Rachel Griffiths, Jacki Weaver, Claudia Karvan, and Steph Tisdell will appear on SBS next year, albeit in a factual capacity, as the broadcaster unveiled a host of new documentary series at its upfronts today.
After announcing new dramas Swift Street and Four Years at last year’s event, SBS will look to previously announced Digital Originals Warm Props, Moni, and Moonbird to carry its local scripted slate during its 50th year amid a greater focus on unscripted titles.
For managing director James Taylor, the 2025 line-up reflected storytelling that “explores and reflects contemporary Australia”.
“Over five decades, SBS has evolved from two multilingual radio stations to one of the world’s most distinctive multiplatform broadcasters,” he said.
“Within an ever more competitive landscape, SBS stands alone with its long history of truly representing Australia. As SBS prepares to mark this 50th milestone next year and look to the next 50, we will continue to lead the way in being a media network for all Australians.”
Griffiths will present Blackfella Films’The Idea of Australia, a four-part series that explores the myths that bind Australia and the events and people that have shaped our democracy, place in the world, cultural identity, and the relationship between non-Indigenous and First Nations peoples.
The country’s identity is also the subject of Stranger Than Fiction Films’ Australia: An Unofficial History, a playful series presented by Weaver that cracks open a forgotten vault of Australian films to explore the social and political change of the ‘70s.
SBS will lean into true crime with Blackfella Films’ 2.6 Seconds, presented with NITV, which examines the death of Kumanjayi Walker, a 19-year-old Warlpiri and Luritja teenager shot three times by a police officer at close range in his home community of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. The series looks at the impact of those fatal 2.6 seconds on families, communities, and race relations in this country.
As previously reported, CJZ will create a documentary-drama series based on the robodebt scandal after securing funding from SBS’s new factual development fund.
Inspired by the Great Australian Walks, Mint Pictures’ Great Australian Road Trips pairs actress Claudia Karvan with comedian Steph Tisdell in one car and TV presenter Melissa Leong with comedian Nazeem Hussain in another to reveal untold Australian stories one pit stop at a time.
Karvan will also join Mark Coles Smith and Marc Fennell in the 16th season of Warner Bros.’ long-running genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, while Fennell will present the Eureka Productions documentary series The Secret DNA of Us, which will DNA test four towns to Australian towns to reveal historical information about the country as a whole.
Leading the returning series for the SBS is the third season of ITV Studios Australia’s ratings juggernaut Alone Australia, in which ten survivalists will be based in Tasmania’s West Coast Ranges.
Headlining NITV’s line-up is the second season of comedy entertainment show Big Backyard Quiz; Dena Curtis’ sport documentary Skin in the Game, featuring NRLW commentator, Marlee Silva; ob doc series Our Medicine, about First Nations professionals taking back control of Indigenous health; and children’s series Dreaming Big, which looks at the lives gifted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths on the cusp of becoming the nation’s next generation of sports stars.
NITV has also launched a dedicated hub on SBS On Demand named NITV Muy Ngulayg to allow viewers to stream NITV’s collection of films, documentaries, and series.
“As a network, SBS will continue to lead the way in First Nations storytelling, with NITV at the heart of our commitment to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a vital voice in the media,” SBS Indigenous content director Tanya Denning-Orman said.
“We have a powerful line-up of Blak excellence coming in 2025, and from today, the best of First Nations storytelling has a dedicated streaming destination with the launch of our new SBS On Demand hub, NITV Muy Ngulayg. We thank the Western Torres Strait communities for their input and feedback on the use of this term which means inner knowledge, as we invite all Australians to learn and be inspired by stories from the world’s oldest storytellers.”
Overseas drama coming to the network in 2025 includes the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, the second season of the WW2 series Rogue Heroes, and UK police procedural Blue Lights. SBS has also acquired Playing Nice, based on the J.P. Delaney book of the same name, starring James Norton and Niamh Algar as a couple who face a horrifying dilemma amid a hospital mix-up; and Smilla’s Sense of Snow, a genre-bending action thriller based on the bestselling novel by Peter Høeg.
In the culinary realm, SBS will welcome back The Cook Up with Adam Liaw, alongside new series Marion Grasby’s Endless Summer (working title) and Memory Bites with Matt Moran. SBS Food and NITV have also commissioned Island Echoes with Nornie Bero, which follows the celebrated chef on a culinary adventure through the Torres Strait Islands as she reconnects with friends and family.
Speaking about the overall slate, SBS television director Kathryn Fink said the network would continue to go where others wouldn’t in 2025.
“SBS has continued to redefine entertainment with bold, human stories that connect us all. Our success is underpinned by our truly unique offering, with SBS On Demand the linchpin of our network,” she said.
“In 2025, our content slate will inform and entertain, with landmark documentaries including 2.6 Seconds, Robodebt and The Idea of Australia with Rachel Griffiths, and returning hits like Alone Australia, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Rogue Heroes.”