ABC has the biggest, bumper slate of new Australian shows for your edification. Take a look under the hood here.
EXCLUSIVE:
With so many shows on ABC’s annual schedule, including many specials and short-run series, it’s always impossible to encompass them all in a single story.
There’s even so many new offerings in 2026 that several have already debuted: the excellent Goolagong, But Also John Clarke and Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia amongst them.
Muster Dogs returned for a fourth season last night, now with rookie trainers learning to raise young pups, partnering with new dramedy Dog Park starring Leon Ford and Celia Pacquola.
“It’s just such a beautiful show,” says Jennifer Collins ABC Director Screen.
“Leon Ford’s created this beautiful ensemble cast, with Celia Pacquola as a fantastic, optimistic character, who plays against Leon’s character, Roland, who’s grumpy. He begrudgingly joins a community of dog lovers at their local dog park. It’s a feelgood, warm, drama about belonging, loneliness and community.
“The joy of this timeslot is having Muster Dogs leaning into leading into Dog Park. Dogs are something that we’ve lent into at ABC from Bluey to Muster Dogs to now Dog Park. I think those audiences will find everything that they love about Muster Dogs is there in a dramatised form.”
Q1’s Monday line-up features Australian Story, Four Corners, Media Watch, Planet America while the news division has announced ABC National Forum hosted by David Speers in a yet-to-be-revealed timeslot. Collins confirms these will feature across the year in response to big topics -the first around the lives and experiences of Jewish Australians following the Bondi attack.
Todd Sampson’s Why? explores BASE jumping, Donor Dads, Doomsday Preppers, Alien Church worshippers.
“ABC is the natural home of Todd. I’ve seen the full series of this one, and each of them is completely different. I love the way that he goes into these communities with a really open mind, doesn’t judge, doesn’t challenge, very much just elicits the motivation….He is very much embedding, where he can, and immersing himself in people’s lives,” she says.
Alex Lee hosts entertainment series Tonight at the Museum where celebrities are quizzed on artifacts in front of an audience.
“The joy of this show is that it does play into curiosity, and I think science, history, all those educational elements, but presented in such a fun, light, smart way. It’s perfectly designed for an ABC audience, in that it does have that mix of smart game play and pure entertainment, Collins continues.
“What also makes this show distinctive is that it is set in a museum. So we’re out of the studio and right in the middle of Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery, and it’s able to leverage not only the objects that are in the museum, but also the staff and the experts that sit around that curated space. It’s good, good co-viewing, family entertainment.”
The Piano returns for a second season now with Guy Sebastian joining Andrea Lam and host Amanda Keller. Prepare for more uplifting, emotional stories says Collins.
“There’s 22 year old Felicia, whose oldest sister played piano but sadly passed away. She comes in and plays a traditional Chinese song, and talks about how the piano just connects her family together and that they can celebrate Florence’s life through the piano. Just a gorgeous story,” she explains.
“100 year old Betty comes in and plays, ‘It Had to Be You’ thinking of how beautiful her husband was, Louis, who she lost at 53 … Erin from Sydney, who is the daughter of Steve Mortimer plays a lullaby and talks about Steve going through his dementia, brought about by head repetitive head trauma. The piano and the songwriting helped her process what he was going through.”
Hamish Macdonald presents The Matter of Facts in which he deep dives into our trusting of information in 2026.
“It’s about his exploration of misinformation, disinformation, how we can identify misinformation and disinformation, what makes us vulnerable to the algorithms of social media? ” she asks.
“Why are we so susceptible to being tricked and scammed, and the fact that we land in these echo chambers and only hearing one conversation? He’s exploring, over the top of this, what happens if we lose our faith in facts? Where does that leave us navigating a world where truth and lies can be indistinguishable?
“It starts in Jindabyne, his home town actually, around a massive fight around the Brumbies there, and how the two sides can’t even agree on the basic facts of how many Brumbies are in that area. There’s one side who are wanting to cull, one side that that fiercely don’t want to cull, but they’re not even working from a fact base.”
The Assembly S3 features interviews with Andy Lee, Claudia, Karvan, Jimmy Barnes, Dave Hughes, Jess Mauboy and Ian Thorpe.
A new scripted comedy Bad Company marks Anne Edmonds’ first scripted series since short-run series Edge of the Bush. She joins Kitty Flanagan in a workplace comedy aout a theatre company on the brink of bankruptcy.
“To have Kitty and Anne on our screens is a real privilege, and seeing these strong character archetypes going head to head is hilarious. It also has a fantastic ensemble… it has relatable moments but it does take us into some completely unexpected and bizarre territory at times.”
Also returning are Gruen and Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee while Urzila Carlson leads her own comedy series, aptly titled, Urzila.
“I’ve seen one episode and I laughed from beginning to end, it is just delightfully naughty, laugh out loud,” Collins declares. “Urzila owns this show 100%. It’s her on stage doing stand up comedy, and then intercut with sketches and she’s joined by an extraordinary ensemble of people like Sam Pang, Julia Morris and Nazeem Hussain.
Doco series Shaun Micallef’s Going for Broke looks at Australia’s love affair with gambling.
“Shaun brings his wit, but he also brings in equal measures, his empathy and his interrogation and inquiry. It was a surprise to me that he’s never stepped into an RSL before. He’s not gambled previously. So he walks into it really trying to understand this national pastime and but also explores how people get drawn into that group of addiction. Australians lose nearly $32 billion every year. We spend more on gambling than we do on drinking.”
Quized on her own first hand experience, Collins reveals, “No, I don’t partake in gambling.”
Also coming in Q2 is the ambitious revival of Race Around the World, which Collins originally worked on in the 1990s. Solo storytellers will crisscross the globe to create 10 spectacular films, in 10 countries, in 100 days.
“The show is going to stay true to the DNA of the original, but there will be some new elements. But ultimately, it’s all about the racers and their films, which will sit between about 2.5 – 4 minutes. Zan Rowe and John Safran are super excited about the cast that are coming through, which will be locked off in the next few weeks, I imagine.”
A bog change to the original sees the series screen while racers will still be en route -plus the addition editing on the fly and the audience with social media.
“Everything’s in real time this time. They’ll have to be able to manage all of that and respond to judging in the studio and social media, and still be able to continue on the race and make those films,” she adds.
Sam Pang leads his first scripted series Ground Up, as an AFL administrator Hugh Shen tasked with establishing a football club in Tasmania. From Gristmill’s Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope, it is now filming with cast including Marg Downey, Lucy Durack, Dave Thornton, and Emma Harvie.
Stuff the British Stole with Marc Fennell is back for a third sesaon whilst two-part documentary Rolf Harris: Can You Tell What I Am Yet? charts the rise and dowfall of Rolf Harris.
Quarter 3 features new drama series Treasure & Dirt which kicks off with a death in an opal mining town in South Australia.
It’s directed by Madeleine Gottlieb, who has done an extraordinary job. She just brings this very distinct visual signature to the direction, lots of stylistic flourish. She creates a very atmospheric, menacing environment. Michael Dorman, who plays Ivan and Liv Hewson, who plays Nell are wonderful. There’s this real feel of being uncomfortable, and it’s very disorienting. I think this is really very distinctive to what else we’ve got on the drama slate, and it really stands out.
“I kept thinking when I was watching this we are so lucky with the range of locations we have in Australia.”
In Class Clowns, six comedians, Dave Hughes, Nina Oyama, Luke McGregor, Bron Lewis, Matt Okine and Becky Lucas are back in the classroom for a competition series.
“Julia Morris is relishing being the principal. It has terrific gameplay, really well designed, very relatable challenges all around our favourite school subjects, like physics and geography and mathematics.”
Annabel Crabb revives Kitchen Cabinet, whilst Portrait Artist of the Year returns.
Collins flags big hopes for new Q4 drama series Dustfall, a ‘Tropic Noir’ detective series set against Queensland canefields. Starring Anna Torv it also features Juliet Stevenson, Kate Box, Zoe Phillips and Lila McGuire.
“I think this is going to be the watercooler drama of 2026, for us. The extraordinary team of Anna Torv and Emma Freeman back together after working so well for us with The Newsreader. This one’s really propulsive, atmospheric, gripping. Anna never ceases to amaze me with how brilliant she is. But this one also deals with sexual predatory behaviour. There’s some tough themes sitting behind it, but it is absolutely world class.
“It’s going to spark that national conversation about predatory behaviour and consent and the failings of the justice system for victims of sexual assault. This is one not to miss.”
3 part series State of Man in Q4 sees Marc Fennell delve into what it means to be a man in Australia today.
“It’s very provocative. It plunges into the heart of radicalised masculinity in Australia, which is a tough place to be. Messages of dominance, misogyny are spreading into Australian homes through that online manosphere.
“It’s unflinching. It’s shocking. Marc was out following different men at rallies over the weekend. it’s going to be very immersive in the way he makes that his shows. I think it’s a really important issue right now in Australia.”
Also screening are I Was Actually There S3, a third season of Austin, Return to Paradise and new Robodebt drama Shakedown produced by Lingo Pictures.
Amongst Kid’s titles this year are Flower & Flour, It’s Andrew! and live action series Caper Crew. But no new Bluey?
“We always look at what opportunities there are around Bluey. There may be some small minisodes, but nothing to announce at this stage.”
Jennifer Collins ABC Director Screen.
Amongst the many other returnees are Take 5 With Zan Rowe, Back Roads, Restoration Australia, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Gardening Australia, Spicks and Specks, The Yearly with Charlie Pickering, Creative Types, Compass and Foreign Correspondent.
In development with a view to returning sometime are The Family Next Door, Mystery Road: Origin, whilst Crime Night! and The Art Of are both in discussion.
ABC has no further plans for more of Bay of Fires, Mother & Son or Claire Hooper’s House of Games.
Finally, Collins observes of a swathe of new and original formats, “I’m really proud… it adds really great female talent to a very male-skewing slate.
“We have some fantastic male performers in people like Guy Montgomery, Charlie, Tom, Will, Adam Hills. But having Zan Rowe, Urzila, Julia Morris and Alex Lee in the slate really does actually now bring that slate together in a really nice way.”