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Shares in the tiny Utah-based company are down about 12% in pre-market trading this morning after the network said it will cancel the show, which traces celebrities’ family roots. Ancestry.com’s prominent presence on WDYTYA, a partnership with NBC, contributed to a 42.6% spike in its online subscriptions, to 1.87M, in the two years since the show debuted. Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan said in a statement that his company has “a great relationship with the show’s producers, Is or Isn’t Entertainment and Shed Media, and we look forward to exploring other avenues of distribution.” Ancestry.com warned investors in its quarterly earnings report filed this month at the SEC that if the show is cancelled “it could have a negative effect on our business and our stock price.”
Related: NBC Brass On Amping Up Comedy, Axing ‘Harry’s Law’ & Keeping ‘Whitney’, ‘Center’
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I know genealogy is not everyone’s cup of tea, but this should be a virtual no brainer to run SOMEWHERE. The costs can’t be that significant, it has a built in audience, and the UK has a version of the same show (could there not be some cost sharing or shared production between UK/US/Canada?)
NBC dropping it shouldn’t mean the end for the show. I personally like it – it’s the only reality show I watch (and the only one that isn’t filled with mind numbingly stupid people).
LOVE this show. Only reality show I watch. Bob Greenblat really doesn’t want smart or intelligent people of means or the middle aged to watch NBC. I guess this audience got monetized too like the Harry’s Law audience.
At the ancient age of 42 I make a lot of money and like boomers I’m open to new things. Somehow advertisers think we shop like our parents. Boomers want the newest. They have no brand loyalty. We’re constantly reinventing. This idea that I won’t buy stuff advertised on NBC is just a pathetic joke. Ad Agencies need to wake up.
Happy to go back to pay cable.
I went to high school with Bob Greenblatt and oddly, he is over the age of 50 himself. Sad if he thinks that “Six Feet Under” is quality and this show is not!
Liked this show very much. Sorry it was cancelled. Wish they could bring it back. More reality shows are so boring. This kept even my husband interested.
just another BLUNDER by NBC which is the norm for them – bad decisions and dysfunctional leadership there just like WASH DC and it just continues…..
THIS was a show?!?!?!
Oh NBC….yikes.
This show was the most intelligent show on primetime and enormously entertaining. NBC’s cancellation of WDYTYA cements the fact that NBC stands for “Nothing But Crap”.
I totally agree. This was one of the only shows I really looked forward to every week. I loved it and I can’t believe it has been cancelled! ! !
I am very sad that this show has been cancelled. It was the ONLY network TV show I watch. Why?
Makes no sense to me.
I really liked this interesting program and was devastated when I couldn’t find it recently. I guess NBC is again pandering to those awful sitcoms or murder mysteries which are not aimed at older adults with intelligence. Why can’t you have at least one program which interests us? There are a lot of us out here! I find genealogy fascinating whether it be mine or others’. Please reconsider.
I agree. It is pathetic that every time something good comes on, the station can’t wait to cancel it. The season 2011-2012, I looked forward to Terra Nova on monday nights and WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ON FRIDAY NIGHTS. NOW BOTH HAVE BEEN CANCELLED.
So far, what I have seen advertised isn’t worth the electricity to watch. Guess I’d better get a stack of books together and spend some time reading!!! TV SUCKS!!!
The only show I planned to watch each week!
I looked forward to this show every Friday evening…the only “reality” show I ever watched. Why in the world was it cancelled? Fantastic show…really helped celebrities and others learn about the importance of history…especially heritage and family legacies. Too many young people don’t have a clue about their family tree and find out too late…to find out….
Well put! I second it heartily.
Well, it looks like Henry Louis Gates’ “Finding Your Roots” no longer has any competition. And while I liked “Who Do You Think You Are?,” I found it a bit *too* commercial. Gates’ show cuts to the more academic core – which is great for PBS and for folks who want to learn about more than just celebrity history.
I watch both shows religiously. I am beyond disappointed in this announcement. While I do like Henry Gates’s genealogical productions, First with the African American Lives, Faces of American and now Finding your roots. What his show lacks in my opinion is the interaction of the participant in experiencing the places where their ancestor lived or passed through. Although WDYTYA does the work and may give the 250 year old register to the celebrity with the page bookmarked, there is something special about seeing the spark that ignites within all of us who value the hunt for our ancestors when they see their own name in a book century old to find out they are sitting in the exact place their ancestor was baptised, married, died, etc. While Finding Your Roots does walk you through how they came about the information and the celebrity is still in awe of the revelation, it still lacks something for me. I love the show. You might not be able to tell from my post, but both shows bring something to the table and NBC has lost a viewer in me.
I agree 100% with Misty’s comments. I couldn’t have said it better, either. I’ve waited almost 40 years for good programs about genealogy, and it’s disappointing that the best one yet is cancelled so soon. There are many more “celebrities” that would be interesting to see on WDYTYA.
This could easily go to another network.
Like the History Channel or something like that
THE HISTORY CHANNEL? Really? The History Channel is no longer that. It has things like hunting for junk and alligators. No real history any more. I used to watch THC until they went to “reality” shows, which are not my (or anyone I know) reality. Those shows are not even escapism.
I love this show. I didn’t realize it was canceled. What a stupid move. The PBS one is boring as hell. I always thought this show would have an archival quality to it. It’s so educational and gets you to learn about history, a subject I hated in school, without even realizing it. For shame.
I bet the British version is called “WHOM Do You Think You Are?”
whom is only used as a direct or indirect object… Who is the nominative case, and correct… did you go to school?
I will miss this show. Another nail in the coffin for NBC
You can watch the Britsh, Canadian and Austrialian (sp?) version on Youtube. They are wonderful to watch. They had aired several years before it came over here. Len Goodman off Dancing With The Stars did one. I found it very endearing. Many of the participants were unknown to me, but with the subject matter, it didn’t matter that I didnt know who these folks were.
I would definitely follow this show to any network. It sounds trivial because they use celebrities, but it provides an opportunity to learn history. I have been encouraging my friends to watch it with their kids. Much better than the other reality crap.
Maybe if they’d called it the grammatically correct, “WHOM Do You Think You Are?”…
Nah.
kind of like Johnny Carson’s show Whom Do You Trust”….
As that’s not actually gramatically correct, it’s just as well they didn’t.
“Who Do” was on my short list of must-watch shows. I suppose NBC will replace it with some brainless whack-a-mole bitchelor Kartrashian fat-loser Trump-birther housewife program.
Genealogy and learning personal history, and how one is connected to, or a product of, the past, could save society in the present. Personalizing historical events has shown me the urgency of being vocal and active in local and national politics. I know that my direct ancestors (grandparents, not aunts and uncles and cousins) gave their lives to protect our human and civil rights. I’m inspired to step up and fight when I see Congress and the President stripping away those rights with the Patriot Act, NDAA’12, and executive orders (March 16, 2012) declaring martial law in the United States, and Republican candidates mashing up their historical factoids.
Good show. I can’t believe NBC is taking this off. Was a good history show for kids believe it or not.
Oprah needs to pick this up. This would fit OWNs brand perfectly.
My husband & I both loved this show. It would be great if the Oprah network would pick this up. Like a lot of the comments I read, I too, refuse to watch 99.9% of the reality shows.
This was a great program, what the hell NBC! I’m sure you will replace it with mindless crap. I hope Oprah picks it up for her network. Go Oprah !
I thought this show was going to be a deluge of lame sauce until one night, forgoing the bar scene, I found myself in bunny slippers, along with Molly Moon ice cream in tow, watching an episode of that featured Rashida Jones, the daughter of music impresario Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton.
The show was absolutely riveting. On top of that, I was charmed by Ms. Jones’ fierce intelligence, compassion and the unrelenting sweetness she exuded. Perhaps this show wasn’t a ratings grabber, but for thought-provoking, emotional wrenching and sincere storytelling you could hardly do better on the boob tube.
First NBC puts “Community” on Fridays, and now this. The Peter Principle is alive and well at the home of the peacock. Damn shame. Instead of “must see TV” NBC has gone the way of “musty TV”
Well, you missed Quincy on Dr. Gates program. That was a good show. Really will miss WDYTYA.
The Rashida Jones episode was the best one yet. It actually made me cry. I agree with you on her “fierce intelligence, compassion and the unrelenting sweetness.” My whole family, including my two young teen daughters, enjoyed watching WDYTYA. So of course it was canceled.
I agree with you. The episode with Rashida Jones was heart wrenching. I cried the whole time. She went literally to the ends of the earth to find out her ancestory and to find out it went back as far as when they did not have a sir name for her family. I was able to go back quite far with our family ancestory. My grandmother came over on the boat in the early 1900′s from Ireland with her brothers and lost her shoe on the way over. She entered the United States, or Ellis Island, with one shoe. I was so proud when my family and I visited Ellis Island and found our Blakely name engraved on the wall around the island. We donated to restore Ellis Island and The statue of Liberty. We were able to find more information through the Irish census in the county she was born in. To be able to go back so far and that the counties, libraries and churches in Europe still have the original documentation just, it just astounds me.
I was sorry to see this one cancelled. Particularly when you look at the absolute drek that NBC has for “alternative programming” this year. Compared to any of those shows, “Who Do You Think You Are?” is a shining jewel even if it does seem like an extended ad for ancestry.com
Skip Gates should also be given the axed also. Those companies have been giving people faulty information for years.
I liked the show but I did think it made everything look just a little bit to easy. I’m sorry it was canceled because it has sparked a lot of interest in genealogy.
Surprised NBC cancelled this. It should have met the standards of providing educational material in a time where education is sorely needed versus another Jersey Shore mind numbing fist pump fest. Where was the cost factor on this that made it not commercially viable? It seemed like overhead was set with a couple of cameras, shot in documentary style, no large bloated cast members to pay out exorbitant salaries, so what gives?
NO!
LOVE THIS SHOW!
Good ole NBC,nothing but crap. This was the only show that I did watch on NBC, now I can just bypass that channel.
This is so dissapointing. I really hope someone else picks it up. It would be nice to have the option of watching shows that actual have a value. This was the one and only show I watch on NBC and now it will be zero!
Soooo disappointed. I love this show. Excellent story crafting/ editing.
Good idea above for OWN to pick it up, put some promo juice into it.
Another dumb move by boneheaded TV execs who still don’t get that their coveted young male demographic isn’t actually watching TV, especially on Friday nights.
One of the few shows on traditional network TV that I watched. It was very interesting, even with its celebrity/commercial overtones. They actually had interesting celebrity ancestor trackdowns
Hope it ends up on another network
This show could never gain traction, especially based on where it was in the schedule and the people they were profiling on the show. In other words, if you had a very popular and well-liked celeb, the show would do well, but if you had a ham and egger on there, then the show would tank, as it mostly did. No surprise on the cancellation though by NBC.
This will be a big loss for NBC, entertaining and helpful to genealogy researchers that needed ideas for their next search. What ever network has the wisdom to pick “Who Do You Think You Are” up as a regular program will maybe consider using non actors once every couple months with stories of outstanding ancestors.