The BEST CBC (CA) shows of all time
Every CBC (CA) show, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every CBC (CA) show to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - Penn & Teller's Magic & Mystery Tour
Focuses on street magic in the countries known for their old legacy of magic. Penn and Teller visit three countries, in three episodes and get to know the classical magic from that area. The countries featured are China, India and Egypt.
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#2 - Degrassi High
The young denizens of Degrassi Street in Toronto, Canada, having graduated from one television series, Kids of Degrassi Street, to another, Degrassi Junior High, confront life as teenagers during the heady, late 1980s in Degrassi High. Produced in Canada and seen in America on cable and PBS, the sometimes-controversial series confronts serous issues (adolescent pregnancy, AIDS, suicide) in a head-on way, often to the annoyance of TV censors.
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#3 - Anne of Green Gables (1985)
Filmed amidst the spectacular scenery of Prince Edward Island, these Emmy Award-winning productions span two decades, from Anne’s struggles as an orphan in a small maritime community, to her triumphs as a young teacher and as a volunteer searching for her husband on the battlefields of Europe.
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#4 - Anne with an E
A coming-of-age story about an outsider who, against all odds and numerous challenges, fights for love and acceptance and for her place in the world. The series centers on a young orphaned girl in the late 1890’s, who, after an abusive childhood spent in orphanages and the homes of strangers, is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly spinster and her aging brother. Over time, 13-year-old Anne will transform their lives and eventually the small town in which they live with her unique spirit, fierce intellect and brilliant imagination.
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#5 - The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show is a self-proclaimed parody of many country fishing and handyman TV shows. Red Green is a bearded Canadian carpenter who's really handy with his hands and can find great uses for duct tape. He hosts with his nerdy nephew, Harold. Trying to teach the viewers how to make excellent and useful crafts, as well as give marriage advice, from their home at Possum Lodge.
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#6 - Heartland (2007) (CA)
Life is hard on the Flemings' ranch in the Alberta foothills where abused or neglected horses find refuge with a kind, hard-working family. Debts abound and the bank is about to foreclose. Can they keep the ranch running?
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#7 - The Kids in the Hall
Get ready for sketch comedy … Canadian style! The Kids In The Hall are a hilarious sketch comedy troupe. They got their name from a comedian named Jack Benny, who would often end a joke by saying: “I got this from the kids in the hall”, referring to the amateur comedians who would hang around outside his office. KITH was formed in 1984 when McCulloch and McKinney, who had worked together in Calgary as part of a group named the Audience, teamed up with Foley and McDonald’s Toronto-based group, KITH. Thompson officially joined in January 1985. That same year, McCulloch and McKinney were hired as writers for NBC’s Saturday Night Live after a talent scout saw KITH in performance. Significantly, SNL had also been created by Michaels, himself an ex-patriate Canadian living and producing in New York. Still in 1985, Foley appeared in the film High Stakes, and Thompson and McDonald toured with Second City. In 1986, KITH were reunited in Toronto and Michaels finally saw them perform.
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#8 - Rick Mercer Report
The Rick Mercer Report (formerly Rick Mercer's Monday Report) is a political news-comedy show. Most of each episode is done with Rick in front of the camera displaying his unique brand of satire, from insulting politicians to mocking Americans. Rick tries to do at least one segment in a different Canadian city each week. This is a must see for everyone in Canada. You'll either love or hate this show within the first viewing.
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#9 - InSecurity
Keeping the nation safe ...ish. InSecurity is an action comedy about the men and women of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). Each week special agent Alex Cranston and her team of espionage misfits take on a mission vital to national security. They go where others can't go. They do what others won't do. And they screw up in ways that can only be described as world class. But like all great spy heroes, Alex and her NISA team get the bad guys and make Canada a safer place. Just not always on purpose.
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#10 - The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town
Death Comes to Town is a Canadian television series, scheduled to debut January 12, 2010 on CBC Television. A reunion project for the influential comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, the series is an eight-episode comedic murder mystery which the Kids describe as "Corner Gas meets Twin Peaks". Unlike the sketch comedy format of the Kids' earlier series, Death Comes to Town follows a narrative sitcom format which Dave Foley has acknowledged is inspired in part by the British comedy series The League of Gentlemen
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#11 - Da Vinci's Inquest
Vancouver coroners, pathologists, and homicide detectives inhabit a murky world as they attempt to solve the mysteries behind the unnatural, accidental, or suspicious deaths committed in the city's back alleys and bedrooms. At times selfless, at times grudging, they all have agendas and histories, passion for their work, and ambition for their futures. Charismatic, controversial, and mercurial Vancouver Coroner Dominic Da Vinci is the pivot around which this complex world spins. As a spokesman for the dead, Da Vinci strives to give dignity to untimely death. For every issue he champions, there is the underlying knowledge of human frailty and a wry acknowledgment that his own personal and professional past is riddled with missteps. As a former undercover narcotics cop, he understands the realities of the street and the compromises cops sometimes make. He also knows the limitations that surround those who cut, collect, and expose the last secrets of a life lived, and the insights they can offer into death. Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. Seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes. The show, set and filmed in Vancouver, stars Nicholas Campbell as Dominic Da Vinci.
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#12 - Riftworld Chronicles
A struggling journalist teams up with a dimension-traveling wizard who is stuck in our world without his magic powers. She helps him on his quest to return home in exchange for the rights to his story. When a rift between the realms opens up and fantastical foes invade, they are forced to solve the mystery of what binds their worlds, and their fates, together.
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#13 - Murdoch Mysteries
A Victorian-era Toronto detective uses then-cutting edge forensic techniques to solve crimes, with the assistance of a female coroner who is also struggling for recognition in the face of tradition. Based on the books by Maureen Jennings.
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#14 - Schitt's Creek
Suddenly broke, the formerly filthy-rich Rose family is reduced to living in a ramshackle motel in a town they once bought as a joke: Schitt's Creek.
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#15 - The Newsroom
George Findlay is the News Director of the local station in Toronto for "a major government controlled broadcast network". His life is complicated by three factors: he is completely self absorbed; most of the news stories don't happen they way or when he wants; and he functions in the Machiavellian bureaucracy of a government owned television network. Series II, after a brief hiatus the the Newsroom story continues.... George Findlay (Ken Finkleman) and his staff are back in the newsroom where pettiness and moral bankruptcy are taken to new depths. New faces, new phobias, new issues and Death haunt George as he maneuvers his way around the daily task of producing the news. Also this season, News Anchor Jim Walcott (Peter Keleghan) returns to brighten our day with moronic interviews with luminaries like Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky .
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#16 - Baroness von Sketch Show
Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen star in this series that takes a comedic look at our narcissistic contemporary culture. Fast paced and irreverent, Baroness von Sketch Show is a single-camera comedy, shot on location, that offers a witty take on everyday concerns. From the politics of ordering a coffee to entitled coworkers to open relationships, this satirical sketch show holds a fun house mirror up to modern life.
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#17 - Republic of Doyle
The sleepy port city of St. John's, Newfoundland, is changing. While an influx of oil has flooded its coffers, it's also brought to the surface the corrupt -- where there's cash, there's trash, after all. And doing his part to clean things up is private eye Jake Doyle, who, with the help of his dad and partner at the Doyle P.I. Firm, takes on all cases -- with the odd homicide thrown in just to keep things interesting.
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#18 - The Great Canadian Baking Show
The Great Canadian Baking Show brings together 10 amateur bakers from across the country to compete in a series of themed culinary challenges that celebrate their diverse backgrounds, families and communities.
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#19 - Kim's Convenience
While running a convenience store in Toronto, members of a Korean-Canadian family deal with customers, each other and the evolving world around them.
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#20 - X Company
Five highly skilled young recruits – Canadian, American and British are torn from their ordinary lives to train as agents in an ultra-secret facility on the shores of Lake Ontario. These agents parachute behind enemy lines, where they’re fair game for torture and execution. From elegant hotels to hellholes in the field, it’s one risky operation after another.
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#21 - Strange Empire
A Western series whose heroes are women. With most of their men gone, and those who remain battling for control, the women struggle to survive, to find their independence, and to build a life in which to thrive and raise families.
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#22 - Dragons' Den (CA)
Five well-to-do business execs hold the fate of several aspiring entrepreneurs in their hands as they decide in which person and product to invest their funds. This series is inspired by a British program of the same name.
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#23 - Being Erica
Thirty-something Erica Strange receives the ultimate opportunity - to go back in time and relive her most defining moments. From first kisses and prom nights to job interviews, Erica now has the chance to put right her long list of regrets with the hope that it will result in the life she really wants.
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#24 - jPod
Set in 2005, it concerns a group of video game programmers whose last names all begin with "J". They live and work in a development "pod", which they refer to as the "jPod", within a company that Coupland has described as "resembles, but legally no way is Electronic Arts", located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
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#25 - Road to Avonlea
Set against the stunning backdrop of Prince Edward Island, Canada, Road to Avonlea follows the adventures of the King family and the residents in the quaint town of Avonlea at the turn of the 20th century.
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#26 - Degrassi Junior High
Go to school with the show in a class by itself- and get real! Hailed as "groundbreaking," "powerful," and "totally authentic," Degrassi Junior High confronts it all-friendship, puberty, rumors, sports, studies, and more-with a refreshing ensemble cast and a unique teen’s-eye-view of life. Sometimes moving, sometimes shocking, but always believable, Degrassi Junior High is a classic for teens of all ages. All your favorite characters and storylines are waiting-find your seat-school’s open!
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#27 - Cracked (2013)
CRACKED is a unique blend of a police and medical drama inspired by the real-life experiences of police officers and mental-health professionals. Detective Aidan Black, a seasoned police officer who transfers from the SWAT team after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, joins psychiatrist Dr. Daniella Ridley, who leaves her prominent position at a downtown hospital to partner with the police in a newly formed Psych Crimes Unit. Black and Ridley combine police investigative skills and psychiatric insight to resolve crises and solve crimes.
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#28 - Workin' Moms
Four women juggle love, careers, and parenthood. They support, challenge, and try not to judge each other as life throws them curveballs. Whether it is an identity crisis, a huge job opportunity, postpartum depression, or an unplanned pregnancy – they face both the good and bad with grace and humour.
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#29 - The Raccoons
Follow the adventures of Bert Raccoon and his friends in the Evergreen Forest of Western Canada as they strive to thwart the industrialist actions of Cyril Sneer, a pink aardvark, and his pig henchmen.
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#30 - The Romeo Section
Set in Vancouver, THE ROMEO SECTION is an hour-long serialized espionage drama following spymaster Professor Wolfgang McGee, an academic who secretly manages a roster of espionage assets. These assets, referred to as Romeo or Juliet spies, are informants engaged in intimate long or short term relations with state intelligence targets. Wolfgang is a semi-retired Romeo operator, having worked his way up from youth in an unnamed and officially deniable “service” under the umbrella of Canada’s Intelligence Community.
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#31 - Intelligence
Organized crime and the Organized Crime Unit (OCU) work together to achieve the opposing goals of each respective world.
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#32 - This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is one of Canada's most popular comedies. The show's combination of sketch comedy and news parody has earned it nineteen Gemini Awards (the Canadian equivalent of an Emmy), including five for Best Comedy Series. 22 minutes is a a satrical news program akin to Jon Stewart's Daily Show. In the words of the show star Mark Critch: "It's kinda like the news, only drunk." Popular segments include: "Sports Beat" with host Chip McAllister and his new hindi co-host Raj Bhinder, "Frontier in Science" which pokes fun at science and technology magazine programs, commercial parodies, crashing of major events, and the ever popular ambushing of politicians and other public figures
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#33 - Alias Grace
In 19th-century Canada, a psychiatrist weighs whether a murderess should be pardoned due to insanity.
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#34 - Burden of Truth
A mysterious illness targets high school girls and brings lawyer Joanna Hanley back to her hometown. In a town that's as familiar as it is foreign, Joanna seeks to convince the locals that her family's hurried departure when she was a teenager wasn't her doing. She is drawn into the shadowy world of hackers, political movements, and activists. When Joanna becomes the target, someone from her past shows up to try and alter the course of the events.
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#35 - The Nature of Things
Hosted by the world-renowned geneticist and environmentalist, David Suzuki, every week presents stories that are driven by a scientific understanding of the world.
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#36 - The Detectives (2018)
Each episode features a different detective telling the story of a real case in Canada that not only challenged them like no other, but also had a lasting impact on Canadian society and law enforcement. In bringing intimate, raw interviews with detectives together with dramatization, the series offers an eye-opening and emotional look at a detective's journey and what it takes to break a case from the detective's perspective.
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#37 - Frankie Drake Mysteries
Frankie Drake Mysteries follows Toronto’s only female private detective in the 1920s as she takes on the cases the police don’t want or can’t handle. Along with her partner Trudy, Frankie and the Drake Detective Agency take on cases of all shapes and sizes. From airplanes and booze running to American G-men, Communists and union busters, Frankie’s fearless sense of adventure gets her into all kinds of trouble, but she always manages to find her way out.
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#38 - 21 Thunder
In the cutthroat world of pro soccer, a club lives and dies by the stars on its under-21 team. They are the future and lifeblood of any franchise, but most will never make it. 21 THUNDER is the story of the Montreal Thunder U21 team, following the team's star players on and off the field. A story of love, crime, race, sex and athletic glory, at its core the series is about how a group of players and coaches unite as family in the whirlwind of life, one step away from the pros.
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#39 - Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque On The Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on the CBC, which focuses on the comedic outlook of a small Muslim community interacting with the citizens of a little prairie town in Canada. The sitcom reveals that although we are different in ethnicity and in skin color, we are all surprisingly similar when it comes to family, love, the generation gaps, and our attempts to balance our secular and religious lives while trying to understand those of others in the community.
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#40 - Coroner
The series follows Jenny Cooper, a former ER doctor and newly appointed coroner investigating suspicious deaths. Suffering from anxiety and recently widowed with a teenage son, Jenny is a woman of action driven by an intense desire for the truth.
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#41 - Arctic Air
On the ground, Bobby, the headstrong business partner, struggles to save the airline from crashing financially while Mel, the cantankerous co-owner, keeps his crew of pilots in the air. Caught in the crossfire is Mel's hotshot pilot daughter Krista.
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#42 - Wild Cards
Ellis is a gruff, sardonic cop demoted from his role as a detective fown to the maritime unit, while Max is a spirited, clever con woman living a transient life and scamming everyone she meets. When Max gets arrested and ends up helping Ellis solve a local crime, the two are offered the opportunity to redeem themselves, with Ellis going back to detective and Max staying out of jail if they can learn to trust each other and work together.
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#43 - SkyMed
At 20,000 feet in the air, budding nurses and pilots flying air ambulances in remote Northern Canada experience triumphs, heartbreaks and tribulations. They’re all in over their heads, and on their own, with no one to rely on but each other.
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#44 - The Border
In this post-9/11 world the once "undefended border" that divides Canada and the U.S. is no longer considered soft. This CBC program lifts stories from the headlines to fuel an action-packed, dramatic series about maintaining security in today's world. The series follows the Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) main team led by Major Mike Kessler.
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#45 - The Book of Negroes
Kidnapped in Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate a revolution in New York, isolation in Nova Scotia, and the treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, in an attempt to secure her freedom in the 18th century.
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#46 - Bellevue
In a small blue-collar town with a lot of 'good people' who 'live right' and take it upon themselves to make sure the neighbours do too, Detective Annie Ryder is a cop whose intense and brazen personality has always been at odds with her hometown. When a transgender teen goes missing, Annie dives in to unravel the disappearance that suggests foul play, despite finding herself in a difficult position as she must cast suspicion on people she has known all her life. As the case pulls her further away from her family, she is also confronted by a mysterious person from her past with disturbing answers and a terrifying need to get inside her head.
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#47 - Ben Hur
About the struggle between the Roman Empire and its rebellious conquest Judaea, and two best friends caught in a terrible moment in history.
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#48 - Pretty Hard Cases
Offering a fun and honest portrayal of two radically different female detectives in their early 40s, this action-packed series follows Guns and Gangs detective Sam and Narcotics detective Kelly, who by day are true action heroes in their own particular way: skilled, tough, determined, and ruthless. But by night, they’re both grappling with loneliness, dysfunctional families, screwed-up love lives, and a sense that their professional ambitions may not be totally in line with their personal needs. Their friendship could help to balance each other out, if only they didn’t drive one another utterly insane.
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#49 - Son of a Critch
The hilarious and very real story of 11-year-old Mark coming of age in St. John’s, Newfoundland in the 80s. It’s a heartfelt window into the life of a child — much older inside than his 11 years — using comedy and self-deprecation to win friends and connect with the small collection of people in his limited world.
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#50 - 18 To Life
'18 To Life' is about a couple that does the unthinkable in the name of love: they run off and get married at the tender age of 18. Their parents-next-door neighbors and polar opposites-are less than thrilled and even their peers disapprove. As Tom and Jessie struggle to become man and wife in a world that still views them as kids, the tension between their families adds a dose of biting humor to their sweet love story.
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