This is a list of Australian television-related events, debuts, finales, and cancellations that occurred in 2023, the 68th year of continuous operation of television in Australia.
Events January Date Event Source 1The ABC's coverage of the annual midnight Sydney New Year's Eve fireworks is watched by 985,000 viewers. 16Sarah Abo begins co-hosting the Nine Network's breakfast program Today, succeeding Allison Langdon. 28Veteran Seven Network sports presenter Pat Welsh signs off after 47 years based at the network's Brisbane studio. 30Allison Langdon begins her tenure as the host of Nine's A Current Affair, succeeding Tracy Grimshaw who departed at the end of 2022.Sam Mac is announced as the new host of Sydney Weekender, replacing Matt Shirvington.
February Date Event Source 27After stepping down as the host of 7.30 in 2022, Leigh Sales returns to ABC TV as the new host of Australian Story which had been without a host since Caroline Jones left in 2016. 28 New sketch show We Interrupt This Broadcast premieres on the Seven Network.Australian comedian Reuben Kaye delivers a controversial joke about Jesus during an appearance on The Project which prompts widespread criticism, and prompts hosts Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris to apologise the following night for the offence it caused to Muslim and Christian viewers.
March Date Event Source 19Indira Naidoo begins hosting the long-running Compass program on ABC TV, succeeding Geraldine Doogue. 26Royston Sagigi-Baira wins the eighth season of Australian Idol with Phoebe Stewart the runner-up. 27Olympic pole vaulter Liz Parnov wins Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains. Seven Network airs the 8,000th episode of Home and Away.
April Date Event Source 12Southern Cross Austereo-owned GTS/BKN cancels its long-running regional news service effectively immediately. It is believed that some staff were not informed that the program would be aired for the last time that night until after it went to air. It ends over 50 years of news operations for the Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill regions, and leaves viewers with no local television news service. 17An episode of animated series Bluey entitled "Exercise" prompts criticism and accusations of fat shaming, which leads to the episode being edited. 30Former netballer Liz Ellis wins the ninth season of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! while boxer Harry Garside is runner-up. After flying back to Australia on 2 May, Garside is arrested by police at Sydney Airport and charged with assaulting his former partner on 1 March. The charges were withdrawn by police on 7 June.
May Date Event Source 1The premiere of the fifteenth series of MasterChef Australia is pulled from the schedule by Network 10 just hours before it is due to air due to the sudden death of judge Jock Zonfrillo. After consultation with Zonfrillo's family, the series commences on 7 May 2023. 6The ABC is heavily criticised for their coverage of the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla on ABC TV, during which they held a panel discussion featuring three anti-monarchists including Q+A host Stan Grant, Australian Republican Movement chair Craig Foster and Indigenous writer and lawyer Teela Reid, and one monarchist Julian Leeser. The panel discussion prompted more than 1,800 complaints from viewers and an ombudsman's investigation, which found no breach of impartiality standards during the coverage. Grant also received racial abuse after his appearance on the panel which prompted him to step back from hosting Q+A.
June Date Event Source 2After losing his civil defamation trial, Ben Roberts-Smith resigns from Seven West Media. He had been the general manager of regional network Seven Queensland since July 2015 before also being appointed as general manager of Seven Brisbane in 2016. 9 After 21 years, David Koch co-hosts Seven Network breakfast program Sunrise for the final time. Koch is succeeded by Matt Shirvington. 17The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's managing director David Anderson announces a major restructure of the organisation in the new financial year, resulting in the loss of 120 jobs, the Sunday evening state-based ABC News bulletins on ABC TV being replaced with a single national bulletin and the abolition of the ABC's arts team. Among those to lose their jobs was national political editor Andrew Probyn whose position is made redundant. The ABC is widely condemned for the decisions. 25ABC TV's Sunday morning public affairs show Insiders signs off from the ABC's Melbourne studio for the final time, ahead of its relocation to the ABC's studio in Canberra.Seven News Sydney signs off its final bulletin at Martin Place studios, wrapping 19 years and 6,873 days of broadcast. From the next day, its new broadcast home is at a purpose-built studio at the Eveleigh headquarters. The new space is five-times larger than Martin Place, allows for permanent sets for all programs, with two complete control rooms and more than 40sq m of LED screens, while all newsroom operations will now be located on a second entire floor.
July Date Event Source 10The Seven Network announces they have signed a two-year deal with Hockey Australia to broadcast all internationally sanctioned games played by the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos as well as all matches of the Hockey One league throughout 2023 and 2024. 16Brent Draper wins the 15th season of MasterChef Australia. 18Following the BBC’s revival of the British version of Gladiators, the Australian version of the show was confirmed to return for the second time and is set to be revived by Warner Bros. Television Studios. 23 Weekend Sunrise becomes the final live television program to broadcast from the Seven Network's Martin Place studios as the network completes its relocation to its Eveleigh headquarters. The final editions of Sunrise and The Morning Show from Martin Place aired on 21 July while the final Seven News Sydney bulletin from Martin Place aired on 25 June.Phil Burton and dance partner Ash-Leigh Hunter win the twentieth series of Dancing with the Stars. 24The ABC announces that Stan Grant will not be returning to host Q+A with Patricia Karvelas confirmed as the program's host for the remainder of the year. It was also announced Dan Bourchier would soon be hosting a special edition of Q+A from the Garma Festival. 30Seven Network personality Sonia Kruger wins the Gold Logie at the 2023 Logie Awards held in Sydney. Kruger's win is criticised by several media commentators and Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi. All referred to Kruger's controversial remarks on the Nine Network's Today program in 2016 regarding immigration which the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled as having vilified Muslims.
August Date Event Source 1Paramount Networks UK & Australia rebrands its 10 Shake channel as Nickelodeon. This move sees Nick Jr and Nick@Nite brands and content seen on the channel and end the partnership between it and Foxtel. 2After receiving much criticism, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation announces it has reversed its earlier decision, deciding to retain the Sunday evening editions of the state-based ABC News bulletins on ABC TV.After last airing in 2009, improvised comedy show Thank God You're Here returns to Network 10 with new host Celia Pacquola. 4Eddie McGuire announces that Millionaire Hot Seat, the afternoon game show he has hosted since its debut in 2009, will be going into hiatus in January 2024, to be replaced with a new program produced in Melbourne. 7Australian animated children's program Bluey wins the TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming at the 39th TCA Awards. 10The Nine Network announces that Millionaire Hot Seat will be replaced by Tipping Point Australia in 2024, hosted by former tennis champion Todd Woodbridge. 15After last airing in 2016, Kitchen Cabinet hosted by Annabel Crabb returns to ABC TV. 16 The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup semi-final between the Matildas and the Lionesses becomes the most watched television program since the OzTAM audience measuring commenced in 2001, with preliminary data showing a national average audience of 7.13 million watched the game. 23The 2023 reimagining of ABC TV's sitcom Mother and Son debuts, attracting a national metro audience of 441,000 viewers. 24Prime Minister Anthony Albanese officially opens the Seven Sydney's new newsroom and studio facility at the network's head office in South Eveleigh. 29After having last aired in 2018, Network 10 reboots Shark Tank with a completely new cast of "sharks", consisting of Sabri Suby, Catriona Wallace, Davie Fogarty, Jane Lu, and Robert Herjavec. 3160 of Pluto TV's FAST channels launch on 10 Play.
September Date Event Source 6Nine Entertainment holds their Upfronts in Sydney where they officially reveal the commentary teams for their Olympics and Paralympics coverage. The network also confirms a local version of Tipping Point hosted by Todd Woodbridge will air on Nine in 2024 as will a reboot of an Australian version of Jeopardy!. Nine also confirms the return of former A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw in an undisclosed project. 7The Australian Broadcasting Corporation admits it breached its own policies pertaining to the licensing of its archival television footage for political purposes after it's discovered the ABC's commercial arm licensed footage from the 1967 referendum to be used in Uluru Dialogue's advertisement for the 2023 referendum featuring John Farnham's hit song You're the Voice. That same footage was also inexplicably watermarked with a logo belonging to private company Australian Television Archive despite owner James Paterson stating that he had "nothing to do with the campaign, the agency or have any connection whatsoever to the footage our logo was placed on". 10Juanita Phillips reads her final ABC News New South Wales bulletin on ABC TV in Sydney after 21 years. She is succeeded by Jeremy Fernandez. 18Neighbours returns to Network 10, after its axing in 2022. It also debuts on Amazon Freevee. 26Foxtel rebrands most of their channels except Fox8 and Fox Sports, with a non-Fox branding and with Fox8, but without Fox Sports, a new logo. 28 29 Nakari Thorpe and Lydia Feng are appointed weekend anchors for ABC TV in Sydney, to present the weekend ABC News New South Wales 7pm bulletin.
October