The WORST episodes of The New York Times Presents
Every episode of The New York Times Presents ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of The New York Times Presents!
A series of standalone documentaries powered by the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time.
#1 - The Weight of the World
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/22/2024
As GLP-1 medications like Ozempic soar in popularity, our new documentary follows three people on their weight-loss journeys — and explores how decades of diet culture paved the way for the drugs’ rise.
#2 - They Get Brave
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/10/2020
As the coronavirus ravages more and more American cities, we look back to the place hit hardest: New York City. Doctors and nurses documented their lives, capturing awe‐inspiring resolve in the face of a breakdown in the health‐care system.
#3 - Dominic Fike, At First
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/7/2020
The making of a pop star in 2020: A young musician is plucked from obscurity -- jail, actually -- and given a multi-million dollar record deal. Meet Dominic Fike as he prepares for his first international tour and makes his debut album.
#4 - The Killing of Breonna Taylor
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/4/2020
A New York Times investigation examines what happened at 3003 Springfield Drive in Louisville, Kentucky, just after midnight on March 13, when police executed a warrant that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor.
#5 - Hurricane of Fire
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/18/2020
Perhaps a fitting start to 2020, Australia rang in the New Year with much of the country engulfed in flames. A few people decided to confront the blaze. Watch them stand face to face with one of the most ferocious infernos in history.
#6 - The Teenager Who Hacked Twitter
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/20/2020
Elon Musk. Bill Gates. Kanye West. Joe Biden. Barack Obama. They and dozens of others were being hacked recently, and Twitter appeared powerless to stop it. Who had brought the tech giant to its knees? A 17-year-old kid in Tampa.
#7 - Framing Britney Spears
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/5/2021
Her rise was a global phenomenon. Her downfall was a cruel national sport. People close to Britney Spears and lawyers tied to her conservatorship now reassess her career as she battles her father in court over who should control her life.
#8 - Who Gets To Be an Influencer?
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/4/2021
The New York Times chronicles the rise of Collab Crib, one of the first mainstream Black "creator mansions," exclusively documenting their whirlwind drive to achieve social media stardom in 90 days.
#9 - Move Fast & Vape Things
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/17/2021
Two Stanford graduate students had an inspired idea and an idealistic mission: create an e-cigarette that would help millions of people stop smoking. How did the founders of Juul lose their way and end up accused of addicting a whole new generation?
#10 - Controlling Britney Spears
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/24/2021
Britney Spears has said that her conservatorship had become “an oppressive and controlling tool against her.” This New York Times investigation reveals much of how it worked, including an intense surveillance apparatus that monitored every move she made.
#11 - Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/2021
In 2004, a culture war was brewing when the Super Bowl halftime show audience saw a white man expose a Black woman's breast for 9/16ths of a second. A national furor ensued. The woman was Janet Jackson, and her career was never the same.
#12 - To Live and Die in Alabama
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/2021
Three police officers died in a shootout at a drug house in Alabama. One man was sentenced to death for the shootings, even though he was never accused of even touching the murder weapon. This is the story of Nathaniel Woods.
#13 - Elon Musk's Crash Course
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/20/2022
Elon Musk, the world's richest person, has claimed since 2015 that, for Tesla, technology for self-driving cars is a "solved problem," and made outlandish claims about Autopilot capabilities. But a New York Times investigation reveals the quixotic nature of Musk's pursuit of self-driving technology, and the tragic results. Autopilot has been a factor in several deaths and dozens of other accidents that Tesla has not publicly acknowledged. Some former Tesla employees speak out against Musk for promoting a self-driving program that they believe was perilous.
#14 - Superspreader
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/19/2022
Are you hesitant to get a Covid vaccine? This doctor opposes them. If you agree, he has some pet supplies he wants to sell you. Meet Dr. Mercola, perhaps the most influential spreader of Covid vaccine misinformation online.
#15 - Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano Part 1
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/10/2023
In the first part of a two-part story, Hollywood's dirtiest P.I. uses never-before-heard recordings to reveal the extraordinary methods Anthony Pellicano employed to hide the sins of celebrities and their lawyers when they thought no one was looking.
#16 - Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano Part 2
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/10/2023
In Part 2 of this two-part series on Hollywood’s dirtiest P.I. Anthony Pellicano is out of prison – and he’s talking. Previously unseen evidence raises questions about why so few Hollywood stars faced consequences when Pellicano was exposed.
#17 - The Legacy of J Dilla
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/7/2023
In his short lifetime, J Dilla was a musician, producer and visionary who profoundly influenced rap and hip-hop. Given how prolific he was in his 32 years, why didn’t his accolades come sooner?
#18 - How to Fix a Pageant
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/2023
Decades of waning cultural credibility and recent scandals have left the Miss USA pageant in chaos; exploring allegations that rotted the core of an iconic institution and questioning if it has outlived its relevance.
#19 - Broken Horses
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/26/2024
Churchill Downs, the cathedral of horse racing, turned into a horse graveyard at last year's Kentucky Derby. This film explores the sport beneath the pageantry, where a quest for faster horses is causing alarming breakdowns.
#20 - Lie To Fly
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/23/2024
An incident occurred on Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 in 2023 when an off duty professional pilot dealing with mental health issues tried to crash an airplane while flying as a passenger.
#21 - Hard Left
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/4/2019
A look at the young activists who are trying to push the Democratic party further to the left.
#22 - The Sicario
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 2/28/2020
An epidemic of violence in Mexico and endemic corruption pushed a police chief to try something new — an off-the-books witness protection program for assassins willing to turn on their cartels.
#23 - Hands On
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 11/10/2019
A yoga studio combines a power hierarchy, sweaty bodies, intimate touching and an absence of dialogue. The Weekly investigates the culture of sexualized yoga, unwelcome adjustments and outright assault in one of the most accessible, affordable forms of group fitness in America.
#24 - The End of the Line
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/7/2019
As an iconic car company transforms itself into a tech company, thousands of auto workers will lose their jobs. No one thinks it's fair, but does the American economy have room for fairness anymore?
#25 - The Blueprint
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/8/2019
Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. election felt like a bolt from the blue. But Moscow reportedly used crude versions of the same tactics, to great effect, a decade earlier in Estonia.