The Best TV Shows on ABC TV

Every ABC TV Show Ranked From Best To Worst

With its programming history stretching from 1961 to 2018, ABC TV offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. Stay up-to-date with over 20 of ABC TV’s elite series, with our list refreshed for September 2025. Notable series such as Four Corners and Police Rescue from ABC TV first graced the screens in 1961 and 1991.

  • Ready, Steady, Wiggle!
    Ready, Steady, Wiggle! (2013)9.7

    New and old friends join The Wiggles for their musical adventures in Wiggle Town, learning lessons and solving problems as they go.

  • Janus
    Janus (1994)9.0

    Janus is an Australian drama television series screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1994 and 1995. Two series were produced, with a total of 26 episodes. Janus was a spin-off series from the earlier ABC-TV crime series Phoenix. Loosely based on the true story of Melbourne's Pettingill family and the Walsh Street police shootings, Janus follows the bitterly-fought prosecutions of a notorious criminal family, the Hennesseys, from the viewpoints of the family, the police and, in particular, the lawyers, prosecutors, barristers and judges involved in all aspects of the story. When the series begins, four members of the infamous Hennessey clan are acquitted of the shooting of two young policemen in a bungled bank heist. The city of Melbourne is shocked as brothers Mal and Steve, along with brother-in-law Darren Mack and friend Ken Hardy, walk free. The prosecutors, judges, magistrates and police—many modelled heavily on real-life legal figures—are determined to put the Hennessey members behind bars if they can. But corruption, legal loopholes, delays, and stretched resources combine to make the quest to jail the group far from straightforward.

  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries
    The Doctor Blake Mysteries (2013)7.8

    Dr Lucien Blake left Ballarat as a young man. But now he finds himself returning to take over not only his dead father's medical practice, but also his on-call role as the town's police surgeon, only to find change is afoot, nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.

  • Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
    Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012)7.7

    Our lady sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920’s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. Leaving a trail of admirers in her wake, our thoroughly modern heroine makes sure she enjoys every moment of her lucky life. Based on author Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Murder Mystery novels.

  • Please Like Me
    Please Like Me (2013)7.7

    After breaking up with his girlfriend, Josh comes to the realization that he is homosexual. With the support of his now ex girlfriend Claire, and his best friend and house mate Tom, Josh must help his mother with her battle with depression and the rest of his family embrace his new found lifestyle.

  • Harrow
    Harrow (2018)7.6

    When a dark secret from this past threatens to be exposed, unorthodox and brilliant medical examiner, Doctor Daniel Harrow, must use all his forensic skills to keep it buried forever.

  • Rake
    Rake (2010)7.5

    Cleaver Greene is not about politics or morality or even justice. Cleaver Greene is about the law. And it is his passion for the law that drives him to use his formidable intelligence to defend people whom society and the justice system might otherwise convict without a fair trial. He uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of human nature and the Byzantine intricacies of our legal codes to guarantee that his clients get what is theirs by the law; the right to a diligent defence.

  • Upper Middle Bogan
    Upper Middle Bogan (2013)7.2

    Follow the stories of two families living at opposite ends of the freeway. Bess Denyar is a doctor with a posh mother, Margaret, an architect husband, Danny Bright, and twin 13-year-olds at a private school, Oscar and Edwina. When Bess finds out that she is adopted, she is stunned, but even more so when she meets her birth parents, Wayne and Julie Wheeler. She also discovers that she has three siblings: Amber, Kayne and Brianna. The bogan Wheelers head up a drag racing team in the outer suburbs and are thrilled to discover the daughter they thought they had lost.

  • Spicks and Specks
    Spicks and Specks (2005)7.1

    Adam Hills, one of Australia's favourite comedians and winner of Edinburgh's Best of the Fest award, is joined by two team captains, comedian and actor Alan Brough and radio breakfast announcer Myf Warhurst, as well as brave personalities who enjoy having long forgotten embarrassing stories laughed about on national television. Two teams go head to head as they sing, shout and delve deep into the recesses of their collective minds to help earn their team an extremely inglorious victory.

  • Phoenix
    Phoenix (1992)7.0

    Phoenix is an Australian police drama television series. Phoenix screened as two thirteen-part series on Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1992 and 1993. The first series of Phoenix in 1992 recounted the investigation of the bombing of the Victorian state police headquarters, loosely based on a real case in the mid-1980s, the Russell Street Bombing. It was aided by extensive research into police techniques and was lauded as one of the most realistic depictions of police investigation techniques, including both surveillance and forensics, as well as having an involving storyline. The series was notable for its dark visual tone and for its no-holds-barred attitude to violence and language. It spawned a second thirteen-part series, Phoenix II, in 1993 as well as a spin-off series, Janus, in 1994 devoted to the machinations of court cases. The series was created and produced by Tony McDonald and Alison Nisselle and screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ABC have released Series 1 and 2 on DVD as a 4 DVD box set.

  • Heartbreak High
    Heartbreak High (1994)7.0

    The ins and outs of the classroom lives of a group of students who attend the fictional Hartley High School in Sydney.

  • Four Corners
    Four Corners (1961)6.9

    Four Corners is Australia's longest-running investigative journalism/current affairs television program. Broadcast on ABC1 in Australia, it premiered on 19 August 1961 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021. Founding producer Robert Raymond and his successor Allan Ashbolt did much to set the ongoing tone of the program. Based on the Panorama concept, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary from overseas. The program has won many awards for investigative journalism, and broken many high-profile stories. A notable early example of this was the show's epoch-making 1962 exposé on the appalling living conditions endured by many Aboriginal Australians living in rural New South Wales.

  • Glitch
    Glitch (2015)6.8

    A police officer and a doctor face an emotionally charged mystery when seven local residents inexplicably return from the dead in peak physical form.

  • Jack Irish
    Jack Irish (2016)6.8

    Jack Irish is a man getting his life back together again. A former criminal lawyer whose world imploded, he now spends his days as a part-time investigator, debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, punter and sometime lover – the complete man really. An expert in finding those who don’t want to be found – dead or alive, Jack helps out his mates while avoiding the past. That is until the past finds him.

  • Police Rescue
    Police Rescue (1991)6.4

    Police Rescue was an Australian television series The series dealt with the New South Wales Police Rescue Squad based in Sydney and their work attending to various incidents from road accidents to train crashes.

  • The Wiggles
    The Wiggles (1998)6.0

    A show geared for babies up to older toddlers. This show is full of music, teaching kids songs and easy dances.

  • Bananas in Pyjamas
    Bananas in Pyjamas (1992)5.3

    Bananas in Pyjamas is an Australian children's television show that premiered on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since become syndicated in many different countries, and dubbed into other languages. In the United States, the "Pyjamas" in the title was modified to reflect the American spelling pajamas. This aired in syndication from 1995 to 1997 as a half-hour series, then became a 15-minute show paired with a short-lived 15-minute series The Crayon Box, under a 30-minute block produced by Sachs Family Entertainment titled Bananas in Pajamas & The Crayon Box. Additionally, the characters and a scene from the show were featured in the Kids for Character sequel titled Kids for Character: Choices Count. The pilot episode was Pink Mug.

  • Australian Story
    Australian Story (1996)4.8

    Putting the "real" back into reality television, Australian Story is an award-winning documentary series with no narrator and no agendas — just authentic stories told entirely in people's own words.

  • Q&A
    Q&A (2008)3.8

    Hosted by Hamish Macdonald, Q&A puts punters, pollies and pundits together in the studio to thrash out the hot issues of the week. It's about democracy in action - the audience gets to ask the questions.

  • Something in the Air
    Something in the Air (2000)2.0

    Something in the Air was an Australian television soap opera transmitted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2000 and 2002. It was one of the first programs in Australia that was filmed in widescreen. It won the AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series in 2001.