The WORST episodes of The Food That Built America
Every episode of The Food That Built America ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of The Food That Built America!
For generations of Americans, food titans like Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey, John and Will Kellogg, C.W. Post and the McDonald brothers have literally been household names, but you don't know their stories. Before they were brand names, they were brilliant, sometimes ruthless, visionaries who revolutionized food and changed the landscape of America forever. This series event will tell the fascinating stories of the people behind the food that built America – those who used brains, muscle, blood, sweat and tears to get to America's heart through its stomach, and along the way built cities, invented new technologies and helped win wars.
#1 - Cereal Killers
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/26/2026
Rival cereal giants race to invent the next must-have bowl, sparking a sugary arms race of mascots, crunch, candy and the first ever chocolate cereal.
#2 - The Birth of Bubblegum
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/3/2026
A candy maker's botched experiment leads to the world's first bubble gum, its distinctive color, and a decades-long bubble gum war fueled by mascots, comic strips, baseball cards, and novelty flavors, transforming gum into a pop culture powerhouse and reshaping the candy aisle.
#3 - Clash of the Cookie Giants
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/31/2026
A century ago, the cookie industry didn’t exist, until a wave of innovators turn it into a $15 billion powerhouse.
#4 - Drive-Thru Burger Revolution
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/10/2026
Three burger operators race to serve a new generation on wheels, and a primitive intercom and sliding window evolve into the drive-thru, revolutionizing fast food and kicking off an industry arms race.
#5 - Pizza Power Play
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/19/2026
Two pizza juggernauts expand their empires as a hungry new contender turns the fight into a three-way race to become America’s biggest pizza chain.
#6 - Tortilla Takeover
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/23/2025
Bold visionaries risk bringing Mexican food to Americans, creating the top-selling condiment, famous snack chip brands and pairing chips and salsa.
#7 - Let's Get Crackering
Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/12/2026
As two baking powerhouses collide, scrappy upstarts and mom-and-pop players help turn crackers into a snack aisle staple. From innovations like shredded wheat, to the first mass-produced flavored cracker, these grocery store icons transform crackers into a global, multi-billion-dollar category.
#8 - American Spirits
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/23/2023
Two entrepreneurs rise from the ashes of Prohibition by staking everything on two liquors - a bitter, bottom-shelf whisky, and a flavorless foreign moonshine - and go on to save an industry and create two of the most popular brands in the country.
#9 - All American Marinara
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/25/2024
Imagine a world where marinara sauce isn't part of the American palate. That was true nearly sixty years ago, when food conglomerate Campbells kickstarts what will become an Italian American food staple.
#10 - Champions of Breakfast
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/14/2024
Will Kellogg is on top of the cereal industry after beating out post, but now, the king of cereal has met his match with a young flour mill executive; a decades long war for dominance ensues as Kellogg's and General Mills battle it out.
#11 - You Don't Know Jack
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/4/2025
A farmhand named Jack Daniel and a distiller in Tennessee look to bring their quality bootleg whiskey out of the shadows and into a larger market. But against the rise of temperance and prohibition in America, a novel new recipe and Daniel's revolutionary branding tactics pave the way for the best-selling American whiskey in the world.
#12 - Thirst Quenchers
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/18/2023
Before juice was everywhere, these innovators used brilliant ingenuity to create the most nostalgic drink products and thirst quenchers of the last century, leading the charge on a new billion dollar beverage industry.
#13 - Citrus Soda Stars
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 7/21/2024
In an early 20th century America where soda is synonymous with cola, small-time St. Louis soda maker Charles Leiper Grigg dares to take on corporate giants Coke and Pepsi by introducing something entirely new–a clear, lemon-lime soda he calls “7-Up.” Little does he know that at the same time, two brothers in Tennessee, Ali and Barney Hartman, have concocted an almost identical soda. What started out as their personal lemon lime cocktail mixer will put them on a collision course with 7-Up when they release it to the public as “Mountain Dew.” Both will evolve into something entirely different than what they began as, but together they’ll crack the industry wide open.
#14 - A Dish Best Served... Soft
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/20/2022
When his ice cream truck breaks down, Tom Carvel discovers that half-melted ice cream is a surefire hit with customers. But while he works to mass produce this new treat, the McCulloughs hit upon the same idea.
#15 - Supermarket Sweep
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 6/25/2023
At the turn of the 20th century, Bernard Kroger and another upstart grocer come up with genius innovations that help invent the modern supermarket.
#16 - Burger Empire: The Ray Kroc Story
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/28/2024
In the 1950s, middle-aged salesman Ray Kroc is drowning in debt when he's inspired by a roadside burger stand he wants to spread nationwide--McDonald's. To buy out the business, he creates the modern model of franchising and ignites a fast-food gold rush. Over three decades, Kroc's innovation produces icons like the Big Mac and Chicken McNugget, crushing the competition to make McDonald's the biggest fast-food chain in the world.
#17 - Beer Run
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/23/2023
At a time when U.S. beer is dominated by the same lager style, one Milwaukee company experiments with something new.
#18 - Lunchbox Legends
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 7/7/2024
Lunchtime is one of the most enjoyable meals of every kid's day, but before the 1960s it was just another meal. Then, three very different food visionaries take matters into their own hands to create lunch time favorites loved by children everywhere, from sandwiches, to fruit snacks, and a build-it-yourself pre-packaged lunch that has become a supermarket staple.
#19 - Breakfast Barons
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 6/27/2021
Dr. John Kellogg and his brother start a revolution in breakfast, while rival C.W. Post takes direct aim at an empire of his own.
#20 - Penny Candy Craze
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/31/2024
In the early 1900s, an underestimated confectioner creates the first wrapped penny candy--the Tootsie Roll. Meanwhile, an unemployed salesman transforms medicinal hard candy into a fruit flavored, multipack designed purely for fun with Tropical Charms. The two go on to kickstart an entire industry of nationally branded candies and transform the lollipop into a global icon.
#21 - Planet Mars
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/21/2024
After being kicked out of the family business by his father, Forrest Mars scratches and claws his way back to create a multi-sector global empire, Mars Inc. Today that empire is worth over $47 billion dollars and a family dynasty that is the third wealthiest in America, worth nearly $100 billion.
#22 - Movie Theater Munchies
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/2/2025
A struggling chocolate maker and a young theater assistant create the movie theater concession stand and launch the world's most iconic movie candies.
#23 - Dog Eat Dog
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 7/16/2023
At a time when dog food is a rarity and cat food is almost nonexistent, it will take visionary innovators to invent the first dog treat, dry food, the first cat food, and many more innovations that will carve out the billion-dollar pet food industry.
#24 - Bring Home the Bacon
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/9/2023
A young upstart named Oscar® Mayer creates one of the most iconic meat brands on the planet; pioneer Jay Hormel invents a meat product sold the world over, which becomes part of a $20 billion food empire.
#25 - Spilling the Tea
Season 7 - Episode 11 - Aired 7/5/2026
A beverage giant is challenged for dominance by two upstart companies from Brooklyn to revolutionize the beverage market and transform iced tea from a regional drink to a multi-billion-dollar American staple.