CBBC TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On CBBC Tonight

Updated: 14 July 2026

CBBC is the BBC’s television channel for children roughly aged 6 to 12, running every day from 7am until close around 7pm on Freeview channel 201. There’s no subscription and no advertising: like every BBC channel, it’s paid for by the TV Licence, so programmes run straight through without a commercial break. Today, Tuesday 14 July 2026, Newsround brings the morning’s headlines at 7:45am, and the schedule works through its usual weekday run of animation, drama and factual telly before new episodes of Winx Club: The Magic Is Back and Go Get Arty lead into the teatime close. So Awkward takes the 6pm slot and The Story of Tracy Beaker runs from 6:30pm, ahead of the 7pm hand-back to BBC Three. Channel numbers for every other platform are in the table further down.

CBBC Schedule: Tuesday 14 July 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete CBBC schedule for Tuesday 14 July 2026, on Freeview 201.

What’s on CBBC today

Today’s schedule opens at 7am with a run of short animation: Shaun the Sheep, Danger Mouse, Super Happy Magic Forest and Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese each take a slot before Newsround lands at 7:45am with the day’s news for a young audience. Hacker’s Ruff Guide to the World Cup follows at 7:55am, then a Grizzy and the Lemmings double leads into SpongeBob SquarePants and a run of Duck and Frog either side of 8:25am.

Odd Squad and Operation Ouch! fill the run up to 9:25am, when the factual strand turns to Deadly Dinosaurs with Steve Backshall and then Horrible Science. One Zoo Three, Gym Stars and The Football Academy carry the schedule through to 11:30am, and the make-and-do strand Go Get Arty and Cooking Buddies take over from there. Gladiators: Epic Pranks and Bro’s in Control lead into the lunchtime block, with Octonauts and a run of shorter titles including Big Lizard and Piripenguins either side of 1pm.

The afternoon opens with a Duck and Frog double and two more episodes of Super Happy Magic Forest, then Grizzy and the Lemmings: World Tour and Shark Bites lead into Blue Peter at 2pm, followed by Jamie Johnson FC at 2:25pm. Shaun the Sheep returns at 2:55pm, followed by Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed!, Danger Mouse and further Super Happy Magic Forest through mid-afternoon. By 4pm the schedule turns to Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese, Grizzy and the Lemmings: World Tour, Duck and Frog and Submarine Jim, ahead of the teatime run covered below.

CBBC Tonight — The Teatime Peak

CBBC doesn’t do a 9pm slot. Its busiest patch of the day runs from about 5pm to close, when the channel’s returning dramas and comedies take over from the daytime animation blocks. Here’s what’s building towards tonight’s 7pm sign-off.

Winx Club: The Magic Is Back — CBBC, 5:20pm

A new episode of the fairy reboot lands at 5:20pm (series 1, episode 15). The Trix have broken their truce with Bloom, and with the Dragon Flame in their hands and her parents still held hostage, the fight for Alfea shifts up a gear.

Go Get Arty — CBBC, 5:45pm

Also new tonight (series 2, episode 7), this make-and-do format splits its young contestants into two teams for a head-to-head build challenge, judged on invention as much as finish.

So Awkward — CBBC, 6pm

The tween sitcom takes its usual 6pm spot (series 6, episode 6), mixing school-corridor romance mix-ups with its running gag of turning ordinary teenage disasters into mock science experiments.

The Story of Tracy Beaker — CBBC, 6:30pm

Series 1, episode 7 closes the schedule from 6:30pm. Jacqueline Wilson’s most enduring creation gets another outing at the Dumping Ground, with a group activity forcing Tracy to work alongside the one housemate she’d rather avoid.

CBBC hands its frequency to BBC Three at 7pm and picks the schedule back up at 7am tomorrow.

What kind of shows are on CBBC

Drama

CBBC’s drama slots have real range for a channel with only twelve hours a day to fill. Crookhaven is the newest and biggest swing, a boarding-school adventure built for a returning audience across multiple series. Malory Towers, adapted from Enid Blyton’s novels, and Jamie Johnson FC, a football drama now four series deep, sit alongside it, both giving slightly older viewers something with continuing characters and a plot that rewards watching regularly rather than dipping in and out.

Comedy and animation

The bulk of the daytime schedule is short-form comedy and animation, and it’s a genuinely varied mix: Danger Mouse and Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed! lean on established British characters, SpongeBob SquarePants and Teen Titans Go! bring in the American imports, and newer originals like Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese, Duck and Frog and Super Happy Magic Forest fill the ten-to-fifteen-minute slots between them. Odd Squad, a live-action comedy about child agents solving problems with maths, is one of the more inventive entries, quietly educational without ever feeling like a lesson.

Factual and entertainment

Horrible Science and Operation Ouch! turn CBBC’s factual slots into something closer to sketch comedy than a documentary, and it works precisely because the jokes come first. Gladiators: Epic Pranks and Deadly Dinosaurs with Steve Backshall add a competitive, high-energy streak to the schedule, closer in spirit to a games or wildlife-adventure show than scripted television.

News and long-running strands

Newsround, at 7:45am every weekday and weekend morning, remains CBBC’s most consistent piece of public service broadcasting: proper news, properly explained, without talking down to the audience. Blue Peter, now well into its seventh decade, is the channel’s other anchor point, a magazine format that’s outlasted almost everything else on British television by simply changing its presenters every few years rather than changing what it is.

How to watch CBBC

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find CBBC across the main UK television platforms:

CBBC is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. A valid TV Licence is still needed to watch it live, since that’s how the BBC funds every one of its channels.

Streaming online

CBBC streams live and free on BBC iPlayer at bbc.co.uk/iplayer, and via the iPlayer app on smart TVs, phones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most streaming sticks. You’ll need a free BBC account, which costs nothing to set up. Most CBBC programmes also stay available on demand for at least 30 days after broadcast, so a missed episode of Crookhaven or Blue Peter is rarely gone for good. A valid TV Licence is required to watch live or to stream a programme on the day it airs.

CBBC and CBeebies

CBeebies is CBBC’s sister channel, aimed at the under-6s rather than the 6-to-12 audience CBBC is built for. It’s on Freeview channel 202, running from around 6am to 7pm each day, and like CBBC it’s entirely ad-free and funded by the TV Licence rather than advertising. Its programmes are shorter, gentler and paced for a much younger attention span. If your children have grown out of CBeebies but aren’t quite ready for teenage-skewing content, CBBC’s mix of drama, comedy and Newsround is the obvious next step. See our CBeebies TV guide for that channel’s full schedule.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on CBBC today?

CBBC’s day on Tuesday 14 July 2026 runs its usual weekday mix of animation, drama and factual telly from 7am, with Newsround at 7:45am. New episodes of Winx Club: The Magic Is Back and Go Get Arty air from 5:20pm, and the day closes with So Awkward at 6pm and The Story of Tracy Beaker from 6:30pm, before the channel signs off around 7pm.

What time does CBBC start and finish each day?

CBBC broadcasts from 7am to 7pm every day, sharing its frequency with BBC Three, which takes the same slot each evening once CBBC’s schedule ends.

Is CBBC free to watch, and does it carry adverts?

Yes, CBBC has no adverts on any platform. It’s funded by the TV Licence rather than advertising, though a valid TV Licence is required to watch it live or on the day of broadcast via iPlayer.

Can I watch CBBC on BBC iPlayer?

Yes. CBBC streams live on BBC iPlayer and most programmes stay available on demand for at least 30 days afterwards. You’ll need a free BBC account and a valid TV Licence to watch live or same-day content.

What’s the difference between CBBC and CBeebies?

CBBC is for roughly 6-to-12-year-olds and includes longer dramas, competitive formats and Newsround. CBeebies is aimed at under-6s, with shorter, gentler programmes and a calmer pace.

Verdict

CBBC is one of the easier calls a parent can make: no adverts, no in-app purchases hiding behind a kids’ show, and a schedule that still finds room for Newsround alongside the comedy and animation. The 7pm close is a genuine point in its favour rather than a limitation. It means there’s a natural, built-in cut-off to the day’s viewing rather than a schedule that drifts into content meant for a much older audience.

Today’s line-up is a fair snapshot of what the channel does well: a brisk run of comedy and animation through the morning, Operation Ouch! and Deadly Dinosaurs with Steve Backshall giving the schedule its factual anchor either side of 9am, and a steady run of returning favourites like Jamie Johnson FC and Grizzy and the Lemmings carrying the afternoon. New episodes of Winx Club: The Magic Is Back and Go Get Arty lead into teatime, and the day closes out with So Awkward at 6pm and The Story of Tracy Beaker from 6:30pm ahead of the 7pm sign-off. A schedule that knows exactly what it’s for and doesn’t try to be anything else.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | CBeebies TV Guide | BBC iPlayer Guide