The Best TV Shows on RTP1

Every RTP1 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

With its programming history stretching from 1956 to 2022, RTP1 offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. Highlighting RTP1’s quality programming, Eurovision Song Contest and Festival da Canção stand out, premiering in 1956 and 1964. As of March 2026, our compilation of RTP1’s top-rated series boasts over 20 unique shows.

  • Sim, Chef!
    Sim, Chef! (2017)10.0

    Vítor Guerreiro, the authoritarian and eccentric Chef of the uber-chic Lisbon restaurant “Divina Comédia” hires Manuel, a bumbling interviewee from Braga, in order to irritate the manager Kika.

  • Tell Me How It Happened
    Tell Me How It Happened (2007)8.7

    Television drama series which has been broadcast on RTP1 of Rádio e Televisão de Portugal from 2007 to 2011 and since 2019. It recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Lopes (Portuguese: Os Lopes), during the last years of the Estado Novo. In February 2019, RTP announced that the series, after eight years shelved, would be renewed, with the storyline moving firmly into the 1980s. The first episode of the sixth season was broadcast on 7 December 2019 with the Lopes entering 1984.

  • 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.

  • A Criação
    A Criação (2017)7.0

    A fable with people and furrys about the creative industry and the commercial arts.

  • Silent Cargo
    Silent Cargo (2022)6.3

    November 2019. A semi-submersible loaded with three tons of cocaine is seized off the Galician coast after having crossed the Atlantic. The captain, Nando, a promising young amateur boxer, travels accompanied by a Brazilian mechanic and a Colombian hitman. Three strangers locked up for almost a month in a claustrophobic handmade boat.

  • 21st Avenue
    21st Avenue (2008)6.0

    Raul Vasconcelos and Helena Brito founded a partnership over 20 years ago and has over a hundred lawyers in its service. Raul has an ego as big as the world and it was that self-assuredness that made him notorious in the courtroom. Besides being an astute lawyer, he’s a hopeless playboy who with age developed the tendency to say and do whatever he feels like. His trouble is that he’s constantly abusing that privilege. Helena is a confident woman, albeit more discreet and concerned about the firm's public perception, constantly considering how her actions might negatively affect the partnership and its bottom line. Her personality led her to take over managing the firm, taking care of all bureaucratic affairs. Other lawyers stand out in the firm, as is the case of Pedro Pimentel, who just made senior partner. He’s impeccably put together and has a smile that wins over most women, but behind this agreeable façade of his there’s a person with a lust for power and fame.

  • Festival da Canção
    Festival da Canção (1964)N/A

    Festival da Canção or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal to choose the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

  • Cinzas
    Cinzas (1992)N/A

  • Verão Quente
    Verão Quente (1993)N/A

  • Nico d'Obra
    Nico d'Obra (1993)N/A

  • A Banqueira do Povo
    A Banqueira do Povo (1993)N/A

  • Na Paz dos Anjos
    Na Paz dos Anjos (1994)N/A

  • Desencontros
    Desencontros (1995)N/A

  • Vidas de Sal
    Vidas de Sal (1996)N/A

  • Filhos do Vento
    Filhos do Vento (1997)N/A

  • Terra Mãe
    Terra Mãe (1998)N/A

  • A Lenda da Garça
    A Lenda da Garça (1999)N/A

  • Ajuste de Contas
    Ajuste de Contas (2000)N/A

  • A Senhora das Águas
    A Senhora das Águas (2001)N/A

  • Father by Chance
    Father by Chance (2009)N/A

    An unlikely love with a happy ending... At age 40, Miguel is at the top of his career as a plastic surgeon, having reached the fame and fortune he worked so hard for. He’s a hopeless bachelor, never committing to any real relationship. This is not just by choice, his situation is a result of never having met his parents and being raised in a children’s home. But, overnight, a simple phone call will change his life entirely, making him recall a point in his life that he’d rather forget. His best friend from the institution was just killed in a car crash along with his wife, but left written instructions behind stating that, if something should happen to him, Miguel should be given custody of his three children, 12-year-old Simão, 8-year-old Jaime and 6-year-old Beatriz. Initially, Miguel will try to dismiss himself from any responsibility but, after meeting the kids, he realizes that he has no choice but to bring them home.