American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States that presents documentaries about key events and people in U.S. history. The show has several awards, including 30 Emmy Awards.

The series premiered on October 4, 1988 and was originally titled The American Experience. The show has had a presence on the internet since 1995, and more than 100 American Experience programs are accompanied by their own internet websites that provide background information on the subjects covered as well as teachers' guides and educational companion materials. American Experience is produced primarily by WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as WNET (Channel 13) in New York City.

Some of the American Experience programs were produced prior to the formal creation of the series. Vietnam: A Television History was one of them, airing originally in 1983 after six years in development. Also, in 2006, American Experience rebroadcast Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

In July 2025, WGBH announced that American Experience would end new production and switch exclusively to rereleasing past episodes after airing an abbreviated 37th season that fall and that the series' staff was being laid off. WGBH CEO Susan Goldberg attributed the decision to "severe cuts in federal funding for public media." Work had been halted in May on six films, and no new documentaries will be produced until further notice since this is the "most expensive show funded by PBS" on a per hour basis.

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

American Experience has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children.