Each episode aims to explain a single incident by analyzing the causes and circumstances that ultimately affected the disaster.

The program uses re-enactments, interviews, testimonies, and CGI to analyze the sequence of events second-by-second for the audience.

[1] Seconds from Disaster was first broadcast on the National Geographic channel in 2004 and originally consisted of 45 episodes over three seasons.

In 2018, the show revived again and aired two episodes featuring compilations about helicopter and airliner crashes.

The show concludes with the original disaster scenes being rewound and played again; but this time, the clock is being replaced by a countdown timer and the conclusions reached from the analysis being put together with the sequence.