PASADENA, Calif. -- Last month after a press conference for PBS's "Faces of America" (8 tonight and airing Wednesdays through March 3, WQED) a few reporters approached host Henry Louis Gates Jr., to ask about that beer summit last summer between the Harvard professor/TV host, the cop who arrested him for entering his own home and President Barack Obama.

Reporters tend to be more restrained at PBS press conferences and less likely to ask about unpleasantness (except at the PBS president's sessions) but after the "Faces of America" press conference, all bets were off.

"It's old news," Dr. Gates said about the controversy. "It was an unfortunate incident that happened a long time ago. I've turned the page on that."

It turns out Dr. Gates' arrest happened after he returned from researching the history of one of the celebrities featured in "Faces of America." This new show is a lot like Dr. Gates' previous PBS shows, "African-American Lives" and "African-American Lives 2." But instead of tracing the genealogy of famous black Americans, Mr. Gates expands his panel of celebrities, looking at the histories of a group of Americans with diverse backgrounds.

Celebrities featured include chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, musician Yo-Yo Ma, actress Eva Longoria and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, among others.

Dr. Gates describes how past shows have revealed details of his own ancestry -- he has more white ancestors than black and he's descended from an Irish great-great-grandfather.

"We'll trace the stories of 12 Americans and go back to their ancestors' country of origin to see what surprises we can find," Dr. Gates says in tonight's premiere.

He presents each person with a bound history of their family.

"I call it the Noah's Ark approach," Dr. Gates said of his new program during the PBS press conference. " 'African-American Lives' was so popular, I got thousands of letters from people who weren't black, saying, 'What about me?' Particularly Jewish people from Russia, with Russian roots, saying, 'Why don't you try to trace us?'... Russian, Jewish lineages are very, very hard to trace. People in Japan -- very, very hard to trace. So I wanted to take that on.

"So, like Noah, I wanted two Muslims, two Jews, two Asians," he said. "Yo-Yo Ma is a friend of mine, so I thought it would be intriguing to do him. I had always admired [Yamaguchi], and I thought it would be a great way to do it, to meet her. ... We had one person, Tony Shalhoub had said yes. He was my other Arab person, and then his shooting schedule [conflicted]. He had to cancel it. So then, I asked Mehmet Oz, and he agreed right away."

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