The Best TV Shows on Rai 1

Every Rai 1 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Boasting a rich catalog, Rai 1 features more than 20 shows, with broadcasting dates ranging from 1951 to 2025. Highlighting Rai 1’s quality programming, Sanremo Music Festival and Eurovision Song Contest stand out, premiering in 1951 and 1956. Check out the most acclaimed shows on Rai 1, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for December 2025.

  • Jeux Sans Frontières
    Jeux Sans Frontières (1965)9.5

    Jeux Sans Frontières was a Europe-wide television game show. In English-speaking countries, the show is also known as It's a Knockout, the title of the BBC's domestic version. In its original conception, it was broadcast from 1965 to 1999 under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union and featured teams from different European countries in outlandish costumes competing to complete bizarre tasks in funny games. The original series run ended in 1982 but was revived a few years later with a different complexion of nations and hosted by smaller broadcasters. In the United Kingdom, participants came from the heats of It's a Knockout. The original presenter was Mcdonald Hobley, but he stayed for just one season before handing over to Katie Boyle, who in turn was replaced by David Vine and Eddie Waring. It was not until 1971 that the presenter most associated with the role, Stuart Hall, took over presenting the UK heats and also provided the British commentary for the international version along with Waring, who was better known as the BBC's Rugby League commentator. Wales had its own team between 1991 and 1994 and the programme was broadcast on S4C in Welsh by Iestyn Garlick.

  • Ulisse - Il piacere della scoperta
    Ulisse - Il piacere della scoperta (2001)8.9

    Alberto Angela leads the dissemination program dedicated to history, art and culture. A historical, archaeological, informative story, with the presence of some protagonists of the Italian cultural or artistic scene.

  • Inspector Montalbano
    Inspector Montalbano (1999)8.4

    Inspector Montalbano is an Italian television series produced and broadcast by RAI since 1999, based on the detective novels of Andrea Camilleri. The protagonist is Commissario Salvo Montalbano, and the stories are set in the imaginary town of Vigata, Sicily. In 2012 the series generated a prequel, Il giovane Montalbano.

  • My Brilliant Friend
    My Brilliant Friend (2018)8.1

    When the most important friend in her life seems to have disappeared without a trace, Elena Greco, a now-elderly woman immersed in a house full of books, turns on her computer and starts writing the story of their friendship.

  • Doc
    Doc (2020)8.1

    When Doctor Andrea Fanti loses 12 years of memories from a brain injury, he finds himself adjusting to a world full of strangers.

  • Rocco Schiavone
    Rocco Schiavone (2016)8.0

    Weed smoking, foulmouthed Rocco Schiavone is an offbeat Deputy Commissioner of the State Police. For disciplinary reasons he is transferred to the Alpine town of Aosta, far from his beloved Rome. The sophisticated but cranky Roman despises the mountains, the cold, and the provincial locals as much as he disdains his superiors and their petty rules. But he loves solving crimes.

  • Sandokan
    Sandokan (2025)8.0

    Sandokan is a Malaysian pirate who, along with his friend Yanez and their crew, attacks the British forces from his island of Mompracem. During his adventures, he falls in love with Lady Marianna Guillonk, an English-Italian aristocrat.

  • Sanremo Music Festival
    Sanremo Music Festival (1951)7.8

    The Sanremo Music Festival is the most popular Italian song contest and awards, held annually in the town of Sanremo, Imperia, Italy, and consisting of a competition amongst previously unreleased songs. The Festival was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest.

  • Jesus of Nazareth
    Jesus of Nazareth (1977)7.8

    Dramatizes the Birth, Life, Ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, largely according to the Holy Bible's New Testament Gospels.

  • The Octopus
    The Octopus (1984)7.8

    An epic crime saga of power, money, violence and corruption. The mafia controls everything through local and international networks like an octopus, and anyone who tries to bring them down pays the ultimate price.

  • The Count of Monte Cristo
    The Count of Monte Cristo (2025)7.8

    Edmond Dantes, a sailor falsely accused of treason, is imprisoned in the Château d'If off Marseille. After escaping, and adopting the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, he plans revenge against those who wrongly accused him.

  • Medici: Masters of Florence
    Medici: Masters of Florence (2016)7.7

    The story of the Medici family of Florence, their ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparking an economic and cultural revolution. Along the way, they also accrue a long list of powerful enemies.

  • Un Professore
    Un Professore (2021)7.7

  • A doctor in the family
    A doctor in the family (1998)7.6

    The adventures of the unpredictable Martini family led by the tireless Grandpa Libero.

  • The Ladies' Paradise
    The Ladies' Paradise (2015)7.6

    Follow Teresa Iorio, a young woman who leaves her rural Sicilian hometown for Milan to find work--and much more--at a newly opened department store: The Ladies' Paradise.

  • 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.

  • Leonardo
    Leonardo (2021)7.3

    A fresh look at the life and legacy of the iconic artist Leonardo da Vinci, positing that he was a gay outsider who used his work as a way of hiding his true self. Each episode will examine one of da Vinci’s artworks for hidden clues about a tortured artist struggling for perfection.

  • Father Matteo
    Father Matteo (2000)6.3

    Don Matteo is a thoroughly ordinary Catholic priest with an extraordinary ability to read people and solve crimes. He’s a parish priest who never met an unjustly accused person he didn’t want to help.

  • Enchantment
    Enchantment (1998)5.5

    Incantesimo is a long-running drama series on Italian television, broadcast on the RAI network. It is set in a hospital called Clinica Life in Turin, Italy, and revolves around the life of the doctors and nurses in the hospital. According to the official website, it is "interested in social themes, the incoherence of daily life, solidarity, love and passion, not forgetting moments of comedy". Incantesimo was first broadcast in March 1997, is now in its 10th series and has broadcast 400 episodes. Incantesimo is also being broadcast on the Chinese CCTV 8 network, dubbed into Mandarin. Many notable Italian actors and actresses have starred in the series including, Orso Maria Guerrini, Delia Boccardo, Kaspar Capparoni, Paolo Malco, Guido Furlani, Alessio Boni, Vanessa Gravina, Paola Pitagora, Alessandra Acciai and Barbara Livi. The series was especially popular in Bulgaria, where it was aired on BNT 1 and Nova Television. In Armenia it was aired on ArmeniaTV and TV5 in Russian, as well as on Shant TV in Armenian.

  • One Step from Heaven
    One Step from Heaven (2011)5.1

    The investigations and adventures of the Forestry Corps of San Candido.