A Roots remake will air on three cable networks in 2016

The cast of "Roots."
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Nearly 40 years after it premiered, Roots is coming back to television as a miniseries airing on the History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime.

Original Roots star LeVar Burton will co-executive produce the remake along with Will Packer, The Hollywood Reporter says, and the eight-hour miniseries will run in 2016. Roots was a giant success for ABC when it aired in January 1977, and was nominated for 37 Emmy Awards, winning nine. The miniseries will be an original production using more material from Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and the networks said that they will work with African and African-American historians in order to ensure it is accurate and will inform viewers.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.