Popular Documentary TV Shows on PBS

Frontline

1983

Frontline

1983
7.5
Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change.
NOVA

1974

NOVA

1974
7
PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.
American Experience

1988

American Experience

1988
7.4
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
Great Performances

1971

Great Performances

1971
5.6
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
MotorWeek

1981

MotorWeek

1981
3
This award-winning weekly automotive magazine provides unbiased, consumer-oriented car news with feature stories on related topics.
Nature

1982

Nature

1982
8.1
Consistently stunning documentaries transport viewers to far-flung locations ranging from the torrid African plains to the chilly splendours of icy Antarctica. The show's primary focus is on animals and ecosystems around the world. A comic book based on the show, meant to be used an as educational tool for kids, was briefly distributed to museums and schools at no cost in the mid-2000s.
Independent Lens

1999

Independent Lens

1999
6.9
This acclaimed Emmy Award-winning anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers and featuring unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history.
Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Television

2017

Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Television

2017
7
Let’s stop doing things in the kitchen that made sense in the 19th century but not in the 21st. Milk Street travels the world to bring you the very best ideas and techniques with no lists of hard-to-find ingredients, strange cookware, or all-day methods to slow you down.
Finding Your Roots

2012

Finding Your Roots

2012
6.2
Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.
American Masters

1986

American Masters

1986
7.2
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
Secrets of the Dead

2000

Secrets of the Dead

2000
6.3
Part detective story, part true-life drama, long-running series explores some of the most iconic moments in history to debunk myths and shed new light on past events. Using the latest investigative techniques, forensic science and historical examination, it shatters accepted wisdom, challenges prevailing ideas, overturns existing hypotheses, spotlights forgotten mysteries, and ultimately rewrites history.
Rick Steves' Europe

2000

Rick Steves' Europe

2000
8.6
Rick Steves, America's leading authority on European travel, returns to transport viewers to the continent's bustling cities, quaint villages and picturesque countryside.
Eons

2017

Eons

2017
Join hosts Hank Green, Kallie Moore, and Blake de Pastino as they take you on a journey through the history of life on Earth. From the dawn of life in the Archaean Eon through the Mesozoic Era — the so-called “Age of Dinosaurs” -- right up to the end of the most recent Ice Age. The evolutionary history of mammals including humans and other modern species is explored with these amazing paleontology experts.
The Mind of a Chef

2012

The Mind of a Chef

2012
8.5
Go inside the minds of some of the world's top chefs. Narrated by Executive Producer Anthony Bourdain, The Mind of a Chef is that rare and beautiful thing: an intelligent show about cooking.
Now on PBS

2002

Now on PBS

2002
Now on PBS was a Public Broadcasting Service newsmagazine that focused on social and political issues.
PBS Space Time

2015

PBS Space Time

2015
10
Space Time explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth.
A Chef's Life

2013

A Chef's Life

2013
10
A character-driven documentary and cooking series that takes viewers inside the life of Chef Vivian Howard, who, with her husband Ben Knight, left the big city to open a fine dining restaurant in small-town Eastern North Carolina.
The U.S. and the Holocaust

2022

The U.S. and the Holocaust

2022
8.5
Inspired in part by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibition and supported by its historical resources, this documentary series examines the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany in the context of global antisemitism and racism, the eugenics movement in the United States, and race laws in the American south.
Nazi Megastructures

2013

Nazi Megastructures

2013
7.6
In a quest for world domination, the Nazis built some of the biggest and deadliest pieces of military hardware and malevolent technology in history. This is the stories of the engineers who designed them and how these structures sparked a technological revolution that changed warfare forever.
Original Fare

2013

Original Fare

2013
Join Kelly Cox as she hunts, forages, and farms her way across the globe to search for the best ingredients our planet has to offer.

Popular Documentary TV Shows on PBS

1983

1983

1974

1974

1988

1988

1971

1971

1981

1981

1982

1982

1999

1999

2017

2017

2012

2012

1986

1986

2000

2000

2000

2000

2017

2017

2012

2012

2002

2002

2015

2015

2013

2013

2022

2022

2013

2013

2013

2013