The Best TV Shows on RTÉ2

Every RTÉ2 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Stay up-to-date with over 20 of RTÉ2’s elite series, with our list refreshed for January 2026. Leading the pack on RTÉ2 are Eurovision Song Contest and A Scare at Bedtime, with their initial broadcasts in 1956 and 1997. Showcasing over 20 shows from 1956 up until 2024, RTÉ2 stands as a beacon of television excellence.

  • Maddie + Triggs
    Maddie + Triggs (2024)10.0

    A little girl and her doggy best friend find music and adventure in the sounds of the everyday by really listening to the world around them.

  • The Savage Eye
    The Savage Eye (2009)8.7

    The show is a satirical and often surreal examination of subjects close to the hearts of the Irish people. It takes the form of a fake anthropological documentary as if made by British television. Each show explores one subject from it's history through to the present covering 6 or 7 topics (or subheadings) using voxpops and informed opinion to inspire comedy sketches and unflinching rants from numerous created characters. The third series is performed by comedians David McSavage, John Colleary, Pat McDonnell and Dermot McMorrow among others. The topics we are covering this year range from Media and Politics to Christmas and Family.

  • Raw
    Raw (2008)8.0

    The lives and loves of the young staff who work in a successful Dublin restaurant and the intense friendships and bitter rivalries that blossom in the heat of the kitchen.

  • Doodle Girl
    Doodle Girl (2024)8.0

    Doodle Girl and her best friend, Pencil, explore the weird and wonderful pages of their sketchbook, and draw whatever they can to help the creations they meet along the way.

  • Bachelors Walk
    Bachelors Walk (2001)7.5

    Bachelors Walk is an Irish comedy-drama created by John Carney. Shot in and around Dublin, the programme broadcast on RTÉ from 1 October 2001 to 15 December 2003. The plot revolves three single men living in a house in Dublin’s Bachelors Walk: charming ne'er-do-well Barry, film critic Raymond, and would-be barrister Michael. After three series and an absence of three years, the programme concluded with a one-off Christmas special, aired on St Stephen's Day 2006 on RTÉ Two.

  • The Podge and Rodge Show
    The Podge and Rodge Show (2006)7.5

    The Podge and Rodge Show is an Irish chat show, broadcast and produced by RTÉ, featuring the popular Podge and Rodge as hosts. For the first three seasons they were joined by Lucy Kennedy as a co-host but for the first half of the fourth season they were joined by guest hosts including Michelle Heaton, after Kennedy took insult to being called "every name under the sun from bisto to an ugly Gráinne Seoige". Following a mid-season hiatus, Caroline Morahan took on the role of permanent co-host in February 2009. The programme airs every Monday and Tuesday at 22:50 on RTÉ Two from February to April and from October to December with a hiatus during the summer months.

  • Bridget & Eamon
    Bridget & Eamon (2016)7.5

    Bridget & Eamon are the typical unhappily married 80s Irish couple. They live somewhere in the Midlands with their indeterminate number of children. Chain-smoking Bridget has notions. She wants the lifestyle from the pages of Woman's Way but wouldn't want to think about how much it would cost to heat South Fork.

  • The Young Offenders
    The Young Offenders (2018)7.5

    Coming-of-age drama about lovable rogues Conor and Jock as they navigate their awkward teenage years, hatching plans and adventures to help distract from their tough home lives and their inability to stay out of trouble at school.

  • Eurovision Song Contest
    Eurovision Song Contest (1956)7.3

    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.

  • A Scare at Bedtime
    A Scare at Bedtime (1997)7.2

    A Scare at Bedtime was an Irish television show, produced by Double Z Enterprises and broadcast by RTÉ, featuring the two puppets Podge and Rodge as the hosts of a spooky tales and urban myths comedy show. It ran from 1997 until January 2006.

  • Can't Cope, Won't Cope
    Can't Cope, Won't Cope (2016)7.1

    A darkly comic drama about two young women, as one of them starts to spiral out of control. Aisling used to getting her own way and Danielle, never one to hog the spotlight, is only too happy to go along with it. But things are changing. Reality is about to hit them, and hit them hard

  • Storyland
    Storyland (2009)7.0

    Storyland is an award-winning initiative by RTÉ.ie and Screen Ireland, a program that develops and showcases new, original Irish short dramas by emerging talent in writing, directing, and acting. It operates as a competitive call-out for scripts, with the top finalists receiving funding and support to produce their 25-minute short dramas, which are then broadcast on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player.

  • Royals Next Door
    Royals Next Door (2021)7.0

    The series follows Stella and her royal family, who've been forced to move houses due to water damage in their castle. Queen Kat sees it as the perfect opportunity to modernise. In line with King Bob’s royal motto “Closer to the people” they decide to live in a normal house in an ordinary suburb.

  • First Dates Ireland
    First Dates Ireland (2016)6.7

    The hit Channel 4 series First Dates, has come to Ireland and RTÉ2. In First Dates, single people from across Ireland come to the First Dates restaurant where they have a real blind date. Joining maître D' Mateo Saina, are barman Ethan Miles, and waiters Alice, Pete and Libby, who help set the scene and give romance the best possible chance to flourish.

  • Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks
    Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks (2003)5.9

    The adventures of Piggley, a spunky eight-year-old pig, and his friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny the Bull on Raloo Farm in Ireland.

  • Drop Dead Weird
    Drop Dead Weird (2017)5.0

    Three Australian siblings move to a bed and breakfast in Tubbershandy western Ireland with their Zombie parents.

  • Love Is The Drug
    Love Is The Drug (2004)N/A

    The relationships of the Kirwan family in Drogheda, Ireland.

  • Nelly & Nora
    Nelly & Nora (2015)N/A

    The adventures of two young Irish sisters who spend their holidays and weekends with their parents at the family’s mobile home in a caravan park by the sea.

  • Dorg van Dango
    Dorg van Dango (2020)N/A

    Follow the adventures of Dorg, a normal teen, living in the very normal town of Normill. That is, until he befriends several paranormal characters (a cool unicorn, an ancient witch and an eerie ghost). They are all escapees from Area 52 and in desperate need of help and refuge. To have them blend in with the citizens of Normill, Dorg disguises them as teenagers and hides them in the basement in the local shopping mall. With his new best friends attempting to help navigate life's challenges, Dorg's world just got a whole lot less normal and a lot more fun.

  • The Burren: Heart of Stone
    The Burren: Heart of Stone (2021)N/A

    Come along on a journey through the ages, tracing the genetic story of the Irish people, the story of the Irish hunter-gatherers and what became of them. Did prehistoric farmers irreversibly altered this landscape? Is modern Irish society descended from those who first lived here over 10,000 years ago?