The 16 Best New TV Shows To Watch In 2023

The new year is upon us and along with planning our next music festival outfit and checking our 2023 horoscopes, we're also gearing up for another 12 months of epic television viewing. Streaming giants like Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and more are blessing us with a good mix of drama, action and comedy to binge on. It seems 2023 will also be the year of the spin-off, with Bridgerton, That '70s Show, Scooby-Doo and Squid Game all getting new shows that take viewers in another direction.

Here are the best new TV shows to watch in 2023. Grab some popcorn and buckle in for the ride.

Release date: TBA 

Where to watch: Netflix

Following two stellar seasons of Bridgerton starring the likes of Phoebe Dynevor, Simone Ashley, Charithra Chandran and Jonathan Bailey, the regency-era drama has a new spin-off in 2023. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story will focus on the queen (played by Golda Rosheuval) herself, going back in time, going back in time to explore her journey to become the iron fist of the ton. 

Release date: January 12 

Where to watch: Binge 

While most of us are familiar with the animation, this animated series will tell the origin story of Scooby-Doo’s Velma Dinkley, the unsung and underappreciated brains of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang. The eponymous character is voiced by Mindy Kaling, and will be of South Asian descent. Expect a high-profile cast with other names voicing the animated characters including Constance Wu (Daphne), Sam Richardson (Shaggy) and Glenn Howerton (Fred). The team will join forces to solve a murder at their high school so… let’s Scooby Doobie Doooo! 

Release date: January 16 

Where to watch: Binge 

If you missed Murray Bartlett in season 2 of The White Lotus, fear not as the Aussie award-winning actor is back in new show, The Last Of Us. Based on one of the world’s most popular video games that became a big hit in 2013, the show takes place 20 years after modern civilisation has been destroyed. We’ll see survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) hired to smuggle Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. Bartlett will play the character Frank, the partner of survivalist Bill (Nick Offerman). 

Release date: January 30 

Where to watch: Channel 7 and 7plus

It’s not exactly a new show, but Australian Idol is making a comeback after a 14-year hiatus so it makes the list. The new judges looking for the country’s next big musical superstar are Kyle Sandilands, Amy Shark, Harry Connick Jr and Meghan Trainor, while Ricki-Lee Coulter and Scott Tweedie take on hosting duties. 

Release date: January 19 

Where to watch: Netflix 

Following the success of That '70s Show, get ready for more fun in the basement with Netflix’s spin-off, That '90s Show. Go back in time to 1995, where Leia Forman (the daughter of  Eric and Donna, played by Topher Grace and Laura Prepon respectively) visits her grandparents for the summer and bonds with a new generation of Point Place kids. Other familiar names making a return to the series include Kurtwood Smith, Debra Jo Rupp, Callie Haverda, Ashley Aufderheide, Mace Coronel, Maxwell Donovan, Reyn Doi and Sam Morelos. 

Release date: TBA  

Where to watch: Netflix 

After making history as one of the most-watched shows on Netflix, Squid Game is getting the reality TV treatment in 2023. Squid Game: The Challenge is a 10-part game show featuring 456 competitors from around the world vying for $4.56 million in prize money. Unlike the drama series, no one will actually lose their lives if they fail a challenge. Phew! 

Release date: January 30 

Where to watch: Channel 10 and 10 Play 

While there have been many seasons of Australian Survivor on our screens, we’re classifying the 2023 instalment as ‘new’ because we haven’t seen the Heroes vs Villains format in Australia so far. This year there will be two tribes of 12 contestants divided into two groups, marked by people's 'heroic' or 'villainous' traits — with a mix of returning favourites and new players.

Release date: TBA 

Where to watch: Disney+  

For those who love Star Wars, you’re in for a treat as Disney+ brings a new live-action series to the screen in 2023, focusing on character Ahsoka, who made her 2008 debut in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Ahsoka follows the former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy after the fall of the Empire. Rosario Dawson plays the lead in this series. 

Release date: March 24 

Where to watch: Paramount+  

The Emmy-nominated drama returns with a second season in 2023, promising to follow the events of the first instalment where a team of wildly talented high school girl soccer players became the survivors of a plane crash. The cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Wednesday star Christina Ricci and Tawny Cypress. 

Release date: March 3  

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video 

Based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, this limited musical-drama follows the rise and precipitous fall of a renowned rock band. After rising to the top in 1977, the band led by Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) decides to eventually call it quits following a sold-out show. Now, decades later, the members of the band have decided to finally reveal the truth about the group’s demise at the height of their success. 

Release date: January 8   

Where to watch: AMC+  

If you’re after a show that’s a little spooky and gets you thinking, Mayfair Witches is an obvious choice. The eight-episode series is based on Anne Rice’s trilogy, Lives of the Mayfair Witches, and follows an intuitive young neurosurgeon, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) who finds out that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches. With these newfound powers comes the challenge of balancing her life with a sinister presence in the family that’s lurked through generations. 

Release date: January 27    

Where to watch: Paramount+ 

Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar is back with a supernatural show, starring in this program based on the book series by Edo Van Belkom. But don’t expect vampires. Wolf Pack follows a new generation of werewolves discovered during a raging California wildfire, and also stars Rodrigo Santoro, Armani Jackson, Bella Shepard, Chloe Rose Robertson and Tyler Lawrence Gray.

Release date: February 9 (Part 1) and March 9 (Part 2)  

Where to watch: Netflix 

This may be the fourth season of an existing drama, but the hype around You Season 4 makes it too hard to ignore on this must-watch list. The new season will find Penn Badgley's obsessive serial killer Joe Goldberg living as a college professor in London.

Release date: TBA 

Where to watch: Binge  

Our favourite feuding media family returns for Season 4 of Succession where we’ll hopefully see the aftermath of the sale of Waystar Royco. From Shiv being pregnant to Logan having another baby, there are plenty of predictions about what the next season could hold, but we’ll only really find out when the show goes to air. 

Release Date: January 1

Where to watch: Stan

Set in a small town in North Queensland with deep ties to the Australian South Sea Islander community, six-part murder-mystery drama, Black Snow stars acting newcomers Talijah Blackman-Corowa and Jemmason Power.

Blackman Corowa portrays Isabel Baker, a 17-year-old who is murdered in 1995, and whose death serves as the plot-line for the series. Power plays her sister, Hazel who returns to the family home years after Isabel's murder to assist authorities who are investigating it.

Release date: January 9

Where to watch: Channel 10 and 10 Play

With nine previous seasons of The Bachelor Australia having aired, it's safe to say that we've come to know what to expect from this dating show. However, it's worth giving the program a chance in 2023 as it stars not one, but three eligible bachelors — Felix Von Hofe, Jed McIntosh and Thomas Malucelli — looking for love.