No Australian-made comedy or drama series made the top-10 list of most watched Australian shows in 2018.

Reality television took up six slots, with Married at First Sight on top with two million viewers.

There's always room for junk on television, in moderation, but Australian networks have been stuffing their faces — with cooking competitions, home reno blitzes and the eternal search for "true love" — in the decade since MasterChef debuted on our screens.

Meanwhile, a new wave of scripted series is beginning to emerge from the fringes of Australian television.

Australian television 2.0

To see the future of Australian television, you need to look beyond broadcast to the flush of quality scripted comedy and drama series coming through streaming platforms — from YouTube to ABC iview.

This year alone has produced Sarah's Channel, Robbie Hood, The Heights and Internment.

Many of these ride solo online, while others use a combination of streaming and broadcast television.

Sarah's Channel actor and co-creator Claudia O'Doherty says the first season only took a week to shoot. ( Supplied: ABC )

Using the popular vlogger and web series format of YouTube, Sarah's Channel and Internment are two of the best Australian comedy series of the year so far. Sarah's Channel checks in with a beauty vlogger (Claudia O'Doherty) posting from the apocalypse and satirises the influencer phenomenon.

Internment, created by and starring Pippa Mills and Helena Ruse, focuses on a nightmarish internship. The short episodes poke fun at modern workplaces and the anxiety of job security.

Internment is a six-part web series about a hellish internship, and is written by Helena Ruse, Pippa Mills and Andrew Mills. ( Supplied: Screen Australia )

The Heights, a drama series about life in and around a social housing tower, and Robbie Hood, a show about teens in the Northern Territory who bend the law to right the wrongs in their community, both use a combination of broadcast television with streaming support for binge viewing via iview and SBS On Demand.

Carina Hoang plays Iris, a grocery store owner in ABC's The Heights. ( Supplied: ABC/Bohdan Warchomij )

Both shows depict parts of Australian life rarely seen on television. In doing so, they follow in the footsteps of SBS's acclaimed 2018 series Homecoming Queens, which follows estranged friends (Michelle Law and Liv Hewson) who reconnect in Brisbane as sufferers of chronic illness — a theme usually relegated to supporting characters on Australian television and seldom seen in comedy.

Homecoming Queens producer Katia Nizic from Generator Pictures says people often assume it's easier to develop series for streaming platforms than for broadcast TV.

"People think making a web series equals absolute freedom, but honestly we put as much work and thought into developing and making Homecoming Queens as any other comedy you see on television," Nizic says.

SBS On Demand's Homecoming Queens was co-created by long-time friends and writers Michelle Law and Chloe Reeson. ( Supplied: SBS )

"SBS also had a lot of input right the way through development, production, and post. The difference is, we had about half the budget of a regular television show — but I was and remain extremely grateful for that opportunity."

SBS Director of TV and Online Content Marshall Heald says commissioning short-form series like Homecoming Queens and Robbie Hood meets two key goals: "Firstly to develop new creative voices from under-represented communities to make Australian storytelling more truly representative of the society we live in — a rich and vibrant multicultural society.

Robbie Hood was created by writer-director Dylan River (Nulla Nulla) and writer Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road). ( Supplied: Dylan River/SBS )

"Secondly, to deliver our innovation aspirations — to take big creative risks in the stories we tell and the ways in which they're told and to enable digital audiences to find and experience those shows at a time that suits them."

In September, SBS will continue their commitment to emerging Australian creatives when they launch a short film festival that will showcase 14 new works.

Record breakers and innovators

Kate McLennan (left) and Kate McCartney are comedy writers, actors and the co-creators of The Katering Show and Get Krack'n. ( Supplied: ABC )

ABC has also been making inroads into original streaming content: within a five-year period The Katering Show went from YouTube to the ABC — the most-watched made-for-iview original — and evolved into Get Krack!n; and The Letdown and Ronny Chieng International Student were launched as ABC pilot projects designed for an iview feedback loop that informed whether shows got made or not.

The Letdown is now two seasons deep, enjoys placement worldwide on Netflix, and got the attention of The New York Times.

The Letdown is a comedy-drama co-created by friends and writers Alison Bell and Sarah Scheller. ( Supplied: ABC )

The ABC's head of comedy, Rick Kalowski, says digital short and digital-focussed scripted series are vital for the broadcaster in developing new comedy and drama.

"It's enabled us to develop talent in the less pressured shorter format, before making their step up to full primetime series," says Kalowski.

"In the case of Sarah's Channel, it's allowed us to make quite wild content, at a comparatively moderate price, which has then paid off in spades both creatively and in widespread international exposure, such as that show's panel at the recent San Diego Comic-Con."

A series Kalowski is particularly proud of is Superwog, a sketch series created by Theodore and Nathan Saidden.

Australian Greek-Egyptian brothers Nathan (left) and Theodore Saidden are comedy writers, actors and the co-creators of Superwog. ( Supplied: ABC )

"We debuted their half-hour series on YouTube first. It allowed us to experiment with our release strategy and in the process expose our shows to a younger, suburban audience who otherwise pretty much don't watch ABC. Superwog — heavily branded ABC — is now headed to nearly 30,000,000 views on YouTube. And it's allowed us to show the world how Australia is capable of re-setting the creative bar, with high-end digital first drama and comedy projects."

In September, ABC will live up to Kalowski's promise of innovation when they launch Content: a comedy series set entirely on a smartphone, set to roll out exclusively on Facebook, Instagram and iview.

Series creator Joe Brumm's experience of raising two young daughters was the inspiration for animated children's show Bluey. ( Supplied: ABC )

But perhaps nothing has made inroads like Bluey, the cartoon series about a family of blue heelers, that broke the iview streaming record with over 90 million views (and counting) to become the most watched series in the history of the platform.

Bluey airs regularly on the ABC Kids channel, but its might is unrivalled online. Its audience numbers are so big the show got Disney's attention and will be added to their streaming platform, which is set to launch in the United States at the end of the year.

Global streaming giants low on Australian ideas

Australian-made comedy and drama will always be a constant due to local content quotas for the commercial free-to-air broadcasters, and specific requirements for public broadcasters ABC and SBS.

"What has changed is that there are many more viewing options — some of which are short or completely absent of scripted Australian content," says Craig Mathieson, television critic for The Age and The Monthly.

Chris Lilley plays six new characters in his Netflix 10-part mockumentary series Lunatics. ( Supplied: Vince Valitutti/Netflix )

Global streaming services that operate in Australia are not bound by the same Australian content quotas as their local counterparts. Netflix, which is fast approaching a 50 per cent market share as a streaming video-on-demand company in Australia, was found by a 2018 report to have just 1.6 per cent Australian content in its rotation.

Clearly it hasn't deterred subscribers — yet — but Netflix still have a lot of work to do to earn the "Australia" in their title.

The same report calculated Stan's local content at 11.1 per cent. Stan have made a significant investment in developing original series like No Activity, Romper Stomper, Bloom and Wolf Creek, but these shows occupy a small corner of a huge library.

Stan's six-part series Romper Stomper is a sequel to the 1992 Australian cult film of the same name. ( Supplied: Ben King/Stan )

"Look at how the EU has corralled Netflix with guidelines about European content — there's now a major pipeline of European shows on Netflix that people around the world are discovering. Australia should legislate for the same opportunity," argues Mathieson.

Netflix's Australian-made originals to date — Tidelands and Chris Lilley's Lunatics — have been lacklustre compared with what's being achieved in the local streaming landscape. Given that the global giant has an estimated production budget that's pushing close to the $15 billion mark, their investment in the local screen industry looks pretty weak, too.

Time to adjust your set

Ronnie Chieng International Student takes direct inspiration from the Malaysian actor and series creator's experience of studying in Australia. ( Supplied: ABC )

While it's easy to be sensationalist and provide a death notice for local television, we're experiencing an industry at a crossroads. Maybe there isn't a place anymore for regular comedy and drama on mainstream Australian television because these shows have migrated to streaming with its audience.

Still, networks can do better than just meeting the criteria of local quotas. Scripted comedy and drama shouldn't be a box to tick. If the traditional way of making these series is no longer viable — or of any interest in the broadcast landscape — the industry needs to innovate and uncover new voices.

Local creatives have been pushed to the fringes of the television landscape but are still producing exceptional work. The future of Australian television is beginning to emerge — and it's going to arrive away from your TV set.

The next great Australian series will not be televised.