Wide Eyes News From The Tube (Meet the Next Generation of Australian Kids’ TV)

Wide Eyes News from the Tube is written by a leading industry expert and is focused on providing a quick snapshot of the best opportunities in the television & animation market.

Wide Eyes News from the Tube

ABC SHOWCASE 2026

ABC Kids TV is the primary source of new Australian TV shows for preschoolers, so the annual ABC Showcase highlighting the ABC TV’s up and coming shows is an important event as it could very well be the first public viewing of the next Bluey or Bananas in Pyjamas.

This year’s ABC Children’s & Family section of the 2026 ABC Showcase was hosted by Emma “Emma Memma” Watkins and  Michelle Lim Davidson, one of the Play School presenters, which will be celebrating its 60th birthday next year.

Not every year contains a break out smash hit program for children but here is the selection of new children’s programs being launched on ABC Kids in 2026 hoping that they might be the next big thing on and off the wide screen.

New children’s TV shows for 2026:

Flower & Flour – (39 x 7 mins) animated show starring a seven year Asian girl called Flower who lives above her parents’ dumpling shop with her best friend Flour, an actual bag of flour that acts like a cat.

It’s Andrew – (40 eps x 7 mins) animated show that follows a community full of unicorns, gnomes & fairies and a young rhinoceros called Andrew.

Knee High Spies (20 eps x 11 mins) – live action show with a mixture of suited characters and puppets that follows teddy bear Jeremy Button and his ragtag team of toys, as they go about saving their human family from the mischievous schemes of the archenemy pet guinea pig, Silver Paw. 

Emma’s Dance Club – a new live action series featuring Emma Watkins that is set in rural NSW, where Emma teams up with pint sized members of a dance club to solve their daily challenges.  

Dance with Tom – comprises 5 x five minute episodes and is a blend of live action with animation that tells vibrant stories for children inviting them into the world of First Nations culture, storytelling and language. 

Returning shows with new series are Ginger & the Vegesaurs, Play School Turns 60, Fizzy & Suds, Gardening Australia Junior,  Hard Quiz Kids and Do Not Watch This Show.

Flower & Flour, It’s Andrew and Knee High Spies all have off-screen merchandising potential, while Emma’s Dance Club will give the already successful Emma Watkins continuing on-screen awareness to a preschool audience.


This article also appeared in Edition 52 of The Bugg Report Magazine

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