2025 slate from Australia’s ABC led by kids, drama and comedy commissions

Bunya Entertainment’s Mystery Road: Origin is back for a second season

The ABC in Australia has unveiled a locally focused content slate for 2025, with 23 new titles across all genres, investment in arts programming and a renewed focus on kids’ TV.

Like other Australian broadcaster, the ABC has weathered a difficult year, punctuated by job cuts, high-profile executive departures and public scrutiny.

In his second Upfronts at the helm, chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor said the ABC remained the “largest commissioner of Australian content” and highlighted the importance of local and global partnerships.

“This is a partnership business, and it all comes together to tell Australian stories and make it all work. It’s hard to get Australian stories made and we have to fight for it. If this place doesn’t, no-one’s going to,” he said.

Speaking to C21, Oliver-Taylor said the broadcaster is trying to commission eight to 10 drama and comedy projects, but we would like to do more.

“Returning series with huge audience appeal, like The Newsreader, Bay of Fires and Mystery Road, are core to what we do,” he said.

Just as the ABC is vital to children’s content, drama is becoming dependent on the ABC as a free-to-air broadcaster. “It is as important as the kids’ space that drama, Australian scripted stories, are commissioned by the national broadcaster,” he said.

Turning to local investment, Oliver-Taylor said: “In terms of free-to-air, the ABC is now taking a leading role, and it needs to continue to do so. It’s very important that there is the right amount of funding for the ABC in drama and comedy so that we can continue to commission new series.”

Driving the ABC’s 2025 drama slate is The Family Next Door, based on Australian author Sally Hepworth’s novel and starring Teresa Palmer as a woman who moves into a seaside cul-de-sac where her obsessive drive to solve a mystery casts suspicion on four neighbouring families. It is produced by Beyond Entertainment and Muse Entertainment.

Optics, a workplace comedy that lifts the veil on everyday office politics with a corporate spin, has been created and stars two emerging comics, Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst, along with Charles Firth (The Chaser).

Original Australian comedy Fisk has been renewed for a fourth season after delivering the highest viewership behind Bluey on ABC’s iView platform and premiering to an audience of 2.5 million people on ABC TV and ABC iView.

Northern Pictures’ comedy Austin has been renewed, as has the reimagined ABC classic Mother & Son, from Wooden Horse. Bunya Entertainment’s Mystery Road: Origin also returns for S2, continuing to delve into the early years of detective Jay Swan (Mark Coles Smith).

Also lined up are S2 of Archipelago Production’s Bay of Fires, The Newsreader S3 and Return to Paradise, which is in development for a new season.

Renewed investment in arts and music content was evident as part of the broadcaster’s drive to stimulate engagement across all screen and audio platforms.

Six new arts-based shows will screen in primetime in 2025. These include a six-part version of UK pubcaster Channel 4’s format The Piano from Eureka, which sees amateur pianists audition publicly, watched by musicians Harry Connick Jr and Andrea Lam.

Actor and art afficionado Rachel Griffiths will host a new series from Mint Pictures, When the War is Over, which explores the art, poetry, music and film that shapes a society’s attitude to wars.

Meanwhile, Endemol Shine Australia is working on a local version of Portrait Artist of The Year.

Investment in new children’s content is at the top of the slate, hwith the launch of Andy Lee’s animated series Do Not Watch This Show, adapted from his best-selling book series, while Werner Films has developed preschool series Knee High Spies, combining live-action and puppetry.

Returning kids’ series include Kangaroo Beach, Tilt Media’s Fizzy & Suds, Hard Quiz Kids, Teenage Boss: Next Level, Space Nova, Good Game: Spawn Point, Good Game: Spawn Squad and Play School.

In the specialist, science and natural history documentary space, the ABC will debut The Role of a Lifetime, in while comedians explore parenting dilemmas. Western Australia’s natural history is showcased in new documentaries Orca: Australia’s Megapod and The Kimberley, and Miriam Margolyes takes on New Zealand in Miriam Margolyes: Made in NZ.

Tony Armstrong explores invasive plants and animals attacking Australia’s unique biodiversity in Eat The Invaders, and is also on a mission to find global solutions to the rising tide of racism in Australian sport in End Game. New ABC Indigenous original format Hear Me Out will tackle social and political issues from a First Nations point of view.

As previously announced, Ambience Entertainment’s Muster Dogs returns for S3 and I Was Actually There, The Assembly, Grand Designs Australia, Restoration Australia, Back Roads, Landline and Compass all return for new seasons.

Newly acquired global titles include rebooted UK detective series Bergerac from Blacklight TV, Stefan Moffat’s Douglas is Cancelled from ITV, crime drama Until I Kill You and Welsh drama The One That Got Away.