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Documentary · 2000s

The 2000s account for 62 of the 190 documentary shows here, and 65 opening sequences.

No decade here has more documentary openings than this one.

ABC carries the most, with six.

62 shows65 sequences

Still from the opening titles of Dancing with the Stars1 sequence

Dancing with the Stars

2005–ABCDocumentary

The American Strictly, which runs two seasons a year and rebuilds its titles for most of them.

  • Season 10
Still from the opening titles of Survivor2 sequences

Survivor

2000–CBSDocumentary

The competition format that rebuilt American primetime, and rebuilds its titles for every location.

  • Season 1
  • Season 50
Still from the opening titles of Hell's Kitchen1 sequence

Hell's Kitchen

2005–FoxDocumentary

Flames, a skull made of a chef's hat, and Gordon Ramsay shouting — the titles tell you exactly what the hour is.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of RuPaul's Drag Race1 sequence

RuPaul's Drag Race

2009–Logo / VH1 / MTVDocumentary

Eighteen seconds that get remade every season — new logo treatment, new track, new set of queens.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of American Idol1 sequence

American Idol

2002–Fox / ABCDocumentary

The talent format that ran American primetime for a decade, opening on a spotlight and a logo that spins.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Top Gear2 sequences

Top Gear

2002–BBC TwoDocumentary

Twenty-one seconds of engine noise and a rock riff — a motoring programme that opens like a trailer for itself.

  • Season 1
  • Season 23
Still from the opening titles of Project Runway1 sequence

Project Runway

2004–Bravo / LifetimeDocumentary

Designers given a day and a budget, and Heidi Klum telling one of them they are out.

  • Seasons 1–4
Still from the opening titles of MythBusters1 sequence

MythBusters

2003–2018Discovery ChannelDocumentary

Two special-effects builders testing folklore with explosives, introduced by a montage of the explosives.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Biggest Loser1 sequence

The Biggest Loser

2004–2020NBCDocumentary

A weight-loss competition whose titles were rebuilt around whichever pairing the season had chosen.

  • Season 5
Still from the opening titles of Pawn Stars1 sequence

Pawn Stars

2009–HistoryDocumentary

A Las Vegas pawn shop, three generations of one family, and a guy they call an expert once an episode.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jersey Shore1 sequence

Jersey Shore

2009–2012MTVDocumentary

Eight housemates in Seaside Heights, and the most watched series MTV has ever had.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Apprentice1 sequence

The Apprentice

2004–NBCDocumentary

Manhattan from a helicopter over the O'Jays' For the Love of Money, which is the whole thesis of the programme in one sample.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Deadliest Catch1 sequence

Deadliest Catch

2005–Discovery ChannelDocumentary

Bering Sea crab boats, opening on the sea doing the thing that makes the programme's title literal.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Top Chef1 sequence

Top Chef

2006–BravoDocumentary

Knives on a board and a countdown, in the cooking competition that took itself seriously first.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Keeping Up with the Kardashians1 sequence

Keeping Up with the Kardashians

2007–2021E!Documentary

Fourteen years of a family photograph rebuilt every season, and ten seconds to do it in.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Hills1 sequence

The Hills

2006–2010MTVDocumentary

The Laguna Beach spin-off that moved to Los Angeles, and the show that made the word scripted an argument.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The X Factor1 sequence

The X Factor

2004–2018ITVDocumentary

Simon Cowell's format after Pop Idol, opening on a spotlight sweep and a fanfare rebuilt every few series.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Fear Factor1 sequence

Fear Factor

2001–2012NBCDocumentary

The Dutch format that asked contestants to eat things, opening on a montage of them regretting it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Bachelor1 sequence

The Bachelor

2002–ABCDocumentary

The format that turned courtship into an elimination bracket, and gave the rose its own verb.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Osbournes1 sequence

The Osbournes

2002–2005MTVDocumentary

Ozzy Osbourne singing Crazy Train as a lounge number over a title card done in gold leaf, which is the joke the whole series runs on.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Big Brother (UK)2 sequences

Big Brother (UK)

2000–Channel 4 / ITVDocumentary

The eye, and a theme built out of the sound of the house — the format that made surveillance into a light entertainment brand.

  • Season 1
  • Season 8
Still from the opening titles of Laguna Beach1 sequence

Laguna Beach

2004–2006MTVDocumentary

Real teenagers filmed like a drama, and the format most of MTV's next decade was built on.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Who Do You Think You Are?1 sequence

Who Do You Think You Are?

2004–BBC OneDocumentary

One celebrity's ancestry per episode, opening on photographs that dissolve into each other backwards.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations1 sequence

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

2005–2012Travel ChannelDocumentary

The travel programme that treated a meal as reporting, opening on a passport stamp and a guitar line.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Long Way Round1 sequence

Long Way Round

2004Sky OneDocumentary

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman riding from London to New York the long way, and the map that opens each leg.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Ice Road Truckers1 sequence

Ice Road Truckers

2007–2017HistoryDocumentary

Haulage across frozen lakes in the Northwest Territories, opening on the ice doing what the ice does.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition1 sequence

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

2003–2020ABCDocumentary

A family's house rebuilt in a week, opening on the bus that is about to move.

  • Season 3
Still from the opening titles of Planet Earth1 sequence

Planet Earth

2006BBC OneDocumentary

George Fenton's orchestral swell over the planet from orbit — twenty-nine seconds that set the house style for every natural history series since.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dragons' Den1 sequence

Dragons' Den

2005–BBC TwoDocumentary

The Japanese format Britain took and exported again, opening on money stacked in front of five people who are not going to give you any.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Blue Planet1 sequence

The Blue Planet

2001BBC OneDocumentary

The first of the BBC's ocean series, and the template its sequel and the Planet Earth films all inherited.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Supernanny1 sequence

Supernanny

2004–Channel 4Documentary

Jo Frost arriving by taxi to reorganise a household, every week, for twenty years.

  • Season 4
Still from the opening titles of Wife Swap1 sequence

Wife Swap

2003–2009Channel 4Documentary

Two households exchanged for a fortnight, in ten seconds of titles that give away the whole premise.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Departures1 sequence

Departures

2008–2012OLN (Canada)Documentary

Two friends travelling for a year with a cameraman, shot with more care than the format usually gets.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of 19 Kids and Counting1 sequence

19 Kids and Counting

2008–2015TLCDocumentary

An Arkansas family of twenty-one, and the programme TLC built a decade of its schedule around.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Amazing Race1 sequence

The Amazing Race

2001–CBSDocumentary

A race around the world, opening on a map and a countdown that has won ten Emmys for its programme.

  • Season 10
Still from the opening titles of America's Next Top Model1 sequence

America's Next Top Model

2003–2018UPN / The CWDocumentary

The format that ran for twenty-four cycles and rebuilt its titles for most of them.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Ancient Aliens1 sequence

Ancient Aliens

2009–HistoryDocumentary

A documentary series whose answer to every question it raises is the same one.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Australian Survivor1 sequence

Australian Survivor

2002–Network TenDocumentary

The format remade locally three separate times before it finally stuck.

  • Season 2
Still from the opening titles of Bad Girls Club1 sequence

Bad Girls Club

2006–2017OxygenDocumentary

Seven women in a house chosen for how badly they were expected to get on.

  • Season 2
Still from the opening titles of BattleBots1 sequence

BattleBots

2000–2002Comedy CentralDocumentary

Home-built robots destroying each other inside a perspex box, and the reason a good many engineers exist.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Bondi Rescue1 sequence

Bondi Rescue

2006–Network TenDocumentary

The lifeguards at Bondi Beach, filmed across a summer at a time.

  • Season 8
Still from the opening titles of Britain's Got Talent1 sequence

Britain's Got Talent

2007–ITVDocumentary

The variety format that exported itself to seventy countries, and the theme it kept for its first four series.

  • Seasons 1–4
Still from the opening titles of The Crocodile Hunter Diaries1 sequence

The Crocodile Hunter Diaries

2002–2006Animal PlanetDocumentary

The spin-off following the zoo's staff between expeditions, rather than Irwin in the field.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dancing on Ice1 sequence

Dancing on Ice

2006–ITVDocumentary

Celebrities skating in pairs, judged by Torvill and Dean, who had won the thing for real.

  • Season 7
Still from the opening titles of Deadly Women1 sequence

Deadly Women

2005–2021Discovery Channel / Investigation DiscoveryDocumentary

Murders committed by women, reconstructed by actors and narrated flat, across fourteen seasons of the Investigation Discovery house style.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dog the Bounty Hunter1 sequence

Dog the Bounty Hunter

2004–2012A&EDocumentary

A Hawaii bail bondsman and his family, in the series that made A&E a reality network.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Ghost Adventures1 sequence

Ghost Adventures

2008–Travel ChannelDocumentary

Three men locking themselves overnight inside buildings they believe are haunted.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of How It's Made1 sequence

How It's Made

2001–Discovery ChannelDocumentary

Manufacturing filmed without a presenter, a plot or a raised voice, for over thirty seasons.

  • Season 15
Still from the opening titles of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!1 sequence

I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

2002–ITVDocumentary

Celebrities in an Australian jungle, and one of the few formats whose titles are remade from scratch every series.

  • Season 24
Still from the opening titles of Iron Chef America1 sequence

Iron Chef America

2005–2018Food NetworkDocumentary

The Fuji format remade in a Food Network kitchen, with the man in the gold cape replaced by a chairman.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Kitchen Nightmares1 sequence

Kitchen Nightmares

2007–FoxDocumentary

The American Ramsay format, louder than the Channel 4 original it was remade from.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Man v. Food1 sequence

Man v. Food

2008–2022Travel Channel / Cooking ChannelDocumentary

A presenter attempting restaurant eating challenges built to be impossible, and losing more often than not.

  • Season 10
Still from the opening titles of MasterChef Australia1 sequence

MasterChef Australia

2009–Network TenDocumentary

The British format remade at far greater length, and for several years the most watched thing on Australian television.

  • Season 2
Still from the opening titles of The Mole1 sequence

The Mole

2001–2008ABCDocumentary

Contestants building a prize fund while one of them sabotages it, and nobody knows which.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Only Connect1 sequence

Only Connect

2008–BBC Four / BBC TwoDocumentary

A quiz whose easiest round asks what four things have in common, and whose hardest does not admit there is a connection at all.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of A Place in the Sun1 sequence

A Place in the Sun

2000–Channel 4Documentary

British buyers shown three houses abroad, running daily for a quarter of a century.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of River Monsters1 sequence

River Monsters

2009–2017Animal PlanetDocumentary

A biologist catching freshwater fish large enough to account for the local legends about them.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Shark Tank1 sequence

Shark Tank

2009–ABCDocumentary

The American Dragons' Den, with the same format's Japanese parent behind both.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of So You Think You Can Dance1 sequence

So You Think You Can Dance

2005–2024FoxDocumentary

The dance contest built to the Idol template by Idol's own producer, and one of the few competition formats to run its production credits over the performance rather than after it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Strictly Come Dancing1 sequence

Strictly Come Dancing

2004–BBC OneDocumentary

The BBC's ballroom format, sold to fifty-odd countries as Dancing with the Stars and kept at home under its own name.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Temptation Island1 sequence

Temptation Island

2001–2003FoxDocumentary

Unmarried couples separated onto an island of singles, and the format that drew the first serious wave of complaints about American reality television.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Wheeler Dealers1 sequence

Wheeler Dealers

2003–2023Discovery Real Time / Discovery ChannelDocumentary

One man buys a car badly, the other repairs it, and the profit is announced at the end whether there is any or not.

  • Season 1