Season 1 of The Rise of the Great Powers premiered on November 13, 2006.

The Rise of the Great Powers ran at the prime time 9:30 p.m. slot, and each show lasted 50 minutes, totaling 600 minutes. The program included interviews with noted historians and academics, including Paul Kennedy, who wrote the influential book "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers", and Joseph Stiglitz, who won a Nobel Prize in Economics. Political leaders, such as former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, were also interviewed."

It has been dubbed in English and shown on History Channel under the title "Rising of Great Powers".