Two new noir-inspired detective stories and a comedic take on the real-life battles between Tasmania’s AFL teams have been added to ABC’s 2026 scripted lineup. The broadcaster announced its first timetable under new managing director Hugh Marks on Thursday.
It will draw on established talent for documentary and entertainment programming, including projects from Mark Fennell, Todd Sampson, Hamish McDonald and Sean Micallef, as well as formats featuring Tony Armstrong, Alex Lee, Julia Morris and Urgila Karlsson.
Marks, who replaced David Anderson earlier this year, told the National Press Club yesterday that ABC plans to deliver 60 prime-time premium TV series, up from 43 in 2025, adding that premium storytelling is “more relevant today than ever.”
“It could have more influence in informing the national debate than ever before,” he said.
“Our programs are better than any of the big streamers, and under-investing in them puts the nation at risk. We risk losing our sense of ourselves as Australians and under-investing in our national unity.”
After producing two seasons of Scrubland for Stan, Easy Tiger is taking on another adaptation of Chris Hammer’s 2021 novel Treasure and Dirt.
Michael Dorman and Liv Hewson play metropolitan homicide detective Ivan Lucic and former local constable Nell Buchanan, respectively, tasked with investigating the decapitation of a miner in a dying Opal town in the middle of the desert. As the events take a darker, more surreal turn, Ivan and Nell find it difficult to decide whether it’s the town or themselves that are being unraveled.
Hugh Marks at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
The series is being produced in partnership with the BBC and the South Australian Film Corporation, and filming is underway in South Australia. The series’ creative team consists of producer Rebecca Summerton and director Madeline Gottlieb, with an adaptation by EP’s Ian Colley, Rob Gibson and Matt Cameron, in collaboration with ABC’s Rebecca Anderson and Rachel O’Quinn. Sphere Abacus sells worldwide.
ABC will also work with the BBC on Dustfall, an adaptation of Vicki Petraitis’ 2022 crime thriller The Unbelieved, produced by Soapbox Pictures and Moonriver.
Currently filming on the Gold Coast, Anna Torv leads the series as veteran detective Tig, who returns to her hometown of North Gap after years in the city and solves a series of drunken assault cases, but the case takes a turn when one of the main suspects is found murdered. Kate Box and Jay Ryan are also part of the cast.
After The Party’s Diane Taylor created the series and co-wrote the script with Belinda Chayko and Stuart Page. Torv will serve as executive producer alongside director Xavier Marchand, Daisy Gilbert, Emma Freeman and producer Deb Balderstone. Brett Slay and Rachel O’Quinn served as executive producers for the ABC, which had a major production investment with Screen Australia. The series is being funded in partnership with Screen Queensland, with international sales handled by the federation.
Real-life drama, not fiction, forms the basis of Gristmill’s new comedy Ground Up, which centers on Tasmania’s efforts to enter the AFL.
As the state parliament prepares to decide the fate of Macquarie Point’s $1.13 billion covered stadium, which the league has certified as a condition for the Tasmanian Devils to compete in the 2028 tournament, GroundUp has proposed a humorous reimagining of the predicament.
Sean Micallef.
Sam Pang leads the comedy as an AFL administrator from Melbourne tasked with setting up the club. He encounters a divided population to gain support, oppressive deadlines to meet, rabid protesters to deal with, and the need to hire an inoffensive mascot. There’s also the small issue of finding coaches and players, which may ultimately lead to someone playing football.
Gary McCaffrey, known for his work on Sean Micallef’s Mad as Hell and Very Small Business, created the series and serves as producer along with director Wayne Hope, Robin Butler, and Mary-Ann Carroll. Hope and Butler also executive produce alongside Greg Sitch, ABC’s Todd Abbott, and Rachel O’Quinn. Screen Australia is providing the major production investment and Super Java Distribution is handling international sales. The series is currently in pre-production and is expected to begin filming in Tasmania next year.
Ground Up, Dustfall, Treasure and Dirt joins previously announced scripted titles Dog Park, Goolagong, Bad Company and Shakedown.
Jennifer Collins, ABC’s director of screens, told IF that the network always tries to have variety in its scripts.
“We make four to five dramas every year and then four more narrative comedies, so we always have crime in mind,” she said.
“On the other hand, Goolagong is clearly a true story and a real story about our national identity. And in a piece like Dustfall, it has a special lead in Anna Torv, who viewers know from Newsreader. It’s a very timely, thought-provoking and powerful piece in terms of gender-based violence, which is an area that I think is really important to talk about, but also that fascinating detective work that we know.” ABC viewers love it. ”
Today’s announcement provided no additional information about The Great White, the see-saw courtroom drama that distributor Media One announced at MIPCOM last month, with Collins confirming the series will air on the network in 2027. Collins also said that while there are no plans for a second season of the comedy “Optics,” ABC is “delighted” to work with creators Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst again.
Mark Fennell.
“We’re always looking for vehicles for really great comedians, writers and talent like Vic and Jenna,” she said.
As for documentaries, ABC has announced two additional collaborations with Northern Pictures to coincide with its co-production of Ages of Ice with PBS. The company will collaborate with Arrow Media on Rolf Harris: Can You Tell What I Am Yet?, a two-part documentary that explores the sinister truth behind the once-popular performer, as well as The Matter of Facts, hosted by Hamish MacDonald, which examines the onslaught of misinformation.
After trying to understand this country’s love affair with alcohol in 2020’s On the Source, Sean Micallef will take a similarly sober look at gambling in Sean Micallef’s Going for Broke, produced by CJZ.
Other topics covered in the documentary include modern masculinity and the rise of the online “manosphere” in New Mac’s The State of Man, hosted by Helium Pictures and Mark Fennell. Mint Pictures’ Tampa: The Boat That Turned the Tide, starring Sarah Ferguson, depicts Tampa’s 2001 boating crisis. Wildbear Entertainment decision: High Court of Australia in case that changed Australia. and Film Company and Lorin Clark Productions’ film about the life of the late satirist John Clark, which will be screened on the ABC following its world premiere and theatrical release at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival.
Diverse communities around the world will also be put under the microscope in Baltimore Filmmaker Todd Sampson’s Why?, in which Gruen’s panel will delve into “the tangled lives of donor fathers, the advanced fears of Doomsday Preppers, the mystical beliefs of an alien church, and the deadly desires of BASE jumpers.”
Former ABC News Breakfast host Tony Armstrong, who led two unscripted projects this year, Eat the Invaders and End Game, will step into the entertainment world in 2026 to host Always Was Tonight, a satirical news show that promises to “decolonize the news one headline at a time.”
ABC also welcomes back Alex Lee as host of “Tonight at the Museum,” an original format produced by i8 Studios, five years after appearing on the game show “Win the Week.” The original format, which will take place in front of a live audience at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, will see Lee guide four celebrity contestants through a game based on rare objects from the museum’s collection.
Tony Armstrong.
Education and comedy also come together in Warner Bros. International Television Productions Australia’s (WBITPA) fellow entertainment format, Class Clowns. As part of the competition series, a group of sociopathic comedians will be divided into three houses and, under the watchful eye of Principal Julia Morris, will work in pairs to complete ridiculous challenges based on classic school subjects.
It is one of two comedy formats WBITPA will produce for the broadcaster next year, alongside Urjira, a series that delves into the mind of New Zealand comedian Urjira Carlson through a bespoke mix of stand-up and skits.
Rounding out the entertainment will be a reboot of the creative competition series “Race Around the World,” which was announced earlier this month and will feature Zan Lowe as host and previous contestant John Safran as judge.
The majority of the broadcaster’s children’s and family titles for 2026 have already been announced, including The Story of Shaun Tan, the Australian-Canadian Singapore co-production It’s Andrew, Flower & Flower and Caper Crew.
Two Indigenous titles have been added to the mix at the forefront. AllStory Pictures’ Dance With Tom combines live action and animation to bring to life the vibrant stories of Australia’s Indigenous culture through dance. and Vishus Productions’ “Gurta Shuharana Lullaby with King Stingray,” an animated version of a restless joey named Ruby who stares into a campfire and watches the embers rise, float into the air, and turn into a shining star.
Returning are ‘Do Not Watch This Show’, ‘Fizzy & Suds’, ‘Gardening Australia Junior’, ‘Ginger and the Vegesaurs’, ‘Good Game Spawn Squad’, ‘Hard Quiz Kids’ and ‘Play School’.
Other programs returning to the ABC in 2026 include Back Roads, Compass, Dr Karl’s How Things Work, Grand Designs Transformations, I WasActual There, Kitchen Cabinets, Landline, Muster Dogs, Muster Dogs: Where Are They Now, Restoration Australia, Stuff The British Stole, The Assembly, Creative Types with Virginia Trioli, Front Row with Megan Burslem, Take 5 With Zan Row and The Includes Piano.
Across entertainment, new seasons of Gardening Australia, Gruen, Guy Montgomerie’s Guy Mon Spelling Bee, Hard Quiz, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, The Offsiders, Spix and Specs, That Blackfella Show, The Weekly and The Yearly with Charlie Pickering are coming.
