The Best TV Shows on National Geographic

Every National Geographic Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Boasting a rich catalog, National Geographic features more than 20 shows, with broadcasting dates ranging from 2004 to 2024. Explore our list of the top rated shows up to date from October 2025 that includes over 20 unique series. For top-tier entertainment, National Geographic delivered Dog Whisperer and MegaStructures in 2004 and 2004.

  • Photographer
    Photographer (2024)9.0

    Photographer will tell the intensely personal stories of the world’s greatest visual storytellers and artists, from how they found themselves behind a camera to how they dedicate themselves to the endless pursuit of perfecting their craft.

  • 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.

  • Drugs, Inc.
    Drugs, Inc. (2010)8.3

    Drugs: A multi-billion-dollar industry that fuels crime and violence like no other substance on the planet. Turning cartel leaders into billionaires, the illegal drug industry also provides vital income to hundreds of thousands of poor workers across the globe. While some users sacrifice their lives to an addiction they can't escape, others find drugs to be their only saving grace from physical or emotional pain almost impossible to overcome. Where should the lines be drawn in this lucrative industry?

  • 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.

  • To Catch a Smuggler
    To Catch a Smuggler (2015)7.7

    Following the police of Latinoamerica & Europe airports in and their fight against crime.

  • Genius
    Genius (2017)7.6

    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.

  • Brain Games
    Brain Games (2011)7.5

    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.

  • 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.

  • Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted
    Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (2019)7.5

    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.

  • 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.

  • MegaStructures
    MegaStructures (2004)7.3

    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.

  • 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.

  • Drain the Oceans
    Drain the Oceans (2018)7.0

    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.

  • Lost Treasures of Egypt
    Lost Treasures of Egypt (2019)6.9

    An immersive, action-packed and discovery-led series following International teams of Egyptologists as they unearth the world's richest seam of ancient archaeology - Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

  • Running Wild with Bear Grylls
    Running Wild with Bear Grylls (2014)6.8

    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.

  • 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.

  • StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson
    StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson (2015)6.7

    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."

  • Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge
    Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge (2022)6.7

    Bear Grylls is taking it up a level by teaching his celebrity guests essential survival skills that they'll have to master and then prove they can use in a high stress situation.

  • 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.