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The Best TV Shows on CBC Television

Every CBC Television Show Ranked From Best To Worst

With its programming history stretching from 1960 to 2022, CBC Television offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. Highlighting CBC Television’s quality programming, The Nature of Things and The Fifth Estate stand out, premiering in 1960 and 1976. Dive into our updated selection of CBC Television’s finest, featuring more than 20 series as of November 2024.

  • 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.

  • Kim's Convenience
    Kim's Convenience (2016)7.7

    The funny, heartfelt story of The Kims, a Korean-Canadian family, running a convenience store in downtown Toronto. Mr. and Mrs. Kim ('Appa' and 'Umma') immigrated to Toronto in the '80s to set up shop near Regent Park and had two kids, Jung and Janet who are now young adults. However, when Jung was 16, he and Appa had a major falling out involving a physical fight, stolen money and Jung leaving home. Father and son have been estranged since.

  • The Nature of Things
    The Nature of Things (1960)7.5

    The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging. The series is named after an epic poem by Roman philosopher Lucretius: "Dē Rērum Nātūrā" — On the Nature of Things.

  • Workin' Moms
    Workin' Moms (2017)7.5

    Four women juggle love, careers, and parenthood. They support, challenge, and try not to judge each other as life throws them curveballs. Whether it is an identity crisis, a huge job opportunity, postpartum depression, or an unplanned pregnancy – they face both the good and bad with grace and humour.

  • Burden of Truth
    Burden of Truth (2018)7.5

    A big city lawyer returns to her hometown to take the case of a group of girls suffering from a mysterious illness.

  • SkyMed
    SkyMed (2022)7.3

    Life, death and drama at 20,000 feet. The series weaves together intense character journeys and high-stakes medical rescues, as we follow the triumphs, heartbreaks and tribulations of budding nurses and pilots flying air ambulances in remote Northern Canada. They’re all in over their heads, and on their own, with no one to rely on but each other.

  • The Red Green Show
    The Red Green Show (1991)7.1

    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.

  • Coroner
    Coroner (2019)7.1

    Jenny Cooper investigates unexplained or sudden deaths in the city of Toronto. Fierce and quick-witted, Jenny is a newly-widowed single mother with secrets of her own to unearth.

  • Street Legal
    Street Legal (1987)7.0

    Street Legal is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1994. It was revived for an additional season in 2019.

  • Republic of Doyle
    Republic of Doyle (2010)7.0

    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.

  • The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate (1976)6.8

    Each week the fifth estate brings in-depth investigations that matter to Canadians – delivering a dazzling parade of political leaders, controversial characters and ordinary people whose lives were touched by triumph or tragedy.

  • 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.

  • Being Erica
    Being Erica (2009)6.6

    Erica Strange has tons of regrets in her young life - so many she's started a list. But when she shares her list with her therapist, he undertakes an unusual course of treatment: she is transported back in time and given the chance to make different decisions at pivotal moments in her life, based on her knowledge of the here and now.

  • Rolie Polie Olie
    Rolie Polie Olie (1998)6.5

    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.

  • Frankie Drake Mysteries
    Frankie Drake Mysteries (2017)6.5

    Toronto’s only female private detective in the 1920s takes on the cases the police don’t want or can’t handle. From airplanes and booze running to American G-men, Communists and union busters, Frankie’s fearless sense of adventure gets her into all kinds of trouble, but she always manages to find her way out.

  • Dragons' Den
    Dragons' Den (2006)5.7

    Canadian version of the reality show in which budding entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hopes of securing business financing.

  • 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.