such History hits as Hatfields & McCoys and Mark Burnett’s The Bible, the topic of slavery is also back in the public eye with films including 12 Years a Slave and Quentin Tarentino’s Django Unchained. Added Hoogstra: “History in general is in the zeitgeist, which is great for us being a network whose name is History.”;
Airing over eight consecutive nights in January 1977, Roots became one of television’s unlikeliest hits, a ratings powerhouse that garnered an extraordinary 100 million viewers and a record 36 Emmy nominations. Regarded as a true TV classic, Roots continues to attract new generations of viewers; a 35th-anniversary airing on BET last December attracted 4.1 million viewers for its first two parts.
This new version of Roots is still in the early stages, with Deadline reporting that History is “about to start discussions with writers.”;