The Best Survival TV Shows on Netflix

What it's about: Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating zombies. He sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way.

Where to Watch: 131 episodes (96%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 6 episodes (4%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (AMC). 137 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: 100 years in the future, when the Earth has been abandoned due to radioactivity, the last surviving humans live on an ark orbiting the planet — but the ark won't last forever. So the repressive regime picks 100 expendable juvenile delinquents to send down to Earth to see if the planet is still habitable.

Where to Watch: 5 episodes (6%) are available to watch free online (The CW). 84 episodes (99%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 85 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fights against all odds to survive and escape. But they're surrounded by hidden dangers.

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 10 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Helix is an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to a high-tech research facility in the Arctic to investigate a possible disease outbreak, only to find themselves pulled into a terrifying life-and-death struggle that holds the key to mankind's salvation...or total annihilation.

Where to Watch: 26 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 26 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $0.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Zombies are rampaging throughout Britain. Blissfully unaware of gory events outside, the Big Brother housemates are in for the ultimate eviction night...

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 5 episodes (50%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: The players of a virtual reality MMORPG, Sword Art Online, are trapped and fighting for their very lives. After it is announced that the only way to leave the game is by beating it, Kirito—a very powerful swordsman—and his friends take on a quest to free all the minds trapped in Aincrad.

Where to Watch: 73 episodes (68%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll). 79 episodes (74%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Hulu & Crunchyroll). 24 episodes (22%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Set amidst a wave of violent animal attacks sweeping across the planet, a young renegade scientist is thrust into a race to unlock the mystery behind this pandemic before time runs out for animals and humans alike.

Where to Watch: 40 episodes (98%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 40 episodes (98%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Three years after the zombie virus has gutted the country, a team of everyday heroes must transport the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood.

Where to Watch: 69 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 68 episodes (99%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Viewers go deep into an Alaskan winter to meet six tough and resilient residents as they try to stay one step ahead of storms and man-eating beasts to make it through to spring. The closest neighbor to Sue Aikens is more than 300 miles away. Eric Salitan subsists solely on what he hunts and forages. Chip and Agnes Hailstone catch fish for currency in bartering for supplies, and Andy and Kate Bassich use their pack of sled dogs for transportation.

Where to Watch: 115 episodes (83%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Hulu & Disney+). 19 episodes (14%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (FOX & NatGeo). 126 episodes (91%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Jericho is an American action/drama series that centers on the residents of the fictional town of Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States.

Where to Watch: 3 episodes (10%) are available to watch free online (CBS). 29 episodes (97%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & CBS All Access). 29 episodes (97%) are available to rent or buy from $0.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Between is the story of a town under siege from a mysterious disease that has wiped out everybody except those 21 years old and under. The series explores the power vacuum that results when a government has quarantined a 10-mile diameter area and left the inhabitants to fend for themselves.

Where to Watch: 12 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 6 episodes (50%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: In this interactive series, you'll make key decisions to help Bear Grylls survive, thrive and complete missions in the harshest environments on Earth.

Where to Watch: 8 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: The boundaries between military discipline and human desire are tested on a U.S. Army base that houses an elite unit of helicopter pilots trained to perform clandestine international and domestic missions. The drama unfolds in the present as well as in flashbacks to a failed mission involving one of the first female pilots in the unit, ultimately uncovering layers of personal and government/military secrets and leading to a season-long plan to rescue a group of MIA soldiers.

Where to Watch: 5 episodes (38%) are available to watch free online (The CW). 13 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 13 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Hyakkaou Private Academy. An institution for the privileged with a very peculiar curriculum. You see, when you're the sons and daughters of the wealthiest of the wealthy, it's not athletic prowess or book smarts that keep you ahead. It's reading your opponent, the art of the deal. What better way to hone those skills than with a rigorous curriculum of gambling? At Hyakkaou Private Academy, the winners live like kings, and the losers are put through the wringer. But when Yumeko Jabami enrolls, she's gonna teach these kids what a high roller really looks like!

Where to Watch: 17 episodes (71%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: Doomsday Preppers is an American reality television series that airs on the National Geographic Channel. Dräger Equipment, Wise Food Storage Company and the United States Gold Bureau are sponsors of the show.

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (20%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Hulu). 49 episodes (98%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: On a desert island lives a starving hyena with one obsession: devour that delicious mermaid from the rock in the lagoon. But the lovely fish-girl’s best friend is a shark, a shark with a lot of muscle and who loves to sabotage the hyena’s every move.

Where to Watch: 52 episodes (33%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: A group of heavy recovery drivers work to keep traffic rolling on some of the busiest and most unforgiving roads on the planet, Ontario’s 400-series highways. When disaster strikes on these roads, the pressure is on to get them cleared and reopened.

Where to Watch: 19 episodes (58%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: This documentary series examines the Einsatzgruppen, Nazis responsible for the mass murder of Jews, Romani and Soviet prisoners in Eastern Europe.

Where to Watch: 4 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).