Discovery Channel



From its inception in 1985 to 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 and since then there's been a significant increase in reality shows (which are okay, if you're into that) and programs promoting pseudoscience: mostly cryptozoology, UFOs, pseudohistory, and paranormal nonsense. The best that can be said about those programs is the complete absence of anything even closely resembling alternative medicine (which is probably for legal reasons, more than anything else). Discovery still makes and airs real documentaries—and even some programs with a skeptical point of view—but for the layperson it's not always easy to distinguish between the real science programs and the pseudoscientific and pseudosceptical programs.

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

It was founded by John Hendricks who started the company in 1982 and launched the Discovery channel in 1985. Discovery, Inc completed a purchase of the Scripps network of channels in 2018. The company is publicly traded with significant shareholdings held by many individuals and companies including TV personality and businessperson and, the libertarian boss of the Liberty media group who is also on Discovery's board. In May 2021, it announced a planned merger with WarnerMedia, part of the Warner Brothers entertainment group.

Programs
This is not a comprehensive list, just the best and worst of programs that relate to RationalWiki's mission. There are many more programs that either sit somewhere in between or aren't related to our mission. The dates are the original run dates, but many programs are re-run (and some, like Cosmos, are syndicated from another network).

The list combined programs from Discovery, Animal Planet, and Science.

Good
Some of the better programs promoting science and/or skepticism.

Dubious
Not quite crap enough for that section, but not entirely kosher either.

Crap
These programs 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's being sold as science on what used to be a channel that knew what science was.