The Best TV Shows on Canale 5

Every Canale 5 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

From 1988 through to 2022, Canale 5 has accumulated a diverse collection of over 20 television shows. For top-tier entertainment, Canale 5 delivered Striscia la Notizia and Casa Vianello in 1988 and 1988. Our curated list, current as of September 2026, showcases over 20 of Canale 5’s highest-rated series.

  • Caduta Libera
    Caduta Libera (2015)10.0

  • Finché c'è ditta c'è speranza
    Finché c'è ditta c'è speranza (1999)9.0

    Finché c'è ditta c'è speranza is an Italian television series.

  • Amici di Maria De Filippi
    Amici di Maria De Filippi (2001)8.1

    Amici di Maria De Filippi is an Italian talent show hosted by Maria De Filippi. Amici is a singing and dancing school involving a class of about 20 students, specially chosen, with between 18 and 25 who aspire to become professional singers, songwriters and dancers. Additional original categories of "actors", "musicians" and "TV presenters" have since been dropped in the recent seasons.

  • Zelig
    Zelig (1997)7.8

  • Violet like the sea
    Violet like the sea (2022)7.6

    Viola Vitale, Miss Italy and fashion journalist, returns to Sicily to look for her father. She starts working for a digital news company and joins police inspector Francesco Demir in solving crime with the help of synesthesia.

  • The Cesaronis
    The Cesaronis (2006)7.2

    Giulio is a widower, struggling to raise three sons, Marco, Rudi, and Mimmo, as best he can. He lives in Rome's working-class Garbatella neighborhood and runs a wine shop with his two brothers. Lucia, meanwhile, comes from Milan's middle-class background; she's divorced and trying to rebuild her life with her two daughters, Eva and Alice. The two meet by chance and recognize each other: they had a fling as teenagers, many years earlier. Yet first love is never forgotten, and so Giulio and Lucia find themselves together again. Their meeting, however, changes not only the lives of a man and a woman, but also those of two families as different as could be. Two families who find themselves living under the same roof without even having had the time to get to know each other well.

  • Anti-Mafia Squad
    Anti-Mafia Squad (2009)7.2

    Fighting a modern, fragmented and brutal Mafia, the Sicilian Anti-Mafia Squad seeks to crush the criminal network that holds a death grip on the region. Sophisticated surveillance helps, unless the enemy lies within.

  • Felicissima Sera
    Felicissima Sera (2021)7.2

  • The Cave of the Golden Rose
    The Cave of the Golden Rose (1991)7.0

    The king desires nothing more than a male heir. But his wife gives birth to a girl Fantaghirò. When she refuses to marry years later, she is sent in the forest where she learns how to ride and fight like a man. She appears disguised in a duel with Prince Romualdo, the son of her father's adversary. Both fall in love, but their marriage brings no peace to the united kingdom. Evil forces are trying to seize power.

  • Police District
    Police District (2000)6.9

    The events of Police District unfold in the rooms of the 10th Tuscolano, a police station on the outskirts of Rome where current events intertwine with the private lives of the inspectors, officers and commissioners who, over the course of 11 intense seasons, have created one of the greatest successes on Italian TV.

  • CentoVetrine
    CentoVetrine (2001)6.7

    The series tells the stories of some of the characters who work or are related to an imaginary shopping center Centovetrine, located in the center of Turin. There are many stories of love and passion, but also struggles for power and dynastic quarrels in the telefilm.

  • Temptation Island (IT)
    Temptation Island (IT) (2005)6.6

  • Striscia la Notizia
    Striscia la Notizia (1988)6.5

    Striscia la notizia is an Italian television program on the Mediaset-controlled Canale 5. Its name in Italian translates as "the news slithers", a probable parody of the slighting Italian journalist, submitted to politicians and overwhelmed with shame. The polysemic term Striscia, in English strip, can recall both a line of cocaine and the comic strip. But Striscia is also the slithing snake: this show worm in the hidden holes to unmask the television cheats. Founded in 1988, it is meant to be a parody of the daily news, which airs right before the program, but Striscia also satirizes government corruption and exposes scams with the help of local reporters who are also comedians. The program is directed and produced by Antonio Ricci and is hosted by two major comedians. Usually Ezio Greggio is assisted by another comedian for the winter season, after which there is a change of guard.

  • R.I.S. - Delitti Imperfetti
    R.I.S. - Delitti Imperfetti (2005)6.4

    A crime drama focusing on the scientific aspects of crime investigations.

  • Carabinieri
    Carabinieri (2002)6.2

    Carabinieri is an Italian television series that aired on Canale 5 from March 2002 to July 30, 2008. The series is an action thriller with added elements of comedy, and has been compared to the soap opera format. It told the story of the police barracks located in Città della Pieve.

  • Casa Vianello
    Casa Vianello (1988)6.0

    Cascina Vianello is an Italian television series.

  • Christopher Columbus
    Christopher Columbus (1992)5.8

    The marvelous adventures and dramatic life of Christopher Columbus in the 15th century.

  • Big Man
    Big Man (1988)5.5

    The renowned Insurance International Co. has created an enquiry network, headed by detective Jack Clementi, to defend itself against insurance fraud. Jack has saved the company enormous amounts of money throughout his successful investigations and his bosses are more than willing put up with his brusque manners, his disconcerting frankness, and his intolerance for any form of company bureaucracy. Yet he is a big guy with a huge heart.

  • L'isola dei famosi
    L'isola dei famosi (2003)5.5

  • Paperissima Sprint
    Paperissima Sprint (1990)5.0