This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Television Documentary or Special. This award is given to the directors and was first awarded during the 2001 ceremony. In May 2017 the category was moved from the film awards as part of the Black Reel Awards for Television honors thus resulting in two separate winners in 2017.

Winners and nominees Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

2000s Year Documentary / Special Network Director Ref 2001 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks Showtime Craig Laurence Rice2001 Black Reel Awards The BET 20th Anniversary Celebration BET Terri McCoy Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly Comedy Central Stan Lathan That's Black Entertainment Showtime Walid Khaldi Ali-Frazier I: One Nation...Divisible HBO Dave Anderson 2002 Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel AMC Madison D. Lacy2002 Black Reel Awards Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind PBS Stanley Nelson BET Walk of Fame: Patti LaBelle BET Glenn Weiss 32nd Image Awards FOX Terri McCoy VH1 Divas: The One and Only Aretha Franklin Vh1 Liz Imperio 2003 Jim Brown: All American HBO Spike Lee2003 Black Reel Awards Ralph Ellison: An American Journey PBS Avon Kirkland Heroes of Black Comedy Comedy Central David Upshal & Ninder Billing Inside TV Land: African-Americans in Television TV Land 2004 Hollywood Celebrates Denzel Washington: An American Cinematheque Tribute AMC Michael Dempsey2004 Black Reel Awards Hell Up in Hollywood: Soul Cinema and the 1970s AMC Eric Anderson Brother Outside: The Life of Bayard Rustin PBS Nancy D. Kates & Bennett Singer The Murder of Emmett Till PBS Stanley Nelson Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives PBS Ed Bell & Thomas Lennon 2005 American Beyond the Color Line with Henry Louis Gates Jr. PBS Mary Crisp & Daniel Percival2005 Black Reel Awards Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise PBS Carol Bash, Lullie Haddad & Stanley Nelson The N Word Trio Todd Williams 2006 Unstoppable: A Conversation with Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks & Ossie Davis Black Starz! Warrington Hudlin2006 Black Reel Awards Slavery and the Making of America PBS Leslie D. Farrell, Chana Gazit, Dante James & Gail Pellett Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson PBS Ken Burns Chisholm '72 Unbought & Unbossed PBS Shola Lynch Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story USA Network Ron Berger & Dan Klores 2007–2009 colspan="3"

2010s Year Documentary / Special Network Director Ref 2010 colspan="3" 2011 If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise HBO Spike Lee2011 Black Reel Awards The Black List: Volume Three HBO Timothy Greenfield-Sanders 2012 Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation VH1 Rickard Lowe & Martin Torgoff2012 Black Reel Awards Pray the Devil Back to Hell PBS Gini Reticker The Latino List HBO Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Black in Latin America PBS Ricardo Pollack & Ilana Trachtman The Fab Five ESPN Jason Hehir 2013 Brooklyn Boheme Showtime Nelson George2013 Black Reel Awards The Announcement ESPN Nelson George On the Shoulders of Giants Showtime Deborah Morales Slavery by Another Name PBS Sam Pollard Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots VH1 Mark Ford 2014 Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley HBO Whoopi Goldberg2014 Black Reel Awards Dark Girls OWN Bill Duke Venus vs. ESPN Ava DuVernay Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin| PBS | Bob Smeaton |- | Made in America | Showtime | Ron Howard |- | rowspan="6" align="center"| 2015 |- style="background:#B0C4DE" | Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown| HBO| Alex Gibney| rowspan="6" align="center"|2015 Black Reel Awards |- | Finding the Funk | VH1 | Nelson George |- | On the Run Tour: Beyoncé and Jay-Z | HBO | Jonas Åkerlund |- | The Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip-Hop | VH1 | Billy Corben |- | Terror at the Mall | HBO | Dan Reed |- | rowspan="6" align="center"| 2016 |- style="background:#B0C4DE" | The Wiz Live!| NBC| Kenny Leon| rowspan="6" align="center"|2016 Black Reel Awards |- | 3 ½ Minutes | HBO | Marc Silver |- | Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church | BET | Clay Cane |- | Kareem: Minority of One | HBO | Clare Lewins |- | Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life: An All-Star Grammy Tribute | CBS | Leon Knoles |- | rowspan="6" align="center"| 2017 |- style="background:#B0C4DE" | Lemonade| HBO| Beyoncé Knowles and Khalil Joseph| rowspan="6" align="center"| |- | Black America Since MLK: Still I Rise | HBO | Talleah Bridges |- | Hamilton's America | PBS | Alex Horowitz |- | Jackie Robinson | HBO | Ken Burns |- | Streets of Compton | A&E | Leon Knoles |- | rowspan="6" align="center"| 2017 |- style="background:#B0C4DE" | Time: The Kalief Browder Story| Spike TV| Jenner Furst| rowspan="6" align="center"| |- | LA 92 | National Geographic | T.J. Martin & Daniel Lindsay |- | The Lost Tapes: LA Riots | Smithsonian Channel | Tom Jennings |- | L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later | A&E | One9 & Erik Parker |- | Rodney King | Netflix | Spike Lee |- | rowspan="6" align="center"| 2018 |- style="background:#B0C4DE" | The Defiant Ones| HBO| Allen Hughes| rowspan="6" align="center"|2018 Black Reel Awards for Televisionhttp://blackreelawards.com/historic-night-for-queen-sugar/ VOTERS ARE “SWEET” ON QUEEN SUGAR |- | Being Serena | HBO | Noah Lerner |- | Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert | NBC | David Leveaux & Alex Rudzinski |- | Biggie: The Life of Notorious B.I.G. | A&E | Mark Ford |- | Def Comedy Jam 25 | Netflix | Louis J. Horvitz |- | rowspan="6" align="center"| 2019 |- style="background:#B0C4DE" | Surviving R. Kelly| Lifetime| Nigel Bellis & Astral Finnie''' | rowspan="6" align="center"|2019 Black Reel Awards for Television |- | Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story| Paramount Network | Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason |- | Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men| Showtime | Sacha Jenkins |- | Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland| HBO | Kate Davis & David Heilbroner |- | HΘMΣCΘMING'' Netflix Beyonce & Ed Burke

2020s Year Documentary / Special Network Director Ref 2020 The Last Dance ESPN Jason Hehir2020 Black Reel Awards for Televisionhttps://awardswatch.com/watchmen-insecure-top-black-reel-awards-for-television-winners/ ‘Watchmen,’ ‘Insecure’ top Black Reel Awards for Television winnershttp://blackreelawards.com/watchmen-insecure-pace-the-black-reel-awards-for-tv-nominations/ WATCHMEN & INSECURE PACE THE BLACK REEL AWARDS FOR TV NOMINATIONS Becoming Netflix Nadia Hallgren Let's Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince CBS David Wild Hitsville: The Making of Motown Showtime Ben Turner & Gabe Turner Who Killed Malcolm X? Netflix Rachel Dretzin & Phil Bertelsen 2021 Tina HBO T.J. Martin & Dan Lindsay Black Is King Disney+ Beyonce, Kwasi Fordjour, Emmanuel Adjei, Blitz Bazawule, Ibra Ake, Jenn Nkiru, Jake Nava, Pierre Debusschere, Dikayl Rimmasch, Dafe Oboro High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America Netflix Stephen Satterfield The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion HBO Max Marcus Raboy First Ladies: Michelle Obama CNN Liz Mermin

Total awards by network HBO - 7 AMC - 2 Showtime - 2 Black Starz! - 1 ESPN - 1 Lifetime - 1 NBC - 1 PBS - 1 Spike TV - 1 VH1 - 1

References