Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Who Do You Think…

“This is a passion project. It is intelligent. It is smart. It is deeply moving,” Andrew Wait said of the upcoming show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” in his closing remarks at 2010 Bloggers Day. WDYTYA chronicles the journey of seven celebrities on a quest to discover the genealogical roots of who they are. Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick, Brooke Shields, Emmitt Smith, Lisa Kudrow.

Ancestry.com is a major sponsor. They have provided a website that viewers can use to build a family tree. And they are giving away $20,000 in a sweepstakes promoting the show.

The potential payoff for all of us is huge. The WDYTYA show has been a big hit in the UK, driving genealogy interest way beyond the huge success of Alex Halley’s Roots. Imagine having a huge influx of volunteer indexers. Imagine having a huge injection of cash for content acquisition by companies like Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, World Vital Records, and others. Companies that are just barely staying afloat today could survive, maybe even flourish and continue to give consumers more choices.

Wait gave us a sneak peek at the show trailer, which you can see below:

Did you get a commercial, like I did, before you could see the trailer? What’s up with that? NBC expects me to watch a commercial before they will show me a commercial for their television program?!? No wonder NBC is having a hard time.

So, gang, it looks like NBC isn’t smart enough to make this a success without us. If it is to be, it is up to we. (Apologies to the language police. “Us” doesn’t rhyme.) Plan the party. Tell your friends. Invite your neighbors. Who Do You Think Your Are premiers on NBC this Friday, 5 March 2010 at 7 or 8 PM, depending on where you live.

I add my endorsement to the impassioned plea Andrew Wait made to us: “We ask you: do not let this fail.”

For more information, see the official WDYTYA website.

2 comments:

  1. Don't worry about saying, "It is up to we." That is precisely the pronoun that is used in the everyday speech of the native Cornish people who still speak the local dialect.

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  2. The words "him", "her" and "us" are objective. They should only be used as objects. The verb to be never has any object. "We" is therefore logically correct!

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