The Best TV Shows on ABC TV

Every ABC TV Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Icons of ABC TV, Four Corners and Police Rescue made their debut in 1961 and 1991, setting industry standards. ABC TV’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1961 to 2024. As of May 2026, our compilation of ABC TV’s top-rated series boasts over 20 unique shows.

  • 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.

  • Good News Week
    Good News Week (1996)8.8

    Good News Week was an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and 11 February 2008 to 28 April 2012. The show's initial run aired on ABC until being bought by Network Ten in 1999. The show was revived for its second run when the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike caused many of Network Ten's imported US programmes to cease production. Good News Week drew its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, media organisations, and often, aspects of the show itself. The show opened with a monologue by McDermott relating to recent headlines, after which two teams of three panellists competed in recurring segments to gain points. The show has spawned three short-lived spin-off series, the ABC's Good News Weekend, Ten's GNW Night Lite and Ten's skit-based Good News World.

  • 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.

  • Blue Water High
    Blue Water High (2005)7.3

    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.

  • Spicks and Specks
    Spicks and Specks (2005)7.2

    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.

  • Utopia
    Utopia (2014)7.0

    Set inside the offices of the “Nation Building Authority”, a federal government organisation responsible for overseeing major infrastructure projects, Utopia explores that moment when bureaucracy and grand dreams collide.

  • Four Corners
    Four Corners (1961)6.9

    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.

  • 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.

  • Jack Irish
    Jack Irish (2016)6.7

    Jack Irish is a man getting his life back together again. A former criminal lawyer whose world imploded, he now spends his days as a part-time investigator, debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, punter and sometime lover – the complete man really. An expert in finding those who don’t want to be found – dead or alive, Jack helps out his mates while avoiding the past. That is until the past finds him.

  • 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)6.2

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

  • Australian Story
    Australian Story (1996)5.3

    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.

  • Wildside
    Wildside (1997)5.2

    Wildside is an Australian police procedural television series broadcast on the ABC from 1997 to 1999. The show consisted of a one hour format that followed police interactions in inner Sydney. It starred Rachael Blake, Tony Martin, Richard Carter and Alex Dimitriades. Mary Coustas joined the series in a regular role late in its run, appearing in the last ten episodes. The series was filmed in Sydney. It was characterised by its use of ad lib dialogue and hand held camera work. It won several Logie Awards, including Silver Logies for outstanding work by Rachael Blake and Tony Martin for acting, as well as the Most Outstanding Miniseries Logie in 1998. It was also nominated for several Australian Film Institute Awards. A rerun of the series began in Australia on ABC1 in the early hours of Friday mornings, starting in September 2008.

  • Something in the Air
    Something in the Air (2000)5.0

    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.

  • 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.

  • A Bite to Eat with Alice
    A Bite to Eat with Alice (2024)N/A

    A Bite to Eat with Alice is a cooking show dedicated to creating delicious food. No matter your skill level, host Alice and her guest - who may not be able to cook toast - will inspire you to experiment in the kitchen.