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Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film.
Documentary television rose to prominence during the 1940s, spawning from earlier cinematic documentary filmmaking ventures. Early production techniques were highly inefficient compared to modern recording methods. Early television documentaries typically featured historical, wartime, investigative or event-related subject matter. Contemporary television documentaries have extended to include celebrity, sporting, travel, economic and wildlife subjects.
Many television documentaries have created controversy and debate surrounding ethical, cultural, social and political concerns. Controversy has also arisen regarding the current formatting of televised documentary series, as well as the contextualisation of televised documentaries broadcast via contemporary streaming services.
It is of common belief that the widespread televised revolution, particularly within documentary filmmaking, was an inevitable construct. Duncan Ross and Ramsay Short became early pioneers of the televised documentary format, prominently embedding existing filmmaking techniques within this new broadcasting vehicle. Ross, in 1950, noted that documentary media was "perfectly at home in television." At this time, Ross and his contemporaries considered television documentary as an extension beyond traditional documentary filmmaking – particularly in celebrating John Grierson's defining notion that documentary exists as "the creative treatment of actuality." These early television documentarists advocated for the potential influence of television documentary within educational, social and cultural mediums.
Television documentary continued to grow in popularity globally throughout the forthcoming decades. James Chapman notes Royal Family (1969) as "the best indication of the cultural acceptance" of television documentary. Following its screening, Royal Family amassed viewership figures of 40 million people globally.
The current trajectory of television documentary productions is widely suggested to transit towards streaming services such as Netflix and Stan. This trend coincides with the emergence of Sponsored film. For instance, Johnson & Johnson commissioned the production of 5B, depicting several nurses who founded an ward at the San Francisco General Hospital. The documentary aligns with Johnson and Johnson's brand focus on "care" and "touch". Tim Stevenson indicates that brand-sponsored documentaries allow marketers to access widespread audiences through mediums that traditional advertising methods cannot.
Particularly prominent equipment utilised throughout the early period of television documentary production included Éclair 16mm film cameras, in conjunction with Nagra sound recorders. Contemporary attempts to recreate a similar vintage production environment note such methods to be inefficient and often faulty.
The early 1970s sparked revolutionary changes within documentary production techniques. Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller inspired a revolt against the existing traditional methods of information communication to American society. Sony's newly developed Portapak video camera was a significant tool that spurred the Guerrilla television campaign and was recognised for its facilitation of the transfer of video tape recordings from one company's device to another company's respective device.
The next significant development within television documentary production techniques came in the 1980s with the introduction of portable video recorders, also known as camcorders. Most notably, Sony developed the Betacam. This product was renowned for advancing the mobility and flexibility of video cameras, thereby facilitating heightened efficiency during documentary production. Moreover, camcorders allowed for substantial production cost reductions in relation to traditional film camera production techniques, thereby allowing for increased amounts of footage to be captured. This led camcorders to almost entirely replace film cameras by the end of the twentieth century. Glover suggests that this widespread adoption of digital documentary production methods provided novel opportunities for documentaries to "take on any or several of the modes" of documentary as defined by Bill Nichols. This lends particular convenience to the production of the 'slide-show' approach, which shows framed-stills with narrating 'talking heads' – a "constant staple" of television documentary.
So too did documentaries that explored themes of humanity. Civilisation (1969), a thirteen-part documentary series broadcast on BBC Two, portraying the course of Western culture, was famed for its utilisation of then-contemporary, colourised television media.
Television documentaries continue to spotlight wartime, historical, governmental and wildlife subjects. Contemporary genres of television documentaries also include sport, health, economic, social media and celebrity subjects.
The cultural influence of television documentary has frequently been under public scrutiny. Such concerns date to the initial emergence of televised documentary within public spheres. Cultural controversy arose regarding the BBC's 1965 production, The War Game. Despite previous broadcasting approval, the BBC later concluded that the documentary was "too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting," thus, it was not publicly broadcast. Later remarks affirmed that the BBC took such an approach with concern for the potentially negative institutional and cultural influence arising from public televised broadcasting of The War Game.
Contemporary studies have been conducted with specific focus on evaluating the social and political influence of television documentaries. Feldman and Sigelman conducted a study in 1985, analysing the effect of the television docudrama, The Day After, presenting the aftermath that could unfold following a Soviet Union nuclear attack upon the Kansas City area. They concluded that the docudrama held influence upon other newspaper and television stories, particularly regarding discussions of arms limitations with the Soviet Union. The study also found that public concerns heightened regarding the United States' ability to survive following a major nuclear attack. Additionally, The Day After sparked debate about whether or not President Reagan should have increased public defence expenditure. Similarly, another study concluded that several recent social-issue documentaries, including , held "situated knowledge" and thus were influential within the United States in enacting law reform.
The advancement and contemporary formatting of popular television documentary productions has also drawn controversy in recent years. In 2014, famed documentary narrator, David Attenborough, expressed an opinion in which he lamented the contemporary state of television documentaries. He believed modern audiences to lack an interest in lengthy documentary series, rather favouring miniseries composed of two or three episodes. He suggested that these miniseries do not "deal with something properly." Instead, Attenborough longed for a "stronger commitment and belief" in one subject matter, facilitating extended documentary series production once more.
The emergence of streaming services into the cultural broadcasting mainstream throughout the 2010s in particular, has also sparked contemporary controversy surrounding the format and classification of televised documentaries. Subsequently, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), a leading professional honorary organisation that champions the advancement of the television industry in the United States, has recognised documentaries published by streaming services as eligible for consideration for an Emmy Award. Televised media, broadcast via streaming services, has grown so much in popularity such that Netflix-produced television shows received a record 160 nominations in the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2020. This achievement was followed by streaming service rival HBO, who received 107 nominations in 2020. Notably, the 2020 grand prize for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series was won by ESPN's The Last Dance (2020) which was streamed on Netflix globally.
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