How The Universe Works is a science documentary television series that provides scientific explanations about the inner workings of the universe and everything it encomes. With the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and visual effects, each episode presents and narrates a topic about the universe (e.g.: the origin of the universe, the formation and the evolution of the Solar System, and the origin and behavior of life), which then are complemented with scientific insights from leading scientists of organizations such as NASA and CERN.

The series originally aired on the Discovery Channel in 2010. It features different narrators for each episode per season, specifically Mike Rowe, Erik Todd Dellums, and Richard Lintern. Rowe, who narrated the first season of the show, liked to think that the idea of changing narrators through several seasons were "a collision of alternative universes," that "the same TV show narrated by me in this universe, could be narrated by someone else in an alternative universe."

The first season, which was broadcast on the Discovery Channel from April 25 to May 24, 2010, was released on Blu-ray on February 28, 2012. Since its second season, consisting of eight episodes broadcast between July 11 and August 29, 2012, the show has aired on the Science Channel. The third season aired between July 9 and September 3, 2014.

The fourth season premiered on July 14, 2015, as part of the Science Channel's "Space Week," in honor of New Horizons' flyby of Pluto that day; the season ran through September 1, 2015. The show's fifth season aired from November 22, 2016, through February 7, 2017.

The sixth season premiered on January 9, 2018, and ran through March 13, 2018. The seventh season premiered on January 8, 2019. On December 30, 2019, it was announced that the eighth season would premiere on January 2, 2020.

The ninth season premiered on March 24, 2021. The tenth season premiered on March 6, 2022. The eleventh season premiered on March 5, 2023.

According to the site The Futon Critic, ever since its eleventh season run ended, the show is still on hiatus, as no new seasons of the show has ever been announced. Hence, it is possible that the said documentary series has been canceled.