Watch 2023’s 10 Most-Streamed New FRONTLINE Documentaries
2023 has been another year of tumult in the U.S. and across the globe.
FRONTLINE has kept pace, releasing documentary after documentary asking tough questions and holding power to account both at home and abroad.
As the year draws to a close, we’ve collected the 10 new-in-2023 FRONTLINE documentaries that, as of press time, had earned the most streams this year on all PBS platforms (browser video players and the PBS App) and our YouTube channel combined.
All 10 of this year’s most-streamed documentaries are available to watch on demand below, as well as on the PBS App and on our YouTube channel.
Plus: Scroll down for some additional bonus viewing — the three most-streamed archival documentaries released on our YouTube channel this year.
10. The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball
With reporter Ben Reiter, this documentary traces the making of one of the best teams and worst scandals in modern Major League Baseball history, the limited accountability that followed, and how the Houston Astros’ approach to baseball changed the sport.
More to explore: Hear from a former Astros staffer about the inner workings of the 2017 sign-stealing scheme, and read about sign stealing’s long history in baseball and what made the Astros’ case different.
9. 20 Days in Mariupol
Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues risk their lives to document Russia’s siege of Mariupol in this award-winning documentary from FRONTLINE and The Associated Press. The film follows Chernov and his colleagues, the last international journalists reporting from the Ukrainian city as Russian troops attack, as they document the human toll of the assault on Mariupol and capture some of the most defining images of the war, including dying children, mass graves and the bombing of a maternity hospital.
More to explore: Read a conversation with Chernov about what’s left of Mariupol after the Russian invasion, and listen to a podcast about documenting the siege of the city.
8. America’s Dangerous Trucks
Deadly traffic accidents involving large trucks have surged over the past decade. With ProPublica, this documentary investigates one gruesome kind of truck accident — underride crashes — and why they keep happening.
More to explore: Read about what an underride crash is and why it’s so dangerous, explore in-depth joint reporting on how, for decades, federal safety regulators failed to take simple steps to limit the hazards of underride crashes, and listen to a conversation with correspondent A.C. Thompson.
7. Putin’s Crisis
It was described as the most serious threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership in years: the armed rebellion on June 23, led by the Russian mercenary Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Released prior to Prigozhin’s death on Aug. 23, this documentary examined the long relationship between the Russian president and Prigozhin; discontent around Putin’s troubled war on Ukraine; and how Putin had dealt with challenges to his authority in the past.
More to explore: Read about how Prigozhin posed a threat to Putin’s authority, and explore what the Wagner Group mutiny revealed about Putin’s grip on power.
6. Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus (Part 1)
Watch a revealing investigation of the powerful spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. Part of the Pegasus Project, this documentary is the first installment of a two-part series examining how the hacking tool was used on journalists, activists, the wife and fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and others. The documentary series was made in partnership with Forbidden Films, the documentary arm of the journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories.
More to explore: Watch Part 2 of the documentary series, and read a Q&A with members of the investigative team about their reporting process, challenges they faced and measures they took to protect themselves from the very spyware they were investigating.
5. Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover
Amid an ongoing debate about free speech, hate speech and the spread of lies online, this documentary traces Elon Musk’s journey from being one of Twitter’s most provocative users to its owner — and probes the profound impact Musk’s decisions at the social media platform, now called X, have had on politics, speech and culture.
More to explore: Watch as a former Twitter insider describes Musk’s mixed signals on free speech.
4. Once Upon a Time in Iraq: Fallujah
Some 20 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, this documentary explores the enduring story of the battle of Fallujah, told by some of the people who lived through it: U.S. Marines, journalists and ordinary Iraqis.
More to explore: Read a Q&A with director James Bluemel about the significance of the battle of Fallujah, the process of asking people to relive difficult memories and the complicated relationship between soldiers and the press during wartime.
3. Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power & the Supreme Court
Amid reports of the Supreme Court justice accepting luxury trips and gifts and his wife supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, this documentary examined how race, power and controversy collided in the rise of Clarence and Ginni Thomas, and how the couple has reshaped American law and politics. Made with support from Preserving Democracy, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group, the film is television’s first major examination of the Thomases since the 2020 election.
More to explore: Read about why Clarence Thomas left the Black Power movement behind, and about his long battle against affirmative action — which reached a culmination this year in a consequential June Supreme Court ruling.
2. Putin and the Presidents
Tracing the Russian leader’s relationships with five American presidents as he’s tried to rebuild the Russian empire, this documentary examines the evolution of Putin’s grievances with the U.S. and the West and chronicles the miscalculations and missteps of multiple American presidents over two decades, culminating in Putin’s attack on Ukraine.
More to explore: Explore extended interviews with sources from the documentary through the FRONTLINE Transparency Project.
1. Age of Easy Money
Amid a climate of economic uncertainty, our most-streamed new documentary of 2023 explores how the Fed’s “easy money” policies changed the American economy and what it means that the era may now be over, including the ramifications of the Fed’s decision last year to start hiking interest rates at a historic pace in an effort to fight inflation.
More to explore: Read an interview with a former FDIC chair on “potential fragility” in the financial system, examine what happened to inequality during the pandemic, and watch a video exploring the impact of the Fed’s rate hikes on developing countries.
Bonus Viewing: Our 3 Most-Streamed Archival Re-Releases on YouTube This Year
Every Tuesday, FRONTLINE releases a new or archival documentary on our YouTube channel. Become one of our more than 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube and receive notifications when our documentaries are released.
3. Outbreak
This 2015 documentary told the vivid, inside story of how the biggest Ebola outbreak on record began and why it wasn’t stopped before it was too late.
2. Shattered Dreams of Peace: The Road From Oslo
Re-released after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the beginning of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, this seminal 2002 documentary examined how the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that began at Oslo in the 1990s was derailed and ultimately undone by the dynamics of politics and violence on both sides.
1. Alaska Gold
This 2012 documentary explored the battle between those in Alaska who depend on Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery for a living and supporters of a proposed mine to extract mineral wealth at the bay’s headwaters.
Stream hundreds more FRONTLINE documentaries online and on the PBS App. Explore past years’ most-streamed films of 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017. And watch your way through our all-time most-streamed documentaries on YouTube.
