Difference between revisions of “Discovery Channel”

In case you hadn’t guessed yet, this is their logo.

From its founding in 1985 until about 2000, the Discovery Channel was a TV network with many interesting documentaries and other popular science educational programs. Then, around the turn of the century, something snapped,^{(note 1)} and since then there has been a significant increase in reality shows (which are okay, if you’re into that kind of thing) and programs promoting pseudoscience: mainly cryptozoology, UFOs, pseudohistory, and paranormal nonsense. The best that can be said about these programs is the complete absence of anything resembling alternative medicine (which is probably more for legal reasons than anything else). Discovery still makes and airs real documentaries – and even some programs with a skeptical point of view – but for the layman it’s not always easy to distinguish between the real science programs and the pseudoscientific and pseudoskeptical programs.

There are also a few spin-off channels, most notably Animal Planet (since 1995), Science (since 1996), DLC Time (since 1972, acquired by Discovery in 1991), and some others.

It was founded by John Hendricks, who founded the company in 1982 and launched the Discovery channel in 1985.⁽¹⁾ Discovery, Inc. completed its acquisition of the Scripps channel network in 2018.⁽²⁾ The company is publicly traded and its shares are significantly held by many individuals and companies, including TV personality and businesswoman Oprah Winfrey and John C. Malone, the libertarian boss of Liberty Media Group who also sits on the board of Discovery.⁽³⁾⁽⁴⁾ In May 2021, the company announced a proposed merger with WarnerMedia, part of the Warner Brothers entertainment group.⁽⁵⁾

Programs

This is not a complete list, just the best and worst programs that relate to RationalWiki’s mission. There are many more programs that fall somewhere in between or are unrelated to our mission. The dates are the original run dates, but many programs are reruns (and some, like Cosmosare syndicated from another network).

The list combines programs from Discovery, Animal Planet and Science.^{(note 2)}

Good

Some of the better programs promote science and/or skepticism.

Name	Year	Original content	Description
The Mysterious Universe of Arthur C. Clarke	1995	No	Sequel to the more famous (and better) The Mysterious World of Arthur C. Clark. Looks at real mysteries and also some non-mysteries with a critical mind. It basically shows you how to have an open mind on all subjects but not be a crank by having a mind so open that your brains have fallen out.
Connections	1979, 1994, 1997	No (PBS) for the 1979 series; Yes for the other series	Explores connections between various scientific developments. The original was a BBC program that aired on PBS in 1979, but follow-up programs (Connections2 And Connections3) aired on Discovery and TLC.
Cosmos: a personal journey	1980	No (PBS)	Carl Sagan’s famous documentary in which he mainly explains science and astronomy.
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking	2010	Yes	Explores aliens and time travel from a realistic perspective.
Mostly True Stories?: Urban Legends Revealed	2002-2004	Yes	Mostly good; I did copy a deliberate hoax from Snopes; oops!(6)
MythBusters	2003-2016	Yes	Mostly good, but with a few bad things (but mostly good).
Phil Plait’s Bad Universe	2008-2009	Yes	Phil Plait explains how the universe is trying to kill us.
Through the wormhole	2010-2017	Yes	Hosted by Morgan Freeman, this series explores a variety of topics across biology, cosmology, neurology, astrophysics, as well as futurism, aliens, and transhumanism. They tend not to support pop science, but did have a controversial episode about Race and intelligence.
Wonders of the solar system, Wonders of the Universe, Hacking the Universe 2015(note 3)	2010, 2011, 2015	No	Like Cosmosbut British. With Brian Cox.
When Dinosaurs Roamed America	2001	No/Yes	An American-focused version of the BBC series Walking with dinosaursIt focuses on the natural history of the dinosaurs that once lived in the United States.

Dubious

Not bad enough for that section, but not quite kosher either.

Name	Year	Original content	Description
Amish Mafia	2012-2015	Yes	Poses as a documentary with authentic footage, but its authenticity is widely disputed.
Brainiac: Abuse of Science	2003-2008	No	Maybe a bit of fun (although repetitive), but it’s not science. It’s what you get when a 14 year old tries MythBusters; it’s all about blowing things up (“cool!”) and their “research” completely lacks the scientific method. Calling it “science” only serves to misinform the public about what science really is.
Dark Matters: Twisted But True	2011-2012	Yes	The series deals with certain controversial scientific experiments, such as MKULTRA, Agent Orange and the Tuskegee Experiment, but also places far too much importance on the Philadelphia Experiment, the Lost Cosmonauts and Nazi UFOs.
Deadliest catch	2005-	Yes	Discusses marine biology, but is overshadowed by the usual scripted drama.
Eaten alive	Special 2014	Yes	Advertised as a man being eaten by an anaconda, this never actually happens on the show. Not exactly pseudoscience, but it is a good example of the sensationalism that is all too common on Discovery.
Home-distilled whisky	2011-	Yes	If I were making liquor illegally, the last thing I would do would be appearing on a TV show.
Whale Wars	2008-2015	Yes	Follows the dubious adventures of Paul Watson and his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Offers little critical commentary.

Shit

These shows are mostly crap. Like most crank material, they can be decent (and sometimes even good) sources of popcorn fodder. You just have to be willing to ignore what is being passed off as science on what used to be a channel that knew what science was. was.

Name	Year	Original content	Description
A spooky	2005-	Yes	Ghosts and other paranormal nonsense.
American helicopter	2003-2019	Yes	Fun at first, but quickly became more and more embarrassing as it focused more on small fights. Everyone thought the embarrassing situation was finally over in 2010, but then it changed American Chopper: Seniors vs. Juniors (2010-2012) — which is so embarrassing we won’t even link to it — Orange County Helicopters (2013-2014) and a number of one-off specials.
Animal confrontation	2004	Yes	Like The Deadliest Warriorbut with animals like bear vs. alligator. Fun when you’re drunk with friends because it’s just ridiculously bad. The creators and “experts” take it embarrassingly seriously though.
Finding Bigfoot	2011-	Yes	Well, they haven’t found it yet.
Ghost Laboratory	2009-2011	Yes	Even more ghosts.
Ghost Hunters	1996-1997	Yes	And even more ghosts… Not to be confused with the more famous Ghost Hunters from Syfy.
Lost tires	2008-2010	Yes	All kinds of nonsense of a cryptozoological nature.
The Lost Tomb of Jesus	2007	Yes	Claims to have found the tomb of Jesus. Spoiler: it is not the tomb of Jesus.
Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives	Special 2014	Yes	Claims that an ancient giant shark (Megalodon) still lives.
Mermaids: The Found Body	Special 2013	Yes	Nonsense about water monkeys and mermaids.
NASA’s Unexplained Files	2014-	Yes	Contains some real science, but also a lot of pseudoscience. Suffers badly from balance fallacy.
The Pet Psychologist	2002-2003	Yes	Yes, this is exactly what the title suggests. Sonya Fitzpatrick as a pet psychic.
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science	2003	Yes	Also a book; looks at Sasquatch, Bigfoot, etc. Despite the name, it is largely pseudoscientific and ends with the conclusion that Bigfoot is likely to exist. For example, it uncritically accepts the Patterson movie and not even to consider the possibility that it is a hoax.

See also

External links

Notes

References