Frontline backdrop
Documentary•News

The Worst Episodes of Frontline

Every episode of Frontline ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Frontline!

Binge this in 9d 16h•Peaking at 10.0/10

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast

Airs on
PBS
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons45

All123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
    Click to reveal
    Frontline Season 1 Episode 3 - In the Shadow of the Capitol
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - In the Shadow of the Capitol

    S1:E3

    Frontline correspondent Charles Cobb journeys to a Washington, DC that tourists rarely see. The nation's capital, seventy-five percent black, faces widespread poverty, yet it is run by some of the civil-rights movement's most effective and militant organizers, including Mayor Marion Barry.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. Frontline Season 1 Episode 4 - A Chinese Affair
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #2 - A Chinese Affair

    S1:E4

    For thirty-four years, those who fled to Taiwan in the wake of the Communist victory have had only their memories and fantasies of mainland China. Now they want to know much more, and a political struggle is underway to determine how Taiwan will relate to the mainland.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. Frontline Season 1 Episode 6 - Pentagon, Inc.
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Pentagon, Inc.

    S1:E6

    Frontline investigates the power of the Pentagon as a business and economic force in the domestic economy. Politicians find themselves chasing Pentagon dollars for the jobs those dollars create in their districts; scientists and universities find themselves dependent on the military if they want to do research in many high-tech areas.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. Frontline Season 1 Episode 7 - Gunfight USA
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Gunfight USA

    S1:E7

    Frontline looks beyond the cliches and stereotypes in the debate over gun control. Visiting prison inmates, victims of gun crime, and the sharpest minds on both sides, Frontline explores the underlying fears that make gun control such an emotional issue.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. Frontline Season 1 Episode 8 - Children of Pride
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Children of Pride

    S1:E8

    Kojo Odo, a 42 year-old single black man, took in his first child a decade ago-a 7 year old boy with his arm missing. No one wanted the youngster. Each of Odo's 21 children came to him with a physical or mental handicap. Frontline looks at the daily life of this remarkable family and Odo's battle to keep the family together.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. Frontline Season 1 Episode 9 - A Journey to Russia
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - A Journey to Russia

    S1:E9

    Before Gorbachev and glasnost, three young Americans journey to the Soviet Union on a whirlwind two-week, six-city debating tour. They encounter young, articulate Russians whose world view is completely contradictory to their own.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 BEST Episodes of Frontline

    READ
  7. Frontline Season 1 Episode 10 - Daisy - Story of a Facelift
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Daisy - Story of a Facelift

    S1:E10

    Daisy is 55 and terrified of growing old. She feels she needs a facelift. From the moment of her decision, Frontline follows her through all the procedures, but the heart of the story is an exploration of values, character, cosmetics, and the business of plastic surgery.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. Frontline Season 1 Episode 11 - Space - The Race for High Ground
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - Space - The Race for High Ground

    S1:E11

    Before President Reagan introduced Star Wars, Frontline examined how in the previous 25 years the US and the Soviet Union had gone from designing satellites to designing weapons to blast them out of the sky. The superpowers were converting space from an arena for communications, to a concept of space as 'high ground,' the battle area to control.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. Frontline Season 1 Episode 13 - Crisis in Zimbabwe
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Crisis in Zimbabwe

    S1:E13

    Rhodesia, a symbol of white racism, has become Zimbabwe and white minority rule has given way to black majority rule. However, the end of the guerilla war may not mean an end to fighting. Correspondent Charlie Cobb finds a rift between the nation's two black leaders that threatens to split the country along tribal lines.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. Frontline Season 1 Episode 14 - Air Crash
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Air Crash

    S1:E14

    Frontline investigates the frightening aftermath of one of the worst air disasters in U.S. history-the June 9, 1982 crash of Pan Am flight 759 at the New Orleans airport. The report discovers how human greed and legal machinations over hundreds of millions of dollars bring new horror to survivors and victims' relatives alike.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. Frontline Season 1 Episode 15 - Looking for Mao
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - Looking for Mao

    S1:E15

    Only seven years after Mao's death, it is clear that China is undergoing another revolution. This is a revolution of political and social relaxation. Frontline explores what has been retained and what has been rejected from the days of the Cultural Revolution.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. Frontline Season 1 Episode 16 - Israel: Between the River and the Sea
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Israel: Between the River and the Sea

    S1:E16

    For eight years, Rafik Halabi covered the West Bank and Gaza strip-the only Arab reporter working in the Hebrew section of Israeli Television. This is Rafik's story-a story in which his identity and loyalty became a national controversy.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. Frontline Season 1 Episode 17 - In Our Water
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - In Our Water

    S1:E17

    Frank Kaler's story begins simply enough when he requests a water test. Why? Because his children develop skin lesions after bathing in it. Frontline chronicles Kaler's six-year battle with local and federal officials over the chemical pollution of his drinking water.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. Frontline Season 1 Episode 18 - Vietnam Memorial
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Vietnam Memorial

    S1:E18

    Frontline tells the story of five days in the fall of 1982 when more than 150,000 people gathered in Washington D.C. for the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial. Parents, friends, and survivors came to the emotion-filled event reflecting the pain and conflict many still feel about that war.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. Frontline Season 1 Episode 19 - For the Good of All
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - For the Good of All

    S1:E19

    When a national recreation site between Cleveland and Akron was first mandated by Congress in 1974, everyone applauded the project. But Frontline found that park policies of condemning hundreds of businesses and homes soon generated intense local opposition as well as charges that the homes of politically influential citizens were being spared.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. Frontline Season 1 Episode 21 - Who Decides Disability?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Who Decides Disability?

    S1:E21

    Frontline investigates the Reagan administration's effort to remove tens of thousands of people from the Social Security disability rolls. Disabled people face personal hardship and bureaucratic indifference as they take their cases to the courts and to Congress.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. Frontline Season 1 Episode 22 - Crossfire in El Salvador
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Crossfire in El Salvador

    S1:E22

    In 1983, El Salvador was a nation where murder and torture were an everyday occurrence, a place where loved ones disappear and truth remains elusive. Frontline interviews government soldiers, rebels, and noncombatants to find out why the killing continues.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. Frontline Season 1 Episode 23 - Sanctuary
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Sanctuary

    S1:E23

    Frontline follows the journey of a Guatemalan family through the 'new underground railroad' and considers the plight of the people who seek refuge from governments allied to the United States.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. Frontline Season 1 Episode 24 - Moneylenders
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - Moneylenders

    S1:E24

    Developing countries have borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars from Western banks. Some of the biggest borrowers, Brazil and Mexico,are struggling even to repay the interest. Correspondent Anthony Sampson finds that threats to repudiate the loans are causing American bankers to fear financial catastrophe.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. Frontline Season 1 Episode 25 - Klaus Barbie: the American Connection
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Klaus Barbie: the American Connection

    S1:E25

    Klaus Barbie, a hated Nazi war criminal, was returned to France in 1983 to face justice. But some Frenchmen were worried that he would reveal embarrassing evidence about French collaboration, and some Americans feared that he would talk about his postwar work for U.S. intelligence agencies.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. Frontline Season 2 Episode 1 - Crisis at General Hospital
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Crisis at General Hospital

    S2:E1

    Investor-owned for-profit hospital chains are aggressively marketing themselves to treat only the insured or wealthy patient. But most Americans assume government and charity programs enable everyone -- no matter how poor -- to receive treatment for serious health problems.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. Frontline Season 2 Episode 2 - We Are Driven
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #22 - We Are Driven

    S2:E2

    As American corporations begin to adopt a Japanese management style stressing worker involvement in a family-like corporate environment, Frontline looks at the darker side of Japanese labor relations at the Nissan Motor Company in both Japan and Smyrna, Tennessee.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. Frontline Season 2 Episode 3 - The Old Man and the Gun
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - The Old Man and the Gun

    S2:E3

    Viewing the conflict in Northern Ireland through the eyes of Irish Americans who support the IRA and its strategy of violence. Profiles Michael Flannery, Grand Marshal of New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade, who participated in an ambush on British troops in Ireland some 50 years ago.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. Frontline Season 2 Episode 4 - Give Me That Big Time Religion
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Give Me That Big Time Religion

    S2:E4

    Investigating whether the tens of millions of dollars raised through the appeals of television evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart goes more to doing God's work or to keeping the preachers on TV. Should the government regulate religious fundraising?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  25. Frontline Season 2 Episode 5 - The Campaign for Page One
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - The Campaign for Page One

    S2:E5

    On the eve of the 1984 New Hampshire primary, the first of four national election reports. Correspondent Richard Reeves looks behind the scenes at the presidential candidates and the political reporters who cover them -- the story behind the story and who writes it.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Worst Episodes Summary

"In the Shadow of the Capitol" is the worst rated episode of "Frontline". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/31/1983. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "A Chinese Affair".