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The Best TV Shows on National Geographic

Every National Geographic Show Ranked From Best To Worst

As of January 2025, we’ve curated over 20 of National Geographic’s premier shows for your viewing pleasure. Dog Whisperer and MegaStructures represent the pinnacle of National Geographic’s programming, launching in 2004 and 2004. Showcasing over 20 shows from 2004 up until 2023, National Geographic stands as a beacon of television excellence.

  • Cosmos
    Cosmos (2014)8.5

    Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson provides clarity for the vision of the cosmos as he voyages across the universe with never-before-told stories that delve into the scientific concepts of the laws of gravity and the origins of space and time.

  • A Small Light
    A Small Light (2023)7.9

    Twentysomething Miep Gies didn't hesitate when her boss Otto Frank came to her and asked her to hide his family from the Nazis during World War II. For the next two years, Miep, her husband Jan, and the other helpers watched over the eight souls in hiding in the Secret Annex. And it was Miep who found Anne’s Diary and kept it safe so Otto, the only one of the eight who survived, could later share it with the world as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.

  • Genius
    Genius (2017)7.8

    The life stories of history's greatest minds. From their days as young adults to their final years we see their discoveries, loves, relationships, causes, flaws and genius.

  • Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted
    Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (2019)7.8

    Follow Gordon Ramsay as he meets with indigenous people around the globe to learn about the cultures, dishes and flavors unique to each location. Each episode concludes with Ramsay challenging himself with a local food legend by his side - putting his newfound skills to the test as they cook a feast together for the natives.

  • Naked Science
    Naked Science (2004)7.7

    Naked Science is an American documentary television series that premiered in 2004 on the National Geographic Channel. The program features various subjects related to science and technology. Some of the views expressed might be considered fringe or pseudo-science, and some of the scientists may present opinions which have not been properly peer-reviewed or are not widely accepted within their scientific communities, in particular on topics such as Bermuda Triangle or Atlantis for example.

  • One Strange Rock
    One Strange Rock (2018)7.7

    A mind-bending, thrilling journey exploring the fragility and wonder of planet Earth, one of the most peculiar, unique places in the entire universe, brought to life by the only people to have left it behind – the world’s most well known and leading astronauts.

  • The Story of God with Morgan Freeman
    The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (2016)7.5

    Morgan Freeman presents his quest in order to find how most religions perceive life after death, what different civilizations thought about the act of creation and other big questions that mankind has continuously asked.

  • Brain Games
    Brain Games (2011)7.4

    Get ready to have your mind messed with! "Brain Games" is a groundbreaking series that uses interactive experiments, misdirection and tricks to demonstrate how our brains create the illusion of seamless reality through our memory, through our sensory perception, and how we focus our attention.

  • Life Below Zero
    Life Below Zero (2013)7.4

    Viewers go deep into an Alaskan winter to meet six tough and resilient residents as they try to stay one step ahead of storms and man-eating beasts to make it through to spring. The closest neighbor to Sue Aikens is more than 300 miles away. Eric Salitan subsists solely on what he hunts and forages. Chip and Agnes Hailstone catch fish for currency in bartering for supplies, and Andy and Kate Bassich use their pack of sled dogs for transportation.

  • Drain the Oceans
    Drain the Oceans (2018)7.4

    Maritime mysteries—old and new—come to life in this series, combining scientific data and digital re-creations to reveal shipwrecks, treasures, and sunken cities on the bottom of lakes, seas and oceans around the world.

  • Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks
    Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks (2014)7.2

    The long, cold winter has just hit New England, and while the bluefin tuna season has come to an end in Gloucester, Mass., it’s just getting started in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. After a disappointing season, several of Gloucester’s top fishermen head south to try to salvage their finances by fishing for the elusive bluefin tuna in unfamiliar Carolina waters before the experienced locals beat them to the catch. It’s a whole new battlefield and the Northern captains must conquer new styles of fishing, treacherous waters and the wrath of the Outer Banks’ top fishermen. They’re gambling on what could be a massive payday … or a huge financial loss.

  • Seconds From Disaster
    Seconds From Disaster (2005)7.1

    Seconds from Disaster is a US/UK-produced documentary television programme that investigates historically relevant man-made and natural disasters of the 20th century. Each episode aims to explain a single incidental by analyzing the causes and circumstances that ultimately effected the disaster. The program uses re-enactments, interviews, testimonies, and CGI to analyze the sequence of events second-by-second for the audience. Narrators for the show are Ashton Smith, Richard Vaughan and Peter Guinness.

  • The Hot Zone
    The Hot Zone (2019)7.1

    In this anthology series, heroic scientists risk all to deal with deadly outbreaks.

  • Mars
    Mars (2016)7.0

    The maiden crew of the Daedalus spacecraft must push itself to the brink of human capability in order to successfully establish the first sustainable colony on Mars. Set both in the future and in the present day, this series blends scripted elements set in the future with documentary vérité interviews with today’s best and brightest minds in modern science and innovation, illuminating how research and development is creating the space technology that will enable our first attempt at a mission to Mars.

  • MegaStructures
    MegaStructures (2004)6.9

    MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an educational look of varying depth into the construction, operation, and staffing of various structures or construction projects, but not ordinary construction products. Generally containing interviews with designers and project managers, it presents the problems of construction and the methodology or techniques used to overcome obstacles. In some cases this involved the development of new materials or products that are now in general use within the construction industry. MegaStructures focuses on constructions that are extreme; in the sense that they are the biggest, tallest, longest, or deepest in the world. Alternatively, a project may appear if it had an element of novelty or are a world first. This type of project is known as a Megaproject.

  • Running Wild with Bear Grylls
    Running Wild with Bear Grylls (2014)6.9

    The famed survivalist takes A-list celebrities on journeys into the wildest locations around the world, forcing the stars to push their bodies and minds to the limit to successfully complete the adventure of a lifetime.

  • StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson
    StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson (2015)6.9

    Host Neil deGrasse Tyson brings together celebrities, scientists and comedians to explore a variety of cosmic topics and collide pop culture with science in a way that late-night television has never seen before. Weekly topics range from popular science fiction, space travel, extraterrestrial life, the Big Bang, to the future of Earth and the environment. Tyson is an astrophysicist with a gifted ability to connect with everyone, inspiring us all to to "keep looking up."

  • Primal Survivor
    Primal Survivor (2016)6.8

    Hazen Audel embarks on an epic trek that will mirror a traditional Berber nomad journey across the Saharan desert cauldron to an oasis.

  • Wicked Tuna
    Wicked Tuna (2012)6.7

    Fishing is a hard life, and harder with bluefin stocks depleted. In Gloucester, Massachusetts, there's a special breed of fishermen. For generations they've used rod and reel to catch the elusive bluefin tuna. They depend on these fish for their livelihood, and the competition is brutal. Over the next 10 weeks, the most skilled fishermen will set out in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic in hopes of catching the valuable bluefin tuna. When one bluefin can bring in as much as $20,000—they'll do whatever it takes to hook up.

  • Dog Whisperer
    Dog Whisperer (2004)6.6

    Cesar Millan has been called the Dr. Phil for Dogs. With an uncanny ability to rehabilitate problem dogs of all shapes and sizes. Each episode of the Dog Whisperer documents the remarkable transformations that take place under Cesar's guidance and teaching, helping dogs and their owners live happier lives together.