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The Best TV Shows on CBC Television

Every CBC Television Show Ranked From Best To Worst

As of April 2025, we’ve curated over 20 of CBC Television’s premier shows for your viewing pleasure. Icons of CBC Television, Moment of Truth and Second City Television made their debut in 1965 and 1976, setting industry standards. With its programming history stretching from 1965 to 2019, CBC Television offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows.

  • Wind at My Back
    Wind at My Back (1996)9.0

    A recently widowed mother loses her children to a cold mother-in-law in Ontario during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Based loosely on the books "Never Sleep Three in a Bed" and "The Night We Stole the Mounties’ Car" by Max Braithwaite

  • Emily of New Moon
    Emily of New Moon (1998)8.8

    Emily of New Moon is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it is currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels. The series, produced by Salter Street Films, was based on the Emily of New Moon series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series consisted of three seasons of thirteen episodes and one season of seven episodes, for a total of forty-six. The executive producers were Micheline Charest, Michael Donovan, and Ronald Weinberg. The series starred Martha MacIsaac as the titular orphan Emily Starr. Susan Clark and Sheila McCarthy played Emily's aunts Elizabeth and Laura, who had taken on the responsibility of raising Emily following her father's death, and Stephen McHattie played her cousin Jimmy. Susan Clark left the series after the first season when her character, Elizabeth, was killed off. Recurring cast included Chip Ciupka as Mr. Carpenter, Peter Donaldson as Ian Bowles, Richard Donat as Dr. Burnley, Kris Lemche as Perry Miller, John Neville as Uncle Malcolm, Jessica Pellerin as Ilse Burnley, Shawn Roberts as Teddy Kent, and Linda Thorson as Cousin Isabel.

  • Anne with an E
    Anne with an E (2017)8.7

    A coming-of-age story about an outsider who, against all odds and numerous challenges, fights for love and acceptance and for her place in the world. The series centers on a young orphaned girl in the late 1890’s, who, after an abusive childhood spent in orphanages and the homes of strangers, is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly woman and her aging brother. Over time, 13-year-old Anne will transform their lives and eventually the small town in which they live with her unique spirit, fierce intellect and brilliant imagination.

  • Heartland
    Heartland (2007)8.3

    Life is hard on the Flemings' ranch in the Alberta foothills where abused or neglected horses find refuge with a kind, hard-working family. Debts abound and the bank is about to foreclose. Can they keep the ranch running?

  • Murdoch Mysteries
    Murdoch Mysteries (2008)7.7

    A Victorian-era Toronto detective uses then-cutting edge forensic techniques to solve crimes, with the assistance of a female coroner who is also struggling for recognition in the face of tradition, based on the books by Maureen Jennings.

  • Schitt's Creek
    Schitt's Creek (2015)7.7

    Formerly filthy rich video store magnate Johnny Rose, his soap star wife Moira, and their two kids, über-hipster son David and socialite daughter Alexis, suddenly find themselves broke and forced to live in Schitt's Creek, a small depressing town they once bought as a joke.

  • Second City Television
    Second City Television (1976)7.4

    Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.

  • Rick Mercer Report
    Rick Mercer Report (2004)7.3

    A weekly helping of topical satire, funny takes on the week's top stories and Canada-wide adventures.

  • Danger Bay
    Danger Bay (1985)7.2

    Danger Bay is a Canadian television series, produced in Vancouver, with first-run episodes broadcast on CBC Television and the Disney Channel starting October 7, 1985. One hundred and twenty three installments were filmed, ending in 1989, but the series, perceived as wholesome and exciting fare for older children and adolescents, continued to be seen through the 1990s in numerous countries around the world. The plots of the episodes followed the exploits of the Roberts family, led by marine veterinarian Grant "Doc" Roberts, and his two children, Nicole and Jonah. The 30-minute episodes featured the Vancouver Aquarium in nearly every installment. Most episodes focused on environmental issues such as pollution, wildlife endangerment and forest preservation. The series was also broadcast in Gibraltar Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Iceland, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, Finland

  • The Red Green Show
    The Red Green Show (1991)7.2

    The Red Green Show is a Canadian television comedy that aired on various channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at CBC Television, and on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States, from 1991 until the series finale April 7, 2006, on CBC. The Red Green Show is essentially a cross between a sitcom and a sketch comedy series, and is a parody of home improvement, do-it-yourself, fishing, and other outdoors shows.

  • Republic of Doyle
    Republic of Doyle (2010)6.9

    Jake Doyle and his ex-cop father, Malachy, run a Newfoundland detective agency. Their rugged seaside town never lacks for intriguing cases, and the Doyles don't always land on the right side of the law.

  • Little Mosque on the Prairie
    Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007)6.7

    The series focuses on the Muslim community in the fictional prairie town of Mercy, Saskatchewan (population 14,000).

  • This Hour Has 22 Minutes
    This Hour Has 22 Minutes (1993)6.6

    This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials. Originally featuring Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey and Mary Walsh, the series featured satirical sketches of the weekly news and Canadian political events. The show's format is a mock news program, intercut with comic sketches, parody commercials and humorous interviews of public figures. The on-location segments are frequently filmed with slanted camera angles.

  • Rolie Polie Olie
    Rolie Polie Olie (1998)6.6

    Rolie Polie Olie was a children's television series produced by Nelvana, distributed by Disney, and created by William Joyce, Maggie Swanson, and Anne Wood. The show centers on a little roly pollie who is composed of several spheres and other three-dimensional geometric shapes. The show was one of the earliest series that was fully animated in CGI, and the first CGI animated preschool series.Rolie Polie Olie now airs in reruns on Disney Junior. Rolie Polie Olie won a Gemini Award in Canada for "Best Animated Program" in 1999. The show also won a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Special Class Animated Program" in 2000 and 2005. William Joyce won a 1999 Daytime Emmy for Best Production Design for this series. The show has a vintage atmosphere reminiscent of the 1950s and early 1960s, with futuristic elements.

  • North of 60
    North of 60 (1992)5.8

    North of 60 is a mid-1990s Canadian television series depicting life in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest. It first aired on CBC Television in 1992 and was syndicated around the world. It is set in the fictional community of Lynx River, a primarily Native-run town depicted as being in the Dehcho Region, Northwest Territories. Most of the characters were Dene. Some non-native characters had important roles: the restaurant/motel owner, the band manager, the nurse and the town's main RCMP officer. The show explored themes of Native poverty, alcoholism, cultural preservation and conflict over land settlements and natural resource exploitation. Originally somewhat light-hearted, it quickly became a more dramatic and ponderous series.

  • Da Vinci's Inquest
    Da Vinci's Inquest (1998)5.6

    Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. While never a ratings blockbuster, seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes. The show, set and filmed in Vancouver, stars Nicholas Campbell as Dominic Da Vinci, once an undercover officer for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but now a crusading coroner who seeks justice in the cases he investigates. The cast also includes Gwynyth Walsh as Da Vinci's ex-wife and chief pathologist Patricia Da Vinci, Donnelly Rhodes as detective Leo Shannon, and Ian Tracey as detective Mick Leary.

  • Family Feud Canada
    Family Feud Canada (2019)5.6

    We asked 100 game show-loving Canadians: Name the only iconic TV show featuring two Canadian families competing to guess popular answers to fun survey questions. Top answer on the board? Survey says...get ready for Family Feud Canada!

  • Moment of Truth
    Moment of Truth (1965)5.0

    Clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Wallace operates a private practice and teaches at the local university.

  • Race for the Bomb
    Race for the Bomb (1987)N/A

    A dramatization of the human, scientific and historical aspects leading to the development of the first atomic bomb.

  • Air Farce Live
    Air Farce Live (1993)N/A

    Air Farce Live, also credited as Air Farce, previously Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Air Farce—Final Flight! for the final season, was a Canadian sketch comedy series starring the comedy troupe Royal Canadian Air Farce, that previously starred in an eponymous show on CBC Radio, from 1973 to 1997. The top-rated television show was broadcast on CBC Television, beginning in 1993 and ending in December 2008. The Air Farce Live name was adopted in October 2007. For the show's final season which began October 3, 2008, the series was renamed Air Farce—Final Flight!. The show was a weekly topical sketch comedy series focusing on political and cultural satire and was one of the most popular Canadian television shows. It was initially aired as a radio series beginning in 1973, and on radio, Air Farce continued for 24 seasons through 1997. In terms of the troupe's TV career, the first Air Farce TV special aired in 1980. A short-lived Air Farce TV series was broadcast in 1981, and further TV specials aired in 1982, 1983, and 1984. After a long hiatus from TV, a 1992 New Year's Eve special for CBC-TV was well received, and a new Air Farce TV series began in October 1993. The TV series was retitled Air Farce Live beginning with the October 6, 2007 broadcast and was the first Canadian sketch comedy series to be broadcast in HD. The show was broadcast live in the Atlantic time zone and tape delayed in the other time zones.