Action Bronson has reacted to the series in two seasons of Vice's Action Bronson Watches Ancient Aliens. The series was parodied in the 2011 South Park episode " A History Channel Thanksgiving". An eighteenth season began airing in January 2022. The series continued with its sixteenth season in November 2020. Due to COVID-19 disrupting production, the season ended after only 12 episodes, however only 10 episodes aired. In 2015, the series returned to History after H2 was relaunched as Vice on TV.
Seasons 4 to 7 aired on H2, with frequent re-airings of episodes on History and other A&E services. The series began as a two-hour documentary special in 2009, and continued for three seasons as a flagship series on History. Producer Giorgio Tsoukalos and writer David Childress are featured guests. The works of Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, Brinsley Le Poer Trench, Charles Hapgood, and Edgar Cayce, are also referenced in many episodes. The series is based on and inspired by the works of Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin, among other writers. The series has been a target for criticism of History's channel drift, and for promoting unorthodox or unproven hypotheses as fact. Produced by Prometheus Entertainment, the series has aired on History and other A&E Networks since 2010. Episodes, narrated by Robert Clotworthy, begin and end with rhetorical questions. Ancient Aliens is an American television series that explores the ancient astronauts hypothesis, past human- extraterrestrial contact, UFOs, government conspiracies, and related pseudoscientific topics, such as remote viewing and psychic phenomena, in a non-critical, documentary format.