What to Watch on New Year’s Eve plus the top TV moments of 2020

Looking for something to watch on TV tonight? Here’s our guide to New Year’s Eve as the countdown continues.

Suddenly staying home tonight? Here’s a guide to the best things to watch on New Year’s Eve, plus some of the best viewing from 2020 you can catch up on.

Australian comedian and artist Rove McManus is hosting the child-friendly ABC NYE coverage.

ABC

From 8.30pm it’s a kid-friendly variety show hosted by Rove McManus and dusting off fireworks display from years gone by. Then Zan Rowe and Charlie Pickering will host what is becoming an annual display of live Australian music. From the Sidney Myer Music Bowl there’ll be Paul Kelly playing a whole concert with guests including Vika and Linda and also the Teskey Brothers. From the Sydney Opera House there’s performers including the DMAs, Amy Shark, Vera Blue, Odette, Ben Lee and Casey Donovan performing a tribute to Helen Reddy. And at midnight they’ll show you the Sydney fireworks. Then after they finish it’s Rage O’Clock, and they’ve got guest hosts to pick their favourite party anthems so expect Kylie, Darude, Daft Punk, TISM, Prince and more – back to back bangers until 5am.

Kylie Minogue is back on TV.

KYLIE MINOGUE

You have to pay for this one, but from 9pm (AEST) Kylie is letting you re-stream her Infinite Disco concert that originally aired to launch her album Disco. It’s full of hits, fun and glitter. It’s $28.50, head to dice.fm for ticket details.

Rhonda Burchmore is performing for New Year’s Eve. Picture: Nicki Connolly

CHANNEL 10

John Foreman has spent the year doing some incredible live-stream work from Melbourne’s Arts Centre. So why not take 2020 out with a bang? He’s assembled his 53 piece Aussie Pops Orchestra for a New Year’s Eve concert. It’s family-friendly entertainment with vocalists including Glenn Shorrock, David Hobson, Marcia Hines, Dami Im, Marina Prior, Gorgi Coghlan, Isaiah Firebrace, Harrison Craig and, suck on this Carols, Rhonda Burchmore.

7.30pm kick off. After that finishes Channel 10 airs The Great Gatsby to swing in the new year.

An image of the late Freddie Mercury is projected onto a screen while Adam Lambert + Queen perform onstage during the 91st Annual Academy Awards.

SBS

Want some music docos for NYE? At 8pm SBS plays the brilliant Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender which is a credible look at the life and loves of the late Queen frontman. That’s followed at 9.30pm by Dolly Parton’s 50 Years at the Opry special where she returns to her Nashville roots, then at 11pm it’s Martin Scorsese’s rockumentary The Last Waltz following the farewell tour by The Band’s with guests including Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Ringo Starr.

Melanie C will perform on a special on UKTV.

UKTV

Missing people in Britain? Or can’t get home to Britain? UKTV has got you sorted guv’nor. At 9.10pm Comedian Jason Manford hosts the 2020 Royal Variety Performance from glamorous Blackpool with Gary Barlow, Steps, Melanie C, Michael Ball and Captain Sir Thomas Moore.

CHANNEL 7

After the Big Bash, at 11pm tune in for the movie New Year’s Eve starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Halle Berry, Robert DeNiro and Sarah Jessica Parker and hopefully you’ve drunk enough to not worry about the quality of the script.

Paul Kelly is playing live on the ABC for NYE. Pic: Cybele Malinowski

FOXTEL ARTS

At 10.20pm it’s Michael Buble Live at the BBC, then from 11.25pm there’s a tribute to Sir Paul McCartney with the man himself joined by Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones and more. 

MTV HITS

Switch this on whenever you like, they’re playing the best 200 songs from the last decade so you’re guaranteed to have a non-stop party soundtrack. Flick on CMT if you want the same but for the country music fan.

SBS VICELAND

All too much? Need some comfort TV? SBS Viceland are dusting off The Ghan for some slow TV – what better way to forget about this wretched year than watching a train journey across our lovely country (back in the good old days when you could travel across it).

BEST TV OF 2020 - WHICH IS YOUR FAVOUTITE MOMENT?

In a year where COVID hijacked our sport, silenced live music and shuttered our theatres, it fell to TV to keep us entertained.

Sure, it came with challenges. But television adapted. We watched socially distanced judging panels. Talk show hosts conducted interviews via Zoom in deserted studios. And soap stars strained to make love scenes seem convincing when their partners were merely mannequins.

Now we look back at the ways the small screen made us laugh, gasp and cry in 2020.

Matthew Rhys as the title character in the rebooted Perry Mason. Supplied by Foxtel.

EVERYTHING OLD WAS NEW AGAIN

Seven rebooted Big Brother and Farmer Wants a Wife and announced it was also using the defibrillator paddles on Australian Idol, Australia’s Got Talent and Dancing with the Stars in 2021. Netflix breathed new life into The Babysitter’s Club book series and Cobra Kai based on the Karate Kid films, while Foxtel resurrected Perry Mason. The Crown rekindled the world’s love affair with Princess Diana while dampening affection for Prince Charles and Camilla.

Daniel and Eugene Levy receive the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy as part of any awards sweep for Schitt's Creek, the feel-good show we needed this year.

UNDERDOGS TRIUMPHED

After being all but ignored for most of its six-year run, cult favourite Schitt’s Creek went out with a bang, winning every single Emmy award for comedy in its final season. It was the year when newcomers such as Anya Taylor-Joy (Queen’s Gambit), Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Emma Corrin (The Crown) and Paul Mescal (Normal People) rather than the big stars who got critics talking. And Aussie cartoon Bluey (ABC) was hailed as one of the best shows of 2020 by both the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine.

Nicole Kidman and an unexpectedly villainous Hugh Grant in The Undoing.

FAMOUS FACES SURPRISED

After decades of playing loveable nice guys, Hugh Grant embraced his dark side playing a devilish doctor in The Undoing (Foxtel). Journalist Ray Martin showed us his comedy skills in At Home Together (ABC). The most shocking character departure of all, however, came when Ellen DeGeneres – whose motto is “be kind” – was accused of bullying staff and fostering a toxic workplace.

Ruby Rose pulled the pin on her high-profile role as Batwoman after just one season.

AXINGS, EXITS AND FAREWELLS

Pete Evans became the shortest-serving camper in the history of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here when he was axed from the series before eating a single creepy crawly. The controversial chef was booted for posting a neo-Nazi symbol. Evans wasn’t the only star given his marching orders. Breakfast news program Studio 10 became the news when TV legend Kerri-Anne Kennerley and newsreader Natarsha Belling were made redundant. Long-serving weathermen Tim Bailey and Mike Larkin were also sent packing. Aussie Ruby Rose raised eyebrows when she quit Batwoman after just one season, leaving producers scrambling to find a new caped crusader. And while Baby Yoda said goodbye to the Mandalorian, his departure also marked the return of the Jedi. Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill with some impressive computer wizardry) emerged in the show’s final moments.

Yvonne Strahovski impressed in the quality Australian drama Stateless, which was inspired by a true story.

REAL LIFE DRAMA WAS TOPS

For weeks it was impossible to go anywhere without hearing people talk about zookeeper Joe Exotic and his feud with conservationist Carole Baskin in the documentary Tiger King. A star-studded cast of Cate Blanchett, Dominic West and Yvonne Strahovski told the remarkable true story of a mentally ill Australian woman who ended up in a detention centre in Stateless (ABC).

The double gimmick of sisters Elly and Becky Miles couldn’t save this year’s season of The Bachelorette. Picture: Richard Dobson

TURKEYS BIGGER THAN CATS

James Corden followed-up his woeful performance in the movie Cats with the new Netflix film The Prom. Viewers were angry that Corden, a heterosexual, had been cast as a gay Broadway actor. His performance was also described as “homophobic”, “aggressively flamboyant” and “stereotypical”. Closer to home, Seven’s new cooking format, Plate Of Origin, failed to tickle tastes while Between Two Worlds was a dud and banished to a late-night slot. Channel 10 discovered that casting two Bachelorettes doesn’t equate to twice the fun or twice the ratings. Sisters Becky and Elly Miles didn’t win viewers’ hearts, who branded their quest for love boring and awkward.

Christian Wilkins and Lily Cornish put their best feet forward to make sure Dancing With the Stars survived a COVID scare.

THE SHOW GOES ON (IN A COVID-SAFE FASHION)

After a season of eerily silent games played in empty stadiums, footy fans were able to attend the AFL Grand Final at night in Brisbane. Christian Wilkins’ didn’t let his father Richard’s COVID diagnosis stop him from putting his best foot forward on Dancing With the Stars. Forced into quarantine, Wilkins performed on his apartment block rooftop instead of in the studio with the other couples. The ladies were also sent packing from The Bachelor mansion as the pandemic took hold, leaving Bachelor Locky Gilbert to woo them online instead of with sunset helicopter rides and candlelit dinners.

Cate Blanchett was at her imperious best as Phyllis Schlafly in Mrs America.

AUSSIES MADE THEIR MARK

Rose Byrne and Cate Blanchett gave career-best performances in Foxtel’s Mrs America. While Melbourne’s own Elizabeth Debicki was announced as The Crown’s next Princess Diana. Debicki takes over the role from Emma Corrin, who received widespread acclaim as the young Diana struggling with new fame and an unhappy marriage. Debicki will play her in the decade before her tragic death.

Jackson Warne fessed up to a less-than-adventurous palate on SAS Australia. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

REALITY BITES (AGAIN)

Just when we thought we had seen it all in The Bachelor mansion came Zoe Clare McDonald – aka The Ginger Whinger. McDonald’s time in the mansion was short-lived but her furious tirade on night one that she was being victimised for her red hair ensured she became a Twitter sensation. Shane Warne’s son Jackson also gave viewers food for thought when he revealed on SAS Australia that he’d eaten only 10 foods in his life – not one a vegetable. He named eight: eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, burgers, nachos, chips and apples.

Emily In Paris was a guilty pleasure, despite a caning from the critics.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Sometimes the shows that get the most critical acclaim don’t live up to the hype (I’m looking at you Lovecraft Country, Living With Yourself and I Know This Much Is True). Ditto those series that cop hatred online aren’t always as bad as they sound. Francophiles were quick and vocal in their contempt for Darren Starr’s Emily In Paris, which stars Emily Collins (daughter of pop star Phil) as an eager-to-please American living in Paris. Was it cliched? Oui. But was it also enjoyable escapism? Bien sur!

Originally published as What to Watch on New Year’s Eve plus the top TV moments of 2020