UFO Hunters is an American television series that premiered on January 30, 2008 on The History Channel

The History Channel

History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

, produced by Motion Picture Production Inc., and ran for three seasons.

Jon Alon Walz was the Executive Producer of the show and was responsible for selling the series to History Channel after a bidding war for the rights to the show broke out between History Channel and Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy).

The concept for the show was tested in a segment of History Channel's 2006 UFO special entitled "Deep Sea UFOs", produced by Motion Picture Production Inc, which featured two of the final four cast members. "UFO Hunters" was not a spin-off from a 2005 History Channel special with the same title.

The tagline of the show is: Hoax or History?

The series should not be confused with a similarly themed and titled UFO Hunters, a special that debuted the same day and time on the Sci-Fi Channel, (now SyFy

Syfy

Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

), and created by the producers of Ghost Hunters

Ghost Hunters

Ghost Hunters is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on October 6, 2004, on Syfy . The program features paranormal investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson who investigate places that are reported to be haunted. The two originally worked as plumbers for Roto-Rooter as...

, but which only aired one episode.

Format

The show follows numerous investigations (referred to as "cases" in the beginning of each episode) led by William J. Birnes

William J. Birnes

William J. "Bill" Birnes is an American writer, editor, book publisher and literary rights agent. He is best known as an active publisher of UFO literature and is a New York Times bestselling author. He holds a law degree and received a B.A. from New York University in 1966. Along with detective Dr...

 and his team of experts: researcher and scuba diver Pat Uskert, mechanical engineer and MIT researcher Ted Acworth, and investigative biologist Jeff Tomlinson. In the second season, Tomlinson departed. In the third season, Acworth was replaced by mechanical engineer Kevin Cook.

In each episode, the team investigates reports of unidentified aerial phenomena in which they interview witnesses of close encounter

Close encounter

In ufology, a close encounter is an event in which a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it was started by astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek, and was first suggested in his 1972 book The UFO Experience: A Scientific...

s with UFOs, USOs (unidentified submerged objects), and supposed extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

. They also analyze any evidence collected such as photographs, video, or recovered physical material. They also conduct research with other investigators and scientists in the field in an attempt to find conclusive evidence that a report is real or a hoax. The show also investigates long-standing UFO cases such as the Roswell, New Mexico

Roswell, New Mexico

Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...

 UFO crash incident

Roswell UFO incident

The Roswell UFO Incident was the recovery of an object that crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, in June or July 1947, allegedly an extra-terrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since the late 1970s the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of...

 and other famous sightings throughout history.

The opening theme song "The Only One" was performed by the band Operator

Operator (band)

Operator is an American post-grunge band from Los Angeles, California, United States. The name Operator was used for a solo project created by Johnny Strong, an Actor/Musician/Martial Artist, who has appeared in movies such as Black Hawk Down , The Fast and the Furious, "Get Carter", and "The...

. In later seasons the song was removed and the opening theme was changed.

Episodes

Color Key

Season		No. episodes	Year(s) aired
	1	13	2008
	2	13	2008–2009
	3	13	2009

Season one

Season One aired from January 30, 2008 to May 7, 2008.

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Episode		|Title		|Original Airdate

Season two

Season Two aired from October 29, 2008 to February 25, 2009.

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Episode		|Title		|Original Airdate

Season three

History ended season three of the series abruptly on May 20, 2009 and the last four episodes that were produced were never broadcast. According to his Facebook page, Bill Birnes headed up an online petition for History to continue the series. On October 29, 2009, History aired the last four episodes as a four-hour marathon.

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Episode		|Title		|Original Airdate