The Best TV Shows on National Geographic

Every National Geographic Show Ranked From Best To Worst

A broadcaster of distinction, National Geographic has aired more than 20 shows between 1985 and 2023. Dive into our updated selection of National Geographic’s finest, featuring more than 20 series as of September 2026. For top-tier entertainment, National Geographic delivered National Geographic Explorer and Taboo in 1985 and 2002.

  • 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?

  • Taboo
    Taboo (2002)8.0

    Taboo is a documentary television series that premiered in 2002 on the National Geographic Channel. The program is an educational look into "taboo" rituals and traditions practiced in some societies, yet forbidden and illegal in others. Each hour long episode details a specific topic, such as marriage or initiation rituals, and explores how such topics are viewed throughout the world. Taboo generally focuses on the most misunderstood, despised, or disagreed-upon activities, jobs, and roles.

  • A Small Light
    A Small Light (2023)8.0

    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.

  • Superscience
    Superscience (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.

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

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

  • Brain Games
    Brain Games (2011)7.6

    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.

  • MegaStructures
    MegaStructures (2004)7.5

    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.

  • Genius
    Genius (2017)7.5

    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.

  • Life Below Zero
    Life Below Zero (2013)7.3

    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.

  • Seconds from Disaster
    Seconds from Disaster (2005)7.2

    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.

  • Hitler's Last Stand
    Hitler's Last Stand (2018)7.2

    Nazi diehard and fanatics fight to the last man to stop Allied forces from freeing Europe, keeping an unrelenting grip on the naval bases, citadels and fortresses of occupied Europe.

  • Port Protection Alaska
    Port Protection Alaska (2015)7.1

    Port Protection is home to the few who have left behind normal society and chosen a different life in a remote Alaskan community, where survival of the individuals and community cannot sustain without the other. The stakes are high. The land is rugged and unforgiving and the seas which surround Port Protection are cold and merciless. With risk comes a reward more profound than mere survival: a world of beauty and freedom with the security of community and without the constraints of bureaucracy. In Port Protection there are no clear roads to survival, inhabitants must carve one themselves.

  • Drain the Oceans
    Drain the Oceans (2018)7.1

    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.

  • 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.

  • Dog Whisperer
    Dog Whisperer (2004)6.8

    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.

  • 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.

  • Science of Stupid
    Science of Stupid (2014)6.2

    This show combines cold hard science with some of the craziest, most spectacular and painful user generated clips ever recorded. Richard Hammond introduces all manner of mishaps featuring brave, if misguided individuals from around the world and then explains the science behind their failure and humiliation with the use of bespoke animations and super slo-mo cinematography. Every episode features between 50 and 60 clips of misadventure – ordinary folk making extraordinary mistakes. Each week watch stunts involving weightlifting, shooting guns or jumping over cars, that have gone wrong, paused, re-wound, and re-played and analysed to determine exactly what went wrong and why. Richard explains the physics, chemistry and biology at play, then presents forensic details to explain the stupidity that resulted in failure. He’ll look at everything including weight, volume, momentum, combustion and even how the brain operates. This is misadventure explained. This is the Science of Stupid.

  • National Geographic Explorer
    National Geographic Explorer (1985)6.0

    National Geographic's Explorer gives viewers special access to the issues of the day.

  • Storm Rising
    Storm Rising (2021)5.7

    A landmark series that packs an entire year's worth of the world most epic storms into one season. From tornadoes in March in the US to mudslides in December in Central America, we'll embed with storm chaser Reed Timmer and his team as he heads straight into Mother Nature's fury unraveling the world's most dangerous weather events as they are happening.