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

Published: 29 August 2026

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 30 August 2026, and the schedule runs its usual length through the summer holidays.

CBBC Schedule: Sunday 30 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete CBBC schedule for Sunday 30 August 2026, on Freeview 201.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

What’s on CBBC today

Sunday’s line-up opens at 7am with Shaun the Sheep, then Danger Mouse, Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed! and Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese carry the schedule to Newsround’s regular 7:45am slot. A second Shaun the Sheep short, the Championsheeps spin-off, follows at 7:50am ahead of SpongeBob SquarePants and Grizzy and the Lemmings: World Tour, and Duck and Frog doubles up either side of 8:20am before Counterfeit Cat, The Amazing World of Gumball and Teen Titans Go! close out the hour. Deadly 60 opens the 9am slot, then Jamie Johnson at 9:40am is the only outing today for CBBC’s football drama. So Awkward, 4 O’Clock Club, Go Get Arty, BMX All Stars and Operation Ouch! carry the morning through to midday.

The afternoon opens with Horrible Histories at 12:15pm and Horrible Science half an hour later, then Bro’s in Control, Gladiators: Epic Pranks and Football Fantastics run through to 2pm. SpongeBob SquarePants repeats twice from 1:55pm and Submarine Jim does the same from 2:20pm, before three episodes of Total Dramarama and a further two of Duck and Frog take the schedule to 3:35pm. Malory Towers, Pickle Storm and The Next Step: Cheer — a cheerleading-themed spin-off of the dance drama, not the original series — fill out the afternoon, with Stage Stars closing it at 4:50pm. CBBC’s evening is short: The Football Academy at 5:15pm and a second Bro’s in Control at 5:45pm lead into The Dumping Ground at 6pm and Angel Pavement by Quentin Blake at 6:30pm, before the channel closes for the night at 6:58pm.

CBBC tonight — the evening schedule

CBBC’s evening is short tonight, Sunday 30 August 2026: one drama episode, one closing short, then off air.

The Dumping Ground — CBBC, 6pm

CBBC’s long-running care-home drama takes the 6pm slot with series 13, episode 9. Built around an ensemble of young residents rather than a single lead, it’s one of the steadiest fixtures on the channel and has outlasted most of CBBC’s other drama strands.

Angel Pavement by Quentin Blake — CBBC, 6:30pm

The last programme of the day is an animated adaptation drawn from Quentin Blake’s illustrated work, not a returning series. It runs half an hour and closes out the schedule proper.

Close — CBBC, 6:58pm

CBBC goes off air at 6:58pm with a card confirming programmes resume at 7am. The frequency passes to BBC Three overnight, as it does every day.

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 30 August 2026 schedule runs its usual length through the school summer holidays, opening with Shaun the Sheep at 7am and running through Deadly 60, Jamie Johnson and a run of afternoon regulars including Malory Towers and The Next Step: Cheer. The evening is a short one: The Football Academy at 5:15pm, The Dumping Ground at 6pm and Angel Pavement by Quentin Blake at 6:30pm, before the channel closes for the night 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