‘Faces of America’ has surprises in store

Combining eye-opening celebrity profiles with historical research, family genealogy and DNA evidence, “Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings) will prove as surprising and inspiring to its viewers as it does to its subjects.

The chief end of this series is to show that each of us has the story of America and the world running through our veins and that our family trees resonate with history both personal and global, recent and ancient. But to get our attention, Gates concentrates on the well-known.

“Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria’s family traces its Texas roots back many centuries, having arrived there long before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.

We see clips of cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing with conductor Leonard Bernstein at the White House at the age of 7 before learning of how his Chinese parents left their war-torn country only to live in Nazi-occupied Paris before a a few lucky accidents brought them to the United States.

Surgeon and TV personality Mehmet Oz recalls his father’s remote Turkish village and the accidents that brought him to a Cleveland clinic. Chef Mario Batali finds history and solace in his grandmother’s ravioli recipes.

Gates helps his celebrity subjects ponder the contradictions and ironies of their identities. Kristi Yamaguchi’s mother was born in an internment camp for “enemy aliens” during World War II at the same time her grandfather was becoming a decorated soldier in Europe.

Wikipedia calls Louise Erdrich a Native American novelist, but here she relates the tale of her German grandfather who served in the Kaiser’s army in World War I only to raise sons who would fight Nazi Germany in the next world war. Director Mike Nichols, who escaped as a boy from Nazi Germany, often seems a stranger to his own past, yet consumed by guilt over the good fortune that kept him from becoming, in his words “6 million and one.”

Filled with one great story after another, “Faces” will follow each family tree further back in time over the next three weeks, finally using DNA records to find distant relatives and surprising ancestral connections. Not to give too much away here, but Nichols and Meryl Streep are not only Oscar winners; they happen to be distant cousins.

Tonight’s other highlights

• A date night ruined on “Mercy” (7 p.m. NBC).

• A DA needs Chance’s help on “Human Target” (7 p.m., Fox).

• A bald boy pines for a red-haired girl on “A Charlie Brown Valentine” (7 p.m., ABC).

• Hollywood week continues on “American Idol” (8 p.m., Fox).

• A man wakes up next to a murder victim on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (8 p.m., NBC). Another repeat follows at 9 p.m., replacing the now departed “Jay Leno” show.

• David Brenner cameos as himself on “Modern Family” (8 p.m., ABC).

• A famous racer dies behind the wheel on “CSI: NY” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Betty becomes an arbiter of fashion on “Ugly Betty” (9 p.m., ABC).

• Erica takes calculated risks on the job on “Being Erica” (9 p.m., Soapnet).

Cult choice

Director Terrence Malick envisions the 1607 settling of Jamestown in his 2005 epic “The New World” (7 p.m., IFC).