This week the ABC hosts their annual Showcase event on Thursday, revealing their content slate for the year ahead and Aunty always delivers with plenty of local content spanning news, current affairs, documentaries, comedy and general entertainment.
The ABC’s Upfronts (Showcase event) differ greatly from that of Australia’s commercial rivals and to a slightly lesser extent SBS, which is partially tax payer funded but also collects some revenue through advertising, in that their biggest critic is not advertising agencies or the media, but anyone who still watches FTA or regularly uses a BVOD service in this country.
As not the case with the other networks, there often aren’t a lot of leaked stories about programming decisions at ABC as they are usually very transparent with renewals or cancellations, and with a number of titles already confirmed to return or new for 2024 it will be interesting to see what the ABC dishes up.
TV Blackbox will have all all the announcements as they happen on Thursday, but we take a look below at what to expect from the ABC in 2024.
Confirmed as returning in 2024:
– Troppo S02
– The Newsreader S03
– Stuff the British Stole S02
– Total Control S03 (Final Season)
– Under the Vines S03
New in 2024:
– Arts Program hosted by Virginia Trioli (un-named)
– Ladies In Black
Expected to return in 2024:
– Bay of Fires S02 (Reportedly in development)
– Mystery Road: Origin (Prequel in development)
– Grand Designs Australia S19
– Kitchen Cabinet S08
– Hard Quiz S08
– Fisk S03
– Utopia S06
– Gruen S16
– The PM’s Daughter S03
– The Weekly with Charlie Pickering S10
– Gardening Australia S35
– News Breakfast
– 7.30
– Four Corners
– Australian Story
– Media Watch
– The Drum
– Catalyst
– Back Roads
– Insiders
– Offsiders
– Landline
– Foreign Correspondent
– Rage
Awaiting renewal for 2024:
– In Limbo
– First Weapons
– Aftertaste
– Queen of Oz
– Question Everything
– Old People’s Home for Teenagers
– Take 5 with Zan Rowe
– Mother and Son (reboot)
– WTFAQ
– Makers of Modern Australia
– War on Waste
– Gold Diggers
– New Leash on Life
– Restoration Australia
– The Black Hand
– Designing a Legacy
– Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café
– Great Australian Stuff
– Muster Dogs
– Better Date Than Never
– Planet America
– Q&A
Not expected to return
– First Weapons (limited series)
– In Our Blood (4 part limited series)
– Queerstralia (3 part limited series)
– Australia’s Wild Odyssey (3 part limited series)
– Ningaloo Nyinggulu (3 part documentary series)
– The Messenger (bumped due to low-ratings)
– Savage River (aired in 2022)
– Summer Love (aired in 2022)
Still to premiere in 2023:
– Australian Epic (Wed 8 November)
– The Way We Wore (Tues 21 November)
– Tony Armstrong’s Extra-Ordinary Things (Date TBA)
– House of Gods
– ABC’s New Year’s Eve
What about Aftertaste?
Good pickup there Ian! The ABC sure have quite a large slate of local programming, I’ve updated the article to include this.