MythBusters ran for 16 seasons and 272 episodes, premiering on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003, and signing off on February 21, 2018. It was created by Peter Rees and produced in Australia by Beyond International. Its premise was simple and, for a science show, unusually honest: take a rumor, a movie scene, an adage or a viral video, and find out whether it holds up.
Trailer, via Discovery.
Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman at M5 Industries
The original hosts were special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. They worked out of Hyneman’s effects workshop, M5 Industries, in San Francisco, and used elements of the scientific method to test the validity of whatever claim was in front of them. Hyneman’s staff often worked off-screen; the two men were usually shown doing most of the work at the shop.
That setup is the show’s real engine. MythBusters is not a lecture. It is two people with a machine shop, a budget and a grudge against bad information, and the pleasure of it comes from watching a build go wrong before it goes right.
Robert Lee narrated, though in some regions his voice was replaced by a local narrator.
The Build Team and the M7 Workshop
During the second season, members of the behind-the-scenes team were organized into a second crew, the “Build Team.” Artist Kari Byron, builder Tory Belleci and metal-worker Scottie Chapman made up the first version. Chapman left during the third season, and Grant Imahara was hired to bring electrical and robotics experience. Byron went on maternity leave in mid-2009, with Jessi Combs filling in; Byron returned in the third episode of the 2010 season.
The Build Team worked from its own workshop, M7, testing separate myths from the main duo. Episodes typically alternated between the two teams. Belleci was the only member to appear in every myth the team tested.
The 2014 Exit and the Final Seasons
At the end of the 2014 season finale, “Plane Boarding,” Savage and Hyneman announced that Byron, Belleci and Imahara would not return for 2015. In a June 2025 podcast, Byron and Belleci confirmed that budget cuts led to the contracts they were offered. Savage and Hyneman hosted the final two seasons alone.
In October 2015, producers announced the show would air its 14th and final season in 2016.
What MythBusters Actually Built
Planning and experimentation happened at Hyneman’s San Francisco workshops. Experiments needing more room or special accommodations were filmed on location, usually around the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in Northern California, sometimes in other states or countries.
The show’s genres are listed as documentary, and that label undersells it. MythBusters is a science-entertainment program, and the entertainment is not decoration on top of the method. It is the method, filmed at the speed a build actually takes.
The Numbers Behind the Series
- Premiere: January 23, 2003
- Final episode: February 21, 2018
- Seasons: 16
- Episodes: 272
- Creator: Peter Rees
- Producer: Beyond International, Australia
- Networks: Discovery, SBS
- Original hosts: Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman
- Workshops: M5 Industries, M7
- Narrator: Robert Lee
- Score: 7.8 of 10
Run of the Series
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2003 | Series premieres on Discovery Channel |
| Season 2 | Build Team organized; M7 workshop opens |
| Season 3 | Scottie Chapman leaves; Grant Imahara joins |
| 2009 | Kari Byron on maternity leave; Jessi Combs fills in |
| 2010 | Byron returns in the third episode |
| 2014 | Byron, Belleci and Imahara exit after “Plane Boarding” |
| 2015 | Producers announce a final season for 2016 |
| 2018 | Final episode airs February 21 |
Where the Show Stands
The published audience score is 7.8 of 10 across 656 votes, and that feels about right. MythBusters never needed a villain or a cliffhanger. It needed a claim and a workshop, and it had both for 16 seasons.
The Build Team years are the ones worth arguing about. Byron, Belleci and Imahara gave the show a second center of gravity and a different comic rhythm, and M7 let two myths run at once. When they left, the show lost that alternation more than it lost any single person.
The budget-cut explanation for their exit, confirmed by Byron and Belleci in 2025, is the detail that matters most in hindsight. A show built on testing claims spent its last two seasons as a two-man operation, and the reason was money, not method.
What holds up is the premise. MythBusters treated a rumor as something you could put on a bench and measure, and it did that for 272 episodes without ever pretending the answer was the point.
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