| Awards and nominations received by American Experience | |
| Wins: | 52 |
| Nominations: | 150 |
American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries about important or interesting events and people in American history. As of 2020 the show has aired 32 seasons and a total of 350 episodes. Throughout its run the show has received multiple awards and nominations, several episodes have won a Peabody Award and many have been nominated to awards given by guilds like the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Writers Guild of America Awards. Three episodes of the series have been nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards (D-Day Remembered in 1994, and The Battle Over Citizen Kane in 1995). Also, the series received twelve Primetime Emmy Award out of over forty nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series twice in 1998 and 1999, being the inaugural winners of the category, Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for in 2001 and JFK in 2014 and Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for Two Days in October in 2006 and Freedom Riders in 2011.
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Best Documentary Feature | D-Day Remembered | [1] | |
| 1995 | ||||
| The Battle Over Citizen Kane |
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television - Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials | Dominick Tavella, Mark Mandler, John Zecca (for "New York: Center of the World") | ||
| 2004 | Roger Phenix, John Jenkins, Ken Hahn, Joe Hettinger (for "RFK") | |||
| 2011 | G. John Garrett, Rick Angelella, Everett Wong, Coll Anderson (for "Triangle Fire") | |||
| 2017 | John Jenkins, Ken Hahn (for "The Great War") | [2] | ||
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Outstanding Directing – Documentaries | Ric Burns (for "The Donner Party") | [3] | |
| 1996 | Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher (for "") | [4] | ||
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Researchers | Robert Levi (for "Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo") | ||
| 2001 | Dan T. Carter, Sandra Guardado, Daniel McCabe, Matthew R. McClung, Paul Stekler (for "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire") | |||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing | Steve Fayer, Daniel McCabe, Paul Stekler (for "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire") | |||
| 2002 | Chana Gazit (for "Fatal Food") | |||
| 2004 | Best Documentary | New York: Center of the World | ||
| Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form | ||||
| Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming | The Pill | |||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound | Mariusz Glabinski, Marlena Grzaslewicz, Bruce Kitzmeyer, Ira Spiegel, Dominick Tavella (for "New York: Center of the World") | |||
| 2005 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Direction | Barak Goodman (for "The Fight") | ||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing | David Grubin (for "RFK") | |||
| 2006 | Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form | Victory in the Pacific | ||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing | Austin Hoyt (for "Victory in the Pacific") | |||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research | Karen Colbron, Rose M. Compagine, Pamela Gaudiano (for "Fidel Castro") | |||
| Karen Colbron, Margaret Johnson, Tamio Ota, Polly Pettit, Andrea Ryan, Reiko Sakuma, Kristina Wood, Midori Yanagihara (for "Victory in the Pacific") | ||||
| 2007 | Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming | The Boy in the Bubble | ||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing | Ric Burns, Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb (for "Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film") | |||
| Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Lighting Direction & Scenic Design | Katha Seidman (for "John & Abigail Adams") | |||
| 2008 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research | Rich Remsberg, John Rubin (for "The Living Weapon") | ||
| 2013 | Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form | Jesse Owens | [5] | |
| Outstanding Research | ||||
| The Amish | ||||
| Outstanding Music and Sound | Tom Phillips, Brian Bracken, Leslie Bloome, Benny Mouthon (for "Jesse Owens") | |||
| 2015 | Outstanding Science and Technology Programming | The Poisoner's Handbook | ||
| 2016 | Outstanding Editing: Documentary and Long Form | Don Kleszy (for "Last Days in Vietnam") | ||
| 2017 | Outstanding Research | The Mine Wars | ||
| Year | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | The Donner Party | ||
| 1996 | Battle of the Bulge, FDR, | ||
| 1997 | The Battle Over Citizen Kane | ||
| 1998 | The Presidents Series, | ||
| 1999 | Riding the Rails, America 1900 | [6] | |
| 2001 | Playing the China Card (Nixon's China Game) | [7] | |
| 2002 | Monkey Trail | [8] | |
| 2003 | The Murder of Emmett Till | [9] | |
| 2004 | Tupperware! | [10] | |
| 2005 | Two Days in October | [11] | |
| 2010 | My Lai | [12] | |
| 2011 | Triangle Fire, Freedom Riders, Stonewall Uprising | [13] | |
| 2014 | Freedom Summer | ||
| 2017 | Oklahoma City | ||
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Outstanding Achievement in News and Information | American Experience | [42] | |
| 1998 | [43] | |||
| 1999 | [44] | |||
| 2009 | We Shall Remain | [45] |
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Best Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events | David Grubin (for "LBJ") | [46] | |
| Robert Levi and Geoffrey C. Ward (for "Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo") | ||||
| 1993 | Ric Burns (for "The Donner Party") | |||
| 1994 | Marty Ostrow (for "America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference") | |||
| 1995 | Ric Burns (for "The Way West") | |||
| David Grubin (for "FDR: Part 1") | ||||
| Thomas Lennon and Mark Zwonitzer (for "The Battle of the Bulge: World War II's Deadliest Battle") | ||||
| 1996 | Chana Gazit (for "Chicago 1968") | |||
| Thomas Lennon and Richard Ben Cramer (for "The Battle Over Citizen Kane") | ||||
| 1997 | Elena Mannes and L. Franklin DeVine (for "New York Underground") | |||
| 1998 | David Grubin (for "Truman") | |||
| Chana Gazit (for "Surviving the Dust Bowl") | ||||
| Adriana Bosch (for "Reagan: Part 2") | ||||
| 1999 | Stephen Stept (for "Hoover Dam") | |||
| Chana Gazit (for "Meltdown at Three Mile Island") | ||||
| 2001 | Barak Goodman (for "") | |||
| Ken Emerson & Randy MacLowry (for "Steven Foster") | ||||
| 2002 | Christine Lesiak (for "Monkey Trail") | |||
| 2003 | Marcia Smith (for "The Murder of Emmett Till") | |||
| Michelle Ferrari (for "Seabiscuit") | ||||
| 2004 | Barak Goodman (for "The Fight") | |||
| Mel Bucklin (for "Emma Goldman") | ||||
| David Grubin (for "RFK") | ||||
| Llewellyn M. Smith and Elizabeth Deane (for "Reconstruction") | ||||
| 2005 | Adriana Bosch (for "Fidel Castro") | |||
| Barak Goodman (for "Kinsey") | ||||
| Mark Zwonitzer (for "The Massie Affair") | ||||
| 2006 | Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb and Ric Burns (for "Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film") | |||
| Elizabeth Deane (for "John and Abigail Adams") | ||||
| Mark Davis (for "The Alaska Pipeline") | ||||
| Barak Goodman (for "The Boy in the Bubble") | ||||
| 2007 | Ronald Blumer (for "Alexander Hamilton") | |||
| 2008 | Michelle Ferrari (for "Kit Carson") | |||
| 2009 | David Grubin (for "The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer") | |||
| Barak Goodman (for "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln") | ||||
| Mark Zwonitzer (for "We Shall Remain: Episode Three: Trail of Tears") | ||||
| Ric Burns (for "We Shall Remain: Episode Two: Tecumseh's Vision") | ||||
| 2010 | Ronald H. Blumer (for "Dolley Madison") | |||
| 2011 | Mark Davis (for "Dinosaur Bone War") | |||
| Stanley Nelson (for "Freedom Riders") | ||||
| Austin Hoyt (for "The Great Famine") | ||||
| Mark Zwonitzer (for "Triangle Fire") | ||||
| 2012 | David Belton (for "The Amish") | |||
| Barak Goodman (for "Clinton") | ||||
| Ric Burns (for "Death and the Civil War") | ||||
| 2013 | Randall MacLowry and Michelle Ferrari (for "Silicon Valley") | |||
| Rob Rapley (for "The Abolitionists") | ||||
| 2015 | Chana Gazit (for "The Forgotten Plague") | |||
| 2017 | Stephen Ives (for "The Great War: Part II") | |||
| Michelle Ferrari (for "Rachel Carson") | ||||
| Rob Rapley (for "The Great War: Part III") | ||||
| 2018 | Michelle Ferrari (for "The Eugenics Crusade") | |||
| Sharon Grimberg (for "The Circus: Part One") | ||||
| John Maggio (for "Into the Amazon") | ||||
| 2019 | Robert Stone (for "Chasing The Moon Part One: A Place Beyond The Sky") | |||
| 2020 | John Maggio (for "The Poison Squad") | [47] | ||