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The Best TV Shows on ABC TV

Every ABC TV Show Ranked From Best To Worst

ABC TV has delivered an expansive roster of over 20 shows, dating from 1961 all the way to 2022. Leading the pack on ABC TV are Four Corners and Bananas in Pyjamas, with their initial broadcasts in 1961 and 1992. Discover the best of ABC TV with our list of over 20 series, meticulously updated for November 2024.

  • Ready, Steady, Wiggle!
    Ready, Steady, Wiggle! (2013)9.7

    New and old friends join The Wiggles for their musical adventures in Wiggle Town, learning lessons and solving problems as they go.

  • Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell
    Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell (2012)8.0

    News satire. A half-hour weekly round-up, branding, inoculation and crutching of all the important news stories of the week. Along with a like-minded Think Tank of reporters and pundits, offering not only reportage and analysis of the week’s events but discussion, argument and dissection of what’s making the world turn every which way.

  • Four Corners
    Four Corners (1961)7.8

    Four Corners is Australia's longest-running investigative journalism/current affairs television program. Broadcast on ABC1 in Australia, it premiered on 19 August 1961 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021. Founding producer Robert Raymond and his successor Allan Ashbolt did much to set the ongoing tone of the program. Based on the Panorama concept, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary from overseas. The program has won many awards for investigative journalism, and broken many high-profile stories. A notable early example of this was the show's epoch-making 1962 exposé on the appalling living conditions endured by many Aboriginal Australians living in rural New South Wales.

  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries
    The Doctor Blake Mysteries (2013)7.8

    Dr Lucien Blake left Ballarat as a young man. But now he finds himself returning to take over not only his dead father's medical practice, but also his on-call role as the town's police surgeon, only to find change is afoot, nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.

  • Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
    Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012)7.7

    Our lady sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920’s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. Leaving a trail of admirers in her wake, our thoroughly modern heroine makes sure she enjoys every moment of her lucky life. Based on author Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Murder Mystery novels.

  • Hard Quiz
    Hard Quiz (2016)7.7

    Host Tom Gleeson sets out to find Australia's hardest quiz champion, pitting four contestants against each other in a battle of attrition.

  • Harrow
    Harrow (2018)7.6

    When a dark secret from this past threatens to be exposed, unorthodox and brilliant medical examiner, Doctor Daniel Harrow, must use all his forensic skills to keep it buried forever.

  • Blue Water High
    Blue Water High (2005)7.1

    Blue Water High is an Australian television drama series, broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on ABC1 and on Austar/Foxtel Nickelodeon channel in Australia and on various channels in many other countries. Each season follows the lives of a young group of students at Solar Blue, a high-performance surf academy where several lucky 16-year-olds are selected for a 12-month-long surfing program on Sydney's northern beaches. There are three series in Blue Water High. The first two series were screened in 2005 and 2006 and the producers did not intend to create a third series. However, due to popular demand by fans, they relented and made one more series with only Kate Bell returning in a main role. Series three ended with the closure of Solar Blue, indicating that the show would most likely not continue.

  • Heartbreak High
    Heartbreak High (1994)6.9

    The ins and outs of the classroom lives of a group of students who attend the fictional Hartley High School in Sydney.

  • Gardening Australia
    Gardening Australia (2005)6.7

    Gardening Australia provides practical, realistic and credible horticultural and gardening advice, inspiring and entertaining Australian gardeners around the nation.

  • Spicks and Specks
    Spicks and Specks (2005)6.7

    Adam Hills, one of Australia's favourite comedians and winner of Edinburgh's Best of the Fest award, is joined by two team captains, comedian and actor Alan Brough and radio breakfast announcer Myf Warhurst, as well as brave personalities who enjoy having long forgotten embarrassing stories laughed about on national television. Two teams go head to head as they sing, shout and delve deep into the recesses of their collective minds to help earn their team an extremely inglorious victory.

  • Glitch
    Glitch (2015)6.7

    A police officer and a doctor face an emotionally charged mystery when seven local residents inexplicably return from the dead in peak physical form.

  • Troppo
    Troppo (2022)6.7

    An eccentric private investigator with a criminal past recruits a disgraced ex-cop to help solve the disappearance of a Korean tech pioneer in the wilds of Far North Queensland.

  • The Saddle Club
    The Saddle Club (2001)6.3

    The Saddle Club is a children's television series based on the books written by Bonnie Bryant Like the book series, the scripted live action series follows the lives of three teenage girls in training to compete in equestrian competitions at the fictional Pine Hollow Stables, while dealing with problems in their personal lives. Throughout the series, The Saddle Club navigates their rivalry with Veronica, training for competitions, horse shows, and the quotidian dramas that arise between friends and staff in the fictional Pine Hollow Stables. In each show, The Saddle Club prevails over its adversities, usually sending a message emphasizing the importance of friendship and teamwork.

  • The Wiggles
    The Wiggles (1998)5.9

    A show geared for babies up to older toddlers. This show is full of music, teaching kids songs and easy dances.

  • Bananas in Pyjamas
    Bananas in Pyjamas (1992)5.3

    Bananas in Pyjamas is an Australian children's television show that premiered on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since become syndicated in many different countries, and dubbed into other languages. In the United States, the "Pyjamas" in the title was modified to reflect the American spelling pajamas. This aired in syndication from 1995 to 1997 as a half-hour series, then became a 15-minute show paired with a short-lived 15-minute series The Crayon Box, under a 30-minute block produced by Sachs Family Entertainment titled Bananas in Pajamas & The Crayon Box. Additionally, the characters and a scene from the show were featured in the Kids for Character sequel titled Kids for Character: Choices Count. The pilot episode was Pink Mug.

  • Back Roads
    Back Roads (2015)5.0

    Heather Ewart swaps reporting from political corridors of power to a new beat around the bush. Along the way she visits remote towns and regions to discover some of this country's most remarkable and inspiring communities.

  • Australian Story
    Australian Story (1996)4.8

    Putting the "real" back into reality television, Australian Story is an award-winning documentary series with no narrator and no agendas — just authentic stories told entirely in people's own words.

  • Q&A
    Q&A (2008)3.8

    Hosted by Hamish Macdonald, Q&A puts punters, pollies and pundits together in the studio to thrash out the hot issues of the week. It's about democracy in action - the audience gets to ask the questions.

  • Something in the Air
    Something in the Air (2000)2.0

    Something in the Air was an Australian television soap opera transmitted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2000 and 2002. It was one of the first programs in Australia that was filmed in widescreen. It won the AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series in 2001.