History will premiere its reboot of the classic 1970's miniseries Roots this Memorial Day.
The four-night, eight-hour series will debut May 30 on History, A&E and Lifetime, said the network. The series, a remake of the 1970’s ABC miniseries Roots based on Alex Haley’s best selling novel about the journey of an African-American family through slavery, is executive produced by Will Packer, Marc Toberoff, Mark Wolper, Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal and Barry Jossen.
Original Roots star LeVar Burton and Korin D. Huggins will serve as co-executive producers.
“Roots will allow new audiences to experience this epic family saga with a new vision that is both inspiring and tremendously entertaining,” said Paul Buccieri, President of A&E and History. “We are proud that History will be able to bring new life to this powerful story that remains as important today as it did when the original ‘Roots’ first premiered.”
Roots is the latest History miniseries to launch during the Memorial Day holiday. Most notable was the 2012 premiere of Hatfields & McCoys, which averaged a cable record 13 million viewers over three nights.
The Roots cast includes Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin Laurence Fishburne Jonathan Rhys Meyers Anika Noni Rose and Tip “T.I.” Harris.
