The Best TV Shows on ORF 1

Every ORF 1 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

As of July 2026, we’ve curated over 20 of ORF 1’s premier shows for your viewing pleasure. Highlighting ORF 1’s quality programming, Eurovision Song Contest and Scene of the Crime stand out, premiering in 1956 and 1970. ORF 1’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1956 to 2015.

  • Musikantenstadl
    Musikantenstadl (1981)10.0

    Musikantenstadl is a live television entertainment program broadcast in the German language throughout Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. It features Austrian, Swiss, and German popular folk music, international pop and folk music as well as interviews and comedy. As a production of Eurovision, is co-produced by the Österreichischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Schweizer Fernsehen. Aside from the live television broadcasts it also tours in Austria and Germany as live concerts. It is currently hosted by Andy Borg and its location of broadcast varies between towns in different regions in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The show could be compared to being a much larger German version of the UK 1970's entertainment show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. However Musikantenstadl consists of a large ski lodge Set construction and not a Social Club.

  • Talis and the Thousand Tasks
    Talis and the Thousand Tasks (2001)10.0

    Talis, who aspires to become a knight at the Arthurian Round Table, has to fulfil the thousand tasks set for him by Merlin. But… he is unwittingly catapulted through the warps of time from the Dark Ages to the 21st century.

  • Club 2
    Club 2 (1976)9.0

  • Universum
    Universum (1987)8.5

  • Tom Turbo
    Tom Turbo (1993)7.7

  • Suburbia - Women on the Edge
    Suburbia - Women on the Edge (2015)7.7

    Vienna suburb. Better society. Appearance and reality. A golden cage. But is everything that glitters really gold? Actually, the five "suburban women" of the title couldn't be doing any better in their supposedly perfect, affluent world – could they?

  • Eurovision Song Contest
    Eurovision Song Contest (1956)7.2

    The Eurovision Song Contest is an international song competition, organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and featuring participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the EBU's Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner.

  • Inspector Rex
    Inspector Rex (1994)7.2

    After his handler is killed, police dog Rex teams up with recently-divorced inspector Richard Moser to investigate crimes and solve mysteries on the streets of Vienna. And they sometimes get help from their two-legged friend, Inspector Stockinger.

  • The Onedin Line
    The Onedin Line (1971)7.0

    The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin. Around this central theme are the lives of his family, most notably his brother and partner, shop owner Robert, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore. The series also illustrates some of the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steam ships. It shows the role that ships played in affairs like international politics, uprisings and the slave trade.

  • Die Bergretter
    Die Bergretter (2009)6.3

    Die Bergwacht is a German mountain rescue television series, broadcast since 26 November, 2009 on ZDF.

  • Scene of the Crime
    Scene of the Crime (1970)6.2

    Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.

  • Vienna Crime Squad
    Vienna Crime Squad (2005)5.1

    SOKO Donau is an Austrian television series.

  • Murder in the Mountains
    Murder in the Mountains (2001)4.6

    SOKO Kitzbühel is an Austrian television series produced by ORF and ZDF. It is a spin-off of the German crime series SOKO 5113. It is set in the renowned Tyrolean tourist centre of Kitzbühel. The production company "beo-Film" has produced the show since 2001. The German abbreviation SOKO stands for Sonderkommission, "special commission", a task force with specific duties.

  • Barbara Karlich – Talk um 4
    Barbara Karlich – Talk um 4 (1999)4.5

    A talk show produced by ORF since 1999 and broadcast on ORF 2.

  • Schnell ermittelt
    Schnell ermittelt (2009)4.1

    Angelika Schnell is the head of homicide and living proof that chaos is just another form of order. Nevertheless, she is a brilliant investigator - even if her methods are sometimes quite unconventional: In addition to hard facts, she also allows her distinctive inner voice to apply, which often leads to incomprehensible but very important conclusions...

  • Okay
    Okay (1979)N/A

  • Die liebe Familie
    Die liebe Familie (1980)N/A

  • Dancing Stars
    Dancing Stars (2005)N/A

    Dancing Stars is the Austrian version of Dancing with the Stars and is shown on "ORF eins" in Austria.

  • Im Zentrum
    Im Zentrum (2007)N/A

  • Stöckl
    Stöckl (2013)N/A