Documentary | Fantasy | Game Shows | Horror | Period Dramas | Police Procedural | Wrestling | Reality Shows | Sci-Fi | Sitcoms | Other Soaps | Superheroes | Variety Shows
- Initiators / Followers
- Capsule Pitch Description: Description
- Implementation: Implementation
- Real People (1979) / That's Incredible! (1980)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Shows featuring the weird and wacky side of humanity. Think a late-1970s/early 1980s version of America's Funniest Home Videos meets what you would normally find on Ripley's Believe It or Not!
- Implementation: NBC's Real People debuted in 1979 and was a smash hit. ABC's Thats Incredible came out next year and looked eerily similar. The similarity between these two shows was even parodied in a MAD Magazine satire titled "That's Real Incredible, People!", and by a SNL sketch called Real Incredible People. NBC's original was primarily devoted to humorous real-world absurdity, a la Dave Barry's columns; ABC's knockoff, attempting more of a Ripley's Believe It or Not! flavor, quickly became a bastion of pseudoscience.
- Unsolved Mysteries (1987) / Rescue 911 (1989)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Shows featuring recreations of real life crime scenarios peppered with talking head interviews, hosted and narrated by guys who were on cop shows and in the Airplane! movies.
- Implementation: NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, hosted by Robert Stack, debuted in 1987; CBS's Rescue 911, hosted by William Shatner, debuted two years later. Though they both featured recreations of real life events, Mysteries' stories were scarier and more ominous, included paranormal storiesnote , and was filmed on film stock; whereas Rescue usually featured happy endings, non-paranormal stories, and was filmed on videotape.
- E True Hollywood Story (1996) / Behind the Music (1997, Original Run)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Weekly documentaries on the ups and downs of past and present celebrities from the entertainment world.
- Implementation: Both debuted in the 1996-1997 period, THS covered a wider range of celebrities than BTM (which focused on the music industry), as well leaning more towards the sensationalistic (The first regular episode of THS focused on the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer of the sitcom My Sister Sam and porn stars and reality show stars are often highlighted. Also, "THS" sometimes focuses on the casts of TV shows and movies rather than just one celebritynote ).
- Top Gear (2002) / Fifth Gear (2002)
- Capsule Pitch Description: British motoring programme.
- Implementation: Both started in 2002 as attempts to relaunch The BBC’s original Top Gear.note Channel 5 planned to acquire the name and relaunch the programme as was, but The BBC wouldn’t sell. In the end, Fifth Gear employed a similar title, along with the magazine format and several of the original show’s presenters. Half a year later, the BBC relaunched Top Gear with a revamped "automotive fun and games with the lads" format, and much slicker production.
- Survivorman (2004) / Man vs. Wild (2006)
- Capsule Pitch Description: A host demonstrates survival techniques by stranding himself in varying wildernesses.
- Implementation: Both are shown on the Discovery Channel. The most notable difference is that Wild tends to have many more "stunt" oriented segments, and takes many more unnecessary risks than Survivorman does (to show it can be done if necessary). Both avoid direct competition with each other by having one air new episodes while the other is still filming. Man also has a camera and safety crew on hand, and is occasionally staged, while Survivorman shoots the footage himself.
- The First 48 (2004) / The Shift (2008)
- Capsule Pitch Description: True Crime shows merging COPS and Homicide: Life on the Street
- Implementation: The First 48 covers two cases from different cities like Miami, Dallas, and Memphis. The Squad follows the Indianapolis PD's Homicide squad exclusively, going more in depth with the cases.
- Man vs. Wild (2006) / Wild Recon (2010)
- Capsule Pitch Description: See above.
- Implementation: For once, Wild Recon is actually on a different network this time — specifically, Animal Planet, for some reason. Wild Recon is also quite a bit closer to Man vs. Wild than Survivorman was, especially after Man vs. Wild's slight Retool.
- Human Weapon (2007, History Channel) / Fight Quest (2007, Travel Channel)
- Capsule Pitch Description: A pair of American professional fighters travel the world to observe and study various combat styles. The episode ends with one of the duo facing off against a master of that episode's spotlight fighting style.
- Implementation: Quest would have its duo split up and train with separate groups of practitioners and focused equally on the culture surrounding the art as the art itself. Weapon focused more on the combat style itself and the science behind the techniques.
- Life After People (2008) / Aftermath: Population Zero (2008)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Documentaries that answer the question, "How would the Earth survive if ever the day comes that the human race goes extinct?"
- Implementation: Just about the only thing preventing outright intellectual infringement is the fact that both shows are documentaries based on a general concept that's not even original to either show (cashing in on the "what would happen if humans vanish?" craze due to the book "The World Without Us" the previous year) though Aftermath features humans disappearing Rapture-style while Life After People goes out of its way to stay mum on the subject
- Unsung (2008, TV One) / Behind the Music (2009, VH1)
- Capsule Pitch Description: In-depth looks at the early lives and careers of famous musical acts, featuring commentary from friends, family and co-workers wherever possible.
- Implementation: The revived BTM skews more towards the TMZ crowd in its subjects (Jennifer Lopez, Missy Elliott), as opposed to the previous series where the focus was mostly on legendary music acts. Unsung focuses on the Contemporary R&B/Soul and Hip-Hop worlds, as well as skewing far more obscure than BTM (TV One being geared for a far older audience)
- I Survived... (2009, Bio) / I'm Alive (2009, Animal Planet)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Ordinary people relate their tales of near-death
- Implementation: Survived focuses on accidents and surviving murder attempts. Alive deals with animal atacks.
- Surviving Disaster (2009, Spike) / Worst Case Scenario (2010, Discovery)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Ex-special forces teaches the audience how to survive unexpected disasters in an urban environment.
- Implementation: SD cast ex-Navy Seal Cade Courtley to do Man vs. Wild in an urban environment. WCS brought back Man vs. Wild host Bear Grylls to do SD on a lower scale (e.g. SD premieres with a plane hijacking modeled on 9/11, WCS with a burning vehicle).
- Hoarders (2009, A&E) / Hoarding: Buried Alive (2010, TLC)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Documentary series about compulsive hoarders
- Implementation: Hoarders chronicles the effort to professionally clean an entire home and to provide mental health services for the homeowners. Hoarding focuses less on the home and more on the disorder itself. Cleaning services are provided by the subject's friends and family.
- Dual Survival (2010) / Man Woman Wild (2010) & Naked and Afraid (2013)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Man vs. Wild meets The Odd Couplenote
- Implementation: Dual involves two survival experts of vastly different backgrounds and philosophies (One is an ex-military hunter, the other is a hardcore naturalist). Man Woman involves an ex-military survival expert and his wife, an actress and field reporter. Naked, finally, drops one male and one female survivalists, that are stranger to each other, in a tropical location and watches them struggle to survive for 21 days. In their birth suits.
- Dinosaur Revolution (aka Reign of the Dinosaurs in Europe, 2011) / Planet Dinosaur (2011)
- Capsule Pitch Description: SFX-heavy dinosaur documentaries
- Implementation: Released in 2011 around the summer to autumn transition, the first is a story and character driven but half finished animated series-turned-docu by the Discovery Channel, the second a serious and science-heavy BBC show. DR focused a lot on gags, crass Dark Humor, slightly anthropomorphized animals and shout outs to media like Jurassic Park or Looney Tunes due to its original concept as a wacky but scientifically influenced entertainment program. It also featured some outlandish animal reconstructions and scenarios that emphasized plot, shock value and jokes over science. PD was a genuine documentary with more "conservative" animal depictions, focusing overwhelmingly on science and evidence rather than stories, though it too veered into sensationalism and loosely grounded speculation at times, and showcased less variety in animals and behavior. DR had real life backdrops mixed with CGI animals, while PD was all-digital. In light of scientific advancements, Dinosaur Revolution held up better despite its cartoonish nature.
- Homicide Hunter (2011-) / I Am Homicide (2016-)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Both are Investigation Discovery series featuring a highly successful retired homicide detective narrating the stories of the many crimes he solved in his career. The formats are identical—the detective speaks directly to the camera as he recalls his cases and is played by younger actor in flashbacks. The only differences are the race of the detective (Caucasian vs. African-American, respectively), the locale (Colorado vs. North Carolina, respectively), and the amount of cases (nearly 400 as opposed to nearly 700, respectively). With their very similar titles, it's easy to even mistake one for the other when talking about either.
- Implementation: Homicide Hunter debuted in 2011, I Am Homicide in 2016. It's likely that the success of the first show spurred the creation of the second.
- The Vow (2020) / Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult
- Capsule Pitch Description: Docuseries detailing the inner workings of the infamous NXIVM cult released around the time of founder Keith Raniere's sentencing. The shows illustrate how Raniere manipulated NXIVM cultists and how the ex-members are coping with the trauma of the experience. Both center at least in part around the effort to rescue India Oxenberg from the cult, with her mother Catherine featuring in The Vow and India herself appearing in Seduced.
- Implementation: The Vow is a nine-episode HBO series that is largely presented from the point of view of several former members, while Seduced is a four-episode Starz miniseries that focuses more intently on Oxenberg and features a number of outside experts.note
- Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (2021) / Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 (2022)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Documentaries on the clusterfrak of a music festival that culminated in a Powder Keg Crowd starting a riot, and killed the prospect of any further Woodstock events.
- Implementation: Peace, Love, and Rage is an HBO feature length movie, Trainwreck is a Netflix miniseries. Both have some shared interviewees, including promoter Michael Lang and performers Jewel and Jonathan Davis.
- Prehistoric Planet (2022/2023) / Life on Our Planet (2023)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Highly photorealistic Speculative Documentaries featuring prehistoric life, released as streaming exclusives: Apple TV+ for the former, Netflix for the latter. Both series were released within a year of one another, breaking the extreme dry spell in Walking with…-style speculative documentaries that had lasted since the early 2010s. Both series feature the voice talents of a famous elderly celebrity who is well-known for their previous narrative work with nature documentaries, and have a major Hollywood visionary involved in their production.
- Implementation: Prehistoric Planet focuses on the goings-on around the world at one particular time in the Mesozoic, whereas Life On Our Planet focuses on geologic time as a whole from the Precambrian to the present. Prehistoric Planet is similar to a traditional Walking With... documentary in terms of only featuring prehistoric life with no breaks, although it follows the Planet Earth format of theming each episode around a specific ecosystem and having episodes made up of different vignettes. Life On Our Planet instead is divided up between CGI footage of prehistoric animals and live-action footage of modern animals, with a hefty focus on geological changes too.
