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

CBBC is the BBC’s channel for children roughly aged 6 to 12, on air every day from 7am until close around 7pm on Freeview 201. No adverts, on any platform, because the TV Licence pays for it. Today is Sunday 16 August 2026, and with the summer holidays still on, the schedule runs at its full length rather than working around school hours.

CBBC Schedule: Sunday 16 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete CBBC schedule for Sunday 16 August 2026, on Freeview 201.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

What’s on CBBC today

Newsround keeps its regular slot at 7:45am, sandwiched between Shaun the Sheep at 7am and a short run of animation: Danger Mouse, Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed! and Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese. SpongeBob SquarePants, Grizzy and the Lemmings: World Tour and two back-to-back episodes of Duck and Frog carry the schedule past 8:30am, then Counterfeit Cat, The Amazing World of Gumball and Teen Titans Go! take it up to 9am. Deadly 60 gets a half-hour slot from 9:10am, and Jamie Johnson FC, So Awkward, 4 O’Clock Club, Go Get Arty and BMX All Stars fill the rest of the morning ahead of Operation Ouch! at 11:45am.

The afternoon opens with Horrible Histories and Horrible Science from 12:15pm, followed by a short run of Bro’s in Control and Gladiators: Epic Pranks. Two episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants lead into three each of Submarine Jim and Total Dramarama, then two more episodes of Duck and Frog run before Malory Towers takes the 3:30pm slot. Jamie Johnson, The Next Step: Cheer and Stage Stars fill the rest of the afternoon, and The Football Academy and a second episode of Bro’s in Control carry the schedule into early evening ahead of The Dumping Ground at 6pm.

CBBC tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the CBBC primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 16 August 2026.

Earlier in the evening, football drama The Football Academy takes the 5:20pm slot, followed by a second episode of Bro’s in Control at 5:45pm.

The Dumping Ground — CBBC, 6pm

The Dumping Ground takes the 6pm slot with an episode from series 13, the long-running drama about a group of young people in residential care that grew out of the Tracy Beaker franchise. It isn’t one of tonight’s new premieres, so this is an older instalment filling the closing hour rather than a fresh episode. The format has outlasted most of its CBBC contemporaries by treating the setting as a proper drama rather than a gimmick.

Snuff by Quentin Blake — CBBC, 6:30pm

At 6:30pm, it’s Snuff by Quentin Blake, one of the animated shorts built around the illustrator’s picture books. This one follows a clumsy apprentice who talks his way out of trouble when thieves target the local bootmaker’s shop, told in the same storybook style that runs through the rest of the strand. It’s a quieter way to close the day than the channel’s usual competitive formats.

CBBC closes down straight after, at 6:58pm, with the channel off air until programmes resume at 7am.

What kind of shows are on CBBC

Drama

Crookhaven is the newest of CBBC’s dramas and the most ambitious: a boarding school that trains pickpockets to use the skill for good, back for a second run with a book range to go with it. Jamie Johnson FC, the football drama, is four series deep. Those two and Malory Towers give older viewers the thing most of the schedule can’t, which is characters and storylines that carry from one week to the next.

Comedy and animation

Most of the daytime is short-form comedy and animation. Danger Mouse and Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed! keep the old British characters ticking over, SpongeBob SquarePants and Teen Titans Go! cover the American imports, and newer originals like Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese and Duck and Frog fill the ten- and fifteen-minute gaps between them. The one worth actually sitting down for is Odd Squad, a live-action comedy about child agents who solve their cases with maths.

Factual and entertainment

Horrible Science, Operation Ouch!, Gladiators: Epic Pranks and Deadly Dinosaurs with Steve Backshall keep CBBC’s factual slots closer to sketch comedy or a game show than a documentary.

News and long-running strands

Newsround goes out every morning, weekends included, and it is still proper news explained without talking down. Blue Peter is the channel’s other fixture: into its seventh decade, having changed presenters dozens of times and almost nothing else.

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.

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 the sister channel for the under-6s, on Freeview channel 202 from around 6am to 7pm. Shorter programmes, slower pace, nothing that has to be followed week to week. The switch across usually happens when talking animals stop cutting it and teen drama is still a way off, which is more or less the gap CBBC was built to sit in. See our CBeebies TV guide for that channel’s full schedule.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on CBBC today?

CBBC’s Sunday 16 August 2026 schedule runs at full length through the school summer holidays, opening with Shaun the Sheep at 7am and running through Horrible Histories, Horrible Science, and repeat strands of SpongeBob SquarePants, Submarine Jim and Total Dramarama across the afternoon. The Dumping Ground closes out the day at 6pm, Snuff by Quentin Blake follows at 6:30pm, and the evening hands over to BBC Three at 6:58pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

What time does CBBC start and finish each day?

CBBC broadcasts from 7am to 7pm every day, then hands its frequency to BBC Three until 7am the next morning.

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

The pitch for a parent is simple enough. Twelve hours a day you don’t have to vet first, and no autoplay quietly nudging a seven-year-old towards something you’d rather they hadn’t found.

It won’t compete with CBeebies for calm, or with streaming for anything aimed at teenagers, and it isn’t trying to. What it offers is Newsround done properly, and a schedule either side of it that doesn’t need a parent hovering.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | CBeebies TV Guide | Films on TV This Week