Ancient Aliens is an American television series that premiered on April 20, 2010 on the History channel. Produced by Prometheus Entertainment

Prometheus Entertainment

Prometheus Entertainment is an American production company, created by Kevin Burns in 1999, specializing in documentary, reality, and non-fiction television programming and specials.-Series:* Ancient Aliens, 2010* Bridget's Sexiest Beaches...

, the program presents theories of ancient astronauts

Ancient astronauts

Some writers have proposed that intelligent extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth in antiquity or prehistory and made contact with humans. Such visitors are called ancient astronauts or ancient aliens. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of human cultures,...

 and proposes that historical texts, archaeology and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

 contact. The show has been criticized for presenting disputed pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

.

The series' de facto pilot was a TV special of the same name that aired on March 8, 2009. The second season began on October 28, 2010, and the third season began airing July 28, 2011.

Production

The executive producer of Ancient Aliens is Kevin Burns

Kevin Burns

Kevin Burns is an American television and film producer, director, and screenwriter. His work can be seen on A&E, National Geographic Channel, E!, Animal Planet, AMC, Bravo, Travel Channel, Lifetime, and The History Channel.-Early life:...

, who also directed and wrote the pilot episode. Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is a Swiss born Greek writer, television presenter, and proponent of the idea that ancient astronauts interacted with ancient humans...

 serves as consulting producer and appeared on screen in the pilot. Erich von Däniken

Erich von Däniken

Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...

 appeared in the pilot episode, and UFO researcher C. Scott Littleton

C. Scott Littleton

Covington Scott Littleton was an American anthropologist and academic.Born in Los Angeles, he served in the Army during the Korean War. Littleton obtained his B.A. , M.A. , and Ph.D...

 served as an expert consultant for the show until his death in 2010.

Radio talk show host George Noory

George Noory

George Ralph Noory is a Lebanese-American radio talk show host.As of 2010, he is the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show Coast to Coast AM. He is heard across the United States and Canada on many AM and FM stations as well as on XM Satellite Radio. His show is one of the most listened...

 spoke in five episodes, including the pilot. Reverend Barry Downing

Barry Downing

Barry Downing born 1938 in Syracuse, New York is a reverend and a Presbyterian minister. He is most well known for his book The Bible and Flying Saucers in 1968, which claims UFO phenomena are responsible for many of the events in the Bible...

, known for describing angels in the Bible as ancient astronauts, offered his viewpoints in the pilot episode. Psychologist Jonathan Young, who brings a mythological perspective, appears on screen in every episode but the first pilot. Alternative History

Alternative history

Alternative history may refer to a number of subjects relating to history, the chronology and study of the past. It may mean:* Alternate history, a subgenre of speculative fiction dealing with divergences from the world's actual history...

 author David Hatcher Childress

David Hatcher Childress

David Hatcher Childress is an American author and publisher of books on topics on alternative history and historical revisionism. His works cover such subjects as pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, Atlantis, Lemuria, Ancient Astronauts, UFOs, Nikola Tesla, the Knights Templar, lost cities and...

, speaks frequently in most episodes.

Reception

The program had 1.676 million viewers in late October 2010, 2.034M in mid-December (for the "Unexplained Structures" episode) and in late January 2011 it had 1.309M viewers.

Some reviewers have characterized the show as "far-fetched", "hugely speculative", and "...expound[ing] wildly on theories suggesting that astronauts wandered the Earth freely in ancient time." Many of the ideas presented in the show are not accepted by the scientific community, and have been criticized as pseudoscience and pseudohistory

Pseudohistory

Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to a type of historical revisionism, often involving sensational claims whose acceptance would require rewriting a significant amount of commonly accepted history, and based on methods that depart from standard historiographical conventions.Cryptohistory...

. History professor Ronald H. Fritze observed that pseudoscience as offered by von Däniken and the Ancient Aliens program has a periodic popularity in America: "In a pop culture with a short memory and a voracious appetite, aliens and pyramids and lost civilizations are recycled like fashions."

South Park

South Park

South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

parodied the show in an episode entitled "A History Channel Thanksgiving

A History Channel Thanksgiving

"A History Channel Thanksgiving" is the thirteenth episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 222nd episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 9, 2011...

." Reviewer Ramsey Isler commented "The aim is placed squarely on Ancient Aliens specifically," and described the animation as "a perfect satire of all the ridiculousness of this series, including the black and white art with aliens photoshopped in, and interviews with people of dubious authority."

Pilot (2009)

Episode	Title	Original Airdate

Season one (2010)

Episode	Title	Original airdate

Season two (2010)

Episode	Title	Original Airdate

Season three (2011)

Note: Season three is currently airing and the information below is subject to change.

Episode	Title	Original airdate