The Best TV Shows on ABC TV

Every ABC TV Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Across the timeline from 1991 to 2021, ABC TV has presented audiences with over 20 captivating shows. Leading the pack on ABC TV are Police Rescue and Bananas in Pyjamas, with their initial broadcasts in 1991 and 1992. Check out the most acclaimed shows on ABC TV, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for December 2025.

  • Plasmo
    Plasmo (1997)10.0

    Plasmo, Parsty and Niknik are on a journey through space with ex-bomb hurlers Brucho and Coredor. They become stranded on a doughnut-shaped planet and meet up with the scientist Professor Sashimi who is trying to protect the planet from the impact of an impending comet.

  • Ready, Steady, Wiggle!
    Ready, Steady, Wiggle! (2013)9.8

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Rake
    Rake (2010)7.5

    Cleaver Greene is not about politics or morality or even justice. Cleaver Greene is about the law. And it is his passion for the law that drives him to use his formidable intelligence to defend people whom society and the justice system might otherwise convict without a fair trial. He uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of human nature and the Byzantine intricacies of our legal codes to guarantee that his clients get what is theirs by the law; the right to a diligent defence.

  • Fisk
    Fisk (2021)7.5

    When Helen Tudor-Fisk's life falls apart, she takes a job in a small suburban firm specialising in wills and probate assuming that, because the clients are dead she won't have to deal with people.

  • Spicks and Specks
    Spicks and Specks (2005)7.1

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Police Rescue
    Police Rescue (1991)6.4

    Police Rescue was an Australian television series The series dealt with the New South Wales Police Rescue Squad based in Sydney and their work attending to various incidents from road accidents to train crashes.

  • The Wiggles
    The Wiggles (1998)6.1

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

  • Total Control
    Total Control (2019)5.6

    A local Indigenous politician is recruited to the senate by the Australian Prime Minister after a contentious video goes viral.

  • Bananas in Pyjamas
    Bananas in Pyjamas (1992)5.4

    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

    Take a road less travelled to the small towns and communities that make Australia special. Join Heather Ewart and guest presenters as they discover remarkable stories and inspiring people you'll never forget.

  • 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)3.2

    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.

  • Recovery
    Recovery (1996)N/A

    Recovery was a music and youth-oriented television series that was broadcast by ABC TV in Australia. The show was aired each Saturday morning from 9:00am to 12:00pm, following the overnight video clip program, Rage, and was broadcast from 20 April 1996 to 29 April 2000.