The Best TV Shows on History

Every History Show Ranked From Best To Worst

History’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1995 to 2021. Leading the pack on History are Gadget Boy's Adventures in History and History's Mysteries, with their initial broadcasts in 1995 and 1998. Stay up-to-date with over 20 of History’s elite series, with our list refreshed for July 2025.

  • Project Blue Book
    Project Blue Book (2019)8.1

    A chronicle of the true top secret U.S. Air Force-sponsored investigations into UFO-related phenomena in the 1950s and ’60s, known as “Project Blue Book”.

  • The Proof Is Out There
    The Proof Is Out There (2021)8.1

    Each episode analyzes and passes verdicts on several seemingly impossible things “caught on film,” including giant beasts, UFOS, apocalyptic sounds, hairy humans, alleged mutants from the deep, conspiracies, and many other cases. Host and veteran journalist Tony Harris takes nothing for granted in a quest for answers, tracking down eyewitnesses, putting each photo or film through a battery of tests, calling out the hoaxes, and highlighting the most credible evidence in an attempt to better understand our world.

  • Forged in Fire
    Forged in Fire (2015)7.8

    Competitors re-create weapons from historical periods ranging from Japanese katanas to medieval broadswords to ancient throwing blades. Each entry is judged on its artistry as well as its functionality and accuracy.

  • History's Greatest Mysteries
    History's Greatest Mysteries (2020)7.5

    Investigates a wide range of historically compelling topics and the mysteries surrounding each including the Titanic, D.B. Cooper, Roswell, John Wilkes Booth, and more. Fresh, new evidence and perspectives will be showcased, such as never-before-released documents, personal diaries and DNA evidence.

  • The Curse of Oak Island
    The Curse of Oak Island (2014)7.3

    Follow brothers Marty and Rick Lagina through their effort to find the speculated - and as of yet undiscovered - buried treasure believed to have been concealed through extraordinary means on Oak Island.

  • Pawn Stars
    Pawn Stars (2009)7.1

    Go inside the colorful world of the pawn business. At the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, generations of the Harrison family run the family business, and there’s clashing and camaraderie every step of the way.

  • Titanic: Blood and Steel
    Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012)7.1

    Belfast, 1909. The Harland and Wolff shipyard has been handed the greatest project in its history. It will build a great, unsinkable ship. And it will be called the RMS Titanic.

  • Knightfall
    Knightfall (2017)7.0

    Go deep into the clandestine world of the legendary brotherhood of warrior monks known as The Knights Templar.

  • American Pickers
    American Pickers (2010)6.9

    Pickers like Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are on a mission to recycle America, even if it means diving into countless piles of grimy junk or getting chased off a gun-wielding homeowner’s land. Hitting back roads from coast to coast, the two men earn a living by restoring forgotten relics to their former glory, transforming one person’s trash into another’s treasure.

  • Ancient Aliens
    Ancient Aliens (2010)6.9

    Did intelligent beings from outer space visit Earth thousands of years ago? From the age of the dinosaurs to ancient Egypt, from early cave drawings to continued mass sightings in the US, each episode gives historic depth to the questions, speculations, provocative controversies, first-hand accounts and grounded theories surrounding this age old debate.

  • Top Shot
    Top Shot (2010)6.9

    Top Shot is an American reality television show that debuted on the History Channel on June 6, 2010. The show features 16 contestants, split into two teams of eight, competing in various types of shooting challenges. One by one, the contestants are eliminated until only one remains. That contestant receives a $100,000 grand prize and the title of "Top Shot." Survivor contestant Colby Donaldson is the host.

  • Join or Die with Craig Ferguson
    Join or Die with Craig Ferguson (2016)6.9

    Featuring comedian Craig Ferguson debating provocative and timely topics in his unorthodox and iconoclastic manner. Each episode features a panel of guests which will include celebrities, comedians and experts, as well as the American public through social media. History is back on the History Channel.

  • The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek
    The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021)6.9

    In honor of the sci-fi franchise’s 55th anniversary this year and produced by The Nacelle Company, the project will feature interviews with cast, crew and experts as it explores pivotal moments in the franchise’s history, from its inception at Lucille Ball’s production company Desilu to recent film and television adaptations.

  • Mail Call
    Mail Call (2002)6.7

    Mail Call was a television program that appeared on the History Channel and hosted by R. Lee Ermey, a retired United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant,. The show debuted on August 4, 2002 as part of the 'Fighting Fridays' lineup. Most episodes were 30 minutes, but from 2007 through the show's end in 2009 some episodes were 60 minutes. During each episode, Ermey read and answered questions submitted by viewers regarding weapons and equipment used by all branches of the U.S. military now or in the past, as well as by other armed forces in history. Ermey often took his viewers on location to military training areas to film demonstrations. When not on location, Ermey broadcast from a set resembling a military outpost, including a tent, a Jeep, and various other pieces of military gear which changed throughout the series. At times, he would also have a bulldog - usually symbolic of Marines, especially drill instructors - on his show as well. Comic relief was provided as Ermey inflicted DI-style verbal abuse on his viewers or tests the effects of various weapons on watermelons and paint cans, as well as occasional appearances of "Mini-Lee", an action figure styled in Ermey's likeness, often seen berating a luckless G.I. Joe figurine. His demeanor as host was similar to the character "Gunnery Sergeant Hartman" portrayed by Ermey in the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket, though this attitude was shown only towards his viewers and not the military special guests. Older viewers might compare him to Sergeant Vincent Carter, a character in the Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. television program.

  • Stan Lee's Superhumans
    Stan Lee's Superhumans (2010)6.7

    Stan Lee's Superhumans is a television series that debuted August 5, 2010 on History. It is hosted by comic book superhero creator Stan Lee and follows contortionist Daniel Browning Smith, "the most flexible man in the world", as he searches the globe for real-life superhumans – people with extraordinary physical or mental abilities. Many of the segments are fraudulenty manipulated and these appear side by side with other segments that are valid. For example, one segment shows a person applying an electric drill to their body[ after it is used to drill a hole in wood], except the direction of rotation of the drill is fraudulently reversed in the process.

  • The UnXplained
    The UnXplained (2019)6.7

    Explore the world’s most fascinating, strange and inexplicable mysteries. Each episode features compelling contributions from scientists, historians, witnesses and experiencers—each seeking to shed light on how the seemingly impossible actually can happen.

  • Ice Road Truckers
    Ice Road Truckers (2007)6.6

    Take a trip to Yellowknife, Canada to experience one of the most dangerous careers around. In unfathomably cold conditions, truck drivers haul equipment and supplies to miners in the Canadian tundra in the dead of winter on a 350-mile highway of ice.

  • History's Mysteries
    History's Mysteries (1998)6.3

    History's Mysteries was an American documentary television series on the History Channel.

  • Ozzy and Jack's World Detour
    Ozzy and Jack's World Detour (2016)5.9

    The self-proclaimed history nerds hit the road in a father-son journey they've waited years to take. No roadies, no tour buses and no boundaries - just a bucket list of iconic and historically significant spots that includes Mt. Rushmore, Stonehenge, The Alamo, Roswell, The Jamestown Settlement and Sun Studios and a hit list of some fascinating sights and people that they've read about. From a Cold War era Missile Silo to Bletchley Park; from gold miner Rattlesnake Randy's stream of dreams to vintage tank collector Allan Cors' private museum of working war machines, Ozzy and Jack get their eyes and hands on history.

  • Gadget Boy's Adventures in History
    Gadget Boy's Adventures in History (1995)N/A