The Best TV Shows on TVNZ 1

Every TVNZ 1 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Explore our list of the top rated shows up to date from October 2026 that includes over 20 unique series. For top-tier entertainment, TVNZ 1 delivered City Life and Jackson's Wharf in 1996 and 1999. A broadcaster of distinction, TVNZ 1 has aired more than 20 shows between 1996 and 2026.

  • Dancing with the Stars
    Dancing with the Stars (2005)10.0

    The New Zealand version of the British “Strictly Come Dancing” show sees celebrities perform choreographed dance routines which are judged by a panel of renowned ballroom experts and voted on by viewers.

  • Auckward Love
    Auckward Love (2015)10.0

    Auckward Love is show about women doing women stuff. Follow Alice, Vicky, Zoe and Grace as they experience love, lust , and everything else.

  • Jackson's Wharf
    Jackson's Wharf (1999)8.0

    Jackson's Wharf was a New Zealand television series created by Gavin Strawhan and Rachel Lang. Set in a fictional coastal town, the series told the story of a sibling rivalry between brothers Frank, the town cop, and Ben Jackson, a big-town lawyer. After inheriting the local pub from his recently deceased father, Ben returns to the small town with his family, with his arrival bringing its fair sheer of drama and conflict to the small township.

  • The Brokenwood Mysteries
    The Brokenwood Mysteries (2014)7.6

    In a seemingly quiet country town the newest resident, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, finds that murder lurks in even the most homely location.

  • My Life Is Murder
    My Life Is Murder (2019)7.2

    Investigator Alexa Crowe, cannot help fighting the good fight – whether it is solving murders or combatting the small frustrations of everyday life. Fearless and unapologetic, Alexa's unique skills and insights into the darker quirks of human nature, allows her to provoke, comfort and push the right buttons as she unravels the truth behind the most baffling of crimes.

  • The Dead Lands
    The Dead Lands (2020)7.2

    Waka, a murdered Māori warrior returned from the Afterlife, and Mehe, a determined young woman, embark on a quest to find who "broke the world" and how to close the breach between the living and the dead.

  • The New Legends of Monkey
    The New Legends of Monkey (2018)7.1

    Follow a teenage girl and a trio of fallen gods on a perilous journey as they attempt to bring an end to a demonic reign of chaos and restore balance to their world. Inspired by the 16th Century Chinese fable “Journey to the West.”

  • The Gone
    The Gone (2023)7.1

    It follows Theo Richter, an Irish detective who teams with Kiwi cop Diana Huia to find a young Irish couple vanish from an infamous rural North Island New Zealand town. Amidst the search and a race against time, the pair have to contend with a community’s growing disquiet that the disappearances may be linked to a series of historical murders.

  • Mercy Peak
    Mercy Peak (2001)7.0

    Mercy Peak was a New Zealand television series that ran for three seasons on local network TV One, between 2001 and 2004. The series rated well in New Zealand and won multiple awards for its cast. Though an ensemble show, Mercy Peak centres on a doctor who leaves the city to work at a hospital in the small town of Bassett. She works alongside stuffy but caring doctor William Kingsley. The series was produced by Auckland company South Pacific Pictures; a number of those who worked on the show would have a big hand in South Pacific Pictures hit Outrageous Fortune, including co-creator Rachel Lang, directors Mark Beesley and Simon Bennett, and producer John Laing.

  • The Luminaries
    The Luminaries (2020)6.6

    The 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

  • A Remarkable Place to Die
    A Remarkable Place to Die (2024)6.1

    Anaís Mallory is a smart and savvy homicide investigator who after returning to her hometown, and taking the lead detective position, faces a series of startlingly complex murders with links to her family's tragic history.

  • After the Party
    After the Party (2023)6.0

    Penny’s world implodes when she accuses her husband Phil of a sex crime against her daughter’s teenage friend and nobody believes her.

  • City Life
    City Life (1996)5.0

    City Life was a New Zealand soap opera that screened on TVNZ from 1996-1998. It was portrayed the lives and loves of ten singles who lived in an upmarket apartment building in Auckland, New Zealand. The show was touted as New Zealand's answer to Melrose Place. The show starred Claudia Black, Lisa Chappell, Laurie Foell and Oliver Driver and featured a guest appearance by well known New Zealand actor, Kevin Smith. The show had a long development period, and the original treatment for the show had it set in Wellington with the working title 96 Oriental Parade. However, it was decided to produce the show in Auckland instead, and as such, the shows setting was changed along with the name to City Life. The first episode began with a controversial first scene, featuring a drunken Damon who owned the apartment building, in a homosexual kiss with his former lover Ryan on the night before his wedding. Damon was later killed off in the same episode after being hit by a car on the way to his wedding, and he left his apartment building to all of his friends. However, Damon's fianceè vowed to fight for her share of Damon's estate, leading to a storyline that would span the show's first five episodes.

  • Nothing Trivial
    Nothing Trivial (2011)5.0

    Nothing Trivial is funny, warm and romantic and about people at a crossroads in their lives, particularly when it comes to finding that significant other to love and grow old with. It’s about people trying to find the answers to life’s big questions, while answering a whole lot of small and trivial ones… and winning the bar tab while they’re at it!

  • Blue Murder Motel
    Blue Murder Motel (2026)4.8

    When an Aussie cop couple trade their badges for a quiet life managing a beachside motel in New Zealand, they plan to leave police work behind them - that is until crime comes to them.

  • The Bad Seed
    The Bad Seed (2019)3.8

    Two brothers from the same dysfunctional family, having escaped the desperate days of their early childhood, find their newly ordered lives falling apart when one becomes a suspect in a murder.

  • Dog Squad
    Dog Squad (2010)N/A

    Man's best friend keeps would-be trouble makers on a short leash.

  • Auckland Daze
    Auckland Daze (2011)N/A

    The series is a spoof comedy that follows four hapless wannabes - a model, a stuntman, a dwarf entertainer and a stand-up comedian who are all chasing fame in Auckland's ridiculously small entertainment industry. Starring a number of local talents including Millen Baird (The Millen Baird Show), Jennifer Ward-Lealand (Xena: Warrior Princess), Natalie Medlock (Shortland Street) and Glen Levy, the stuntman described by National Geographic as "the 20th deadliest man on the planet". Auckland Daze takes the interactive experience that made Reservoir Hill a success to the next level. Screening on TVNZ Ondemand, which has over three hundred thousand unique viewers per month, Auckland Daze will also be embedded into Facebook where viewers will be able to watch, "like" and share the episodes with their friends without having to leave their Facebook profile. After the episode, the audience will be prompted to say what they think.

  • The Great Kiwi Bake Off
    The Great Kiwi Bake Off (2018)N/A

    From biscuits to bread, pies to pavlovas, 12 amateur Kiwi bakers have their skills put to the test. Will they rise to the challenge?

  • The Panthers
    The Panthers (2021)N/A

    Auckland, 1974 - in the face of increased racial-targeting, a group of Polynesian students and street gangsters form a revolutionary movement for justice and equality.