Channel 4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Channel 4 Tonight

Published: 30 August 2026

Channel 4 is the UK’s publicly owned but ad-funded broadcaster, free to watch and responsible for a fair chunk of the odder British television of the past forty years. You’ll find it at 4 on Freeview, and at 104 on Freeview HD, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. It streams live and on demand for free at channel4.com and through the Channel 4 app. Channel 4 News runs weeknights at 7pm; Gogglebox is the Friday 9pm fixture.

Monday 31 August brings two genuine new commissions to Channel 4. Fred’s Ultimate Hotels opens at 8pm, and The Murder Detective, a three-part account of the inquiry into Lyra McKee’s killing, begins late at 11:05pm. Around them, A New Life in the Sun returns for an eighth series at 6pm, Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It: Brilliant Builds takes its usual 7:30pm slot, and 24 Hours in A&E and Love Cheats hold down 9pm and 10pm.

Channel 4 Schedule: Monday 31 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 4 schedule for Monday 31 August 2026, on Freeview 4.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Channel 4 today: the daytime schedule

Monday daytime on Channel 4 runs its normal weekday grid. The overnight hours are American sitcom reruns and a film: Three Thousand Years of Longing at 12:15am, two episodes of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA and The Simpsons, then Jamie: Eat Yourself Healthy and Couples Come Dine with Me before dawn.

Breakfast runs three episodes each of The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier from 6:30am to 11:10am, with Countdown opening the day proper at 5:50am. Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back takes 11:10am, then Find It, Fix It, Flog It and The Great House Giveaway carry the early afternoon. A second Countdown airs at 2:10pm, followed by A Place in the Sun at 3pm, The Great B&B Challenge at 4pm and Chateau DIY at 5pm, running up to the evening’s opener.

Channel 4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Monday 31 August is a genuine launch night for Channel 4, with two brand-new commissions either side of the regular evening schedule.

Fred’s Ultimate Hotels — Channel 4, 8pm

This is the one to set a reminder for. Fred’s Ultimate Hotels is a completely new series (series 1, episode 1), with Fred Sirieix leaving his usual maître d’ territory to explore what actually makes a hotel stay unforgettable. He opens in Marrakech, at the Royal Mansour, one of the most lavish hotels in Morocco. Expect Sirieix’s usual mix of charm and genuine curiosity about how the industry works behind the scenes, rather than a straightforward travelogue.

The Murder Detective — Channel 4, 11:05pm

Late in the schedule but worth flagging: The Murder Detective begins its three-part run (series 1, episode 1 of 3) with a soberly told account of the hunt for the people who shot the journalist Lyra McKee, killed in Derry/Londonderry in April 2019. The series draws on years of access to the detectives who worked the case. It sits well after the watershed and is not framed as entertainment.

A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They Now? — Channel 4, 6pm

Opening the evening, A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They Now? returns for an eighth series (series 8, episode 1), catching up with expats who featured in earlier runs. Tonight’s update is on Debbie and Paul in Spain, rebuilding their plans after a fire destroyed their B&B.

Channel 4 News and the soaps’ near-miss

Channel 4 News runs its usual weekday half-hour at 7pm. Straight after it, Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It: Brilliant Builds takes 7:30pm (series 2, episode 3), following Kathleen and Tom as they renovate a three-bedroom Victorian semi in Newcastle. Note that 4seven is showing a different episode of the same strand at 8pm tonight — worth checking before assuming the two channels line up.

24 Hours in A&E and Love Cheats — Channel 4, 9pm and 10pm

24 Hours in A&E continues its long-running documentary strand at 9pm (series 36, episode 8), still filming inside a busy NHS emergency department. Love Cheats follows at 10pm with a second episode (series 2, episode 2) — the series itself opened last night, so tonight continues rather than launches it.

Popular shows on Channel 4

Comedy and entertainment

Gogglebox has been running since 2013, filming regular families and friends reacting to the week’s telly from their own sofas. When something big happens in the culture, their reactions often land harder than any think-piece. It won the BAFTA for Reality and Constructed Factual in 2014 and is still going more than a decade later.

Taskmaster moved to Channel 4 from Dave in 2020 and has run a new series most years since. Greg Davies’s mock authority and Alex Horne’s deadpan make for a double act that never feels forced. Series 21 began in April 2026 with Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett and Kumail Nanjiani.

Factual and documentary

24 Hours in A&E films inside a working NHS hospital, originally St George’s in Tooting and later King’s College, with fixed cameras and no presenter. It trusts the patients and staff to carry it, which they do. Dispatches, running since 1987, does the investigative work few other British programmes go near; its 2023 Russell Brand investigation was made jointly with two national newspapers.

Baking, lifestyle and food

The Great British Bake Off can make an entire nation care about proving times and choux pastry. It moved from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017 and still pulls some of the biggest entertainment audiences of the year each autumn. Bake Off: The Professionals swaps the amateurs for trained pastry chefs, and the sugar-work sculptures they produce are frankly ridiculous. Come Dine With Me just keeps going in the afternoons, held together entirely by Dave Lamb’s narration.

How to watch Channel 4 live and on demand

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Channel 4 depending on your platform:

All of these are free-to-air, no subscription needed. Channel 4 takes no money from the TV Licence; it runs on advertising and commercial partnerships, which is why you get ad breaks on both the linear channel and the stream.

Channel 4 streaming service

Channel 4 streams live and on demand for free at channel4.com and through the Channel 4 app, which runs on smart TVs, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most major streaming sticks. You need a free account to watch; registration takes a couple of minutes. Alongside the live feed there’s the full on-demand library, box sets, and some series that never appear on linear TV. Most programmes stay up for at least 30 days after broadcast. The service used to be called All 4 before Channel 4 folded it under its own name in 2023.

The Channel 4 family of channels

Channel 4 runs a group of free-to-air digital channels alongside the main service.

E4 is the entertainment and comedy channel aimed at younger viewers. It’s the linear home of Hollyoaks, which airs Monday to Wednesday at 7pm on E4, with the omnibus appearing on Channel 4 overnight on Tuesdays. E4 also carries American imports including The Big Bang Theory and Friends. It’s on Freeview 28, Sky 140 and Virgin Media 144.

More4 is where the factual and lifestyle back catalogue goes to live a second life: property, true crime, acquired documentary series, and a great many daytime repeats. More4 is on Freeview 18, Sky 144 and Virgin Media 148.

Film4 is the free movie channel, and a genuinely good one: mainstream Hollywood in the evenings, world and independent cinema later on, no subscription anywhere in it. Film4 is on Freeview 15, Sky 313 and Virgin Media 428.

4seven replays the past week of Channel 4 and its sister channels at different times of day, for anyone who’d rather not use the app. It’s on Freeview 47 and Sky 149.

Frequently asked questions

What channel number is Channel 4 on Freeview?

Channel 4 is on channel 4 on Freeview. If you have a Freeview HD receiver or a TV with a built-in Freeview HD tuner, Channel 4 HD is on channel 104. Both carry the same programmes.

What channel is Channel 4 on Sky?

Channel 4 is on channel 104 on Sky, which covers Sky Q, Sky Stream and Sky Glass. Channel 4 HD is the default feed at 104.

What channel is Channel 4 on Virgin Media?

Channel 4 is on channel 104 on Virgin Media.

What channel is Channel 4 on Freesat?

Channel 4 is on channel 104 on Freesat. If you’re in Wales you may find S4C at 104 on some tuners; check your regional listing accordingly.

What time is Channel 4 News on?

Channel 4 News is on Monday to Friday at 7pm, running until 7:55pm. It’s produced by ITN and streams free on channel4.com and the Channel 4 app alongside the linear broadcast. Weekend bulletins are shorter and earlier, typically around 6:30-6:35pm and roughly twenty-five minutes long.

What time is Gogglebox on Channel 4?

Gogglebox’s home slot is Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4, with episodes available on the Channel 4 streaming service shortly after broadcast. The Celebrity Gogglebox spin-off turns up in other slots through the week, including some Monday nights, with a different line-up of famous faces reacting to the same shows.

What’s on Channel 4 tonight?

Tonight, Monday 31 August 2026, Channel 4 has two genuine new series. A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They Now? opens the evening at 6pm, and Fred’s Ultimate Hotels launches at 8pm with Fred Sirieix in Marrakech. Channel 4 News runs its usual weekday half-hour at 7pm, followed by Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It: Brilliant Builds at 7:30pm. 24 Hours in A&E continues at 9pm and Love Cheats at 10pm, and the three-part documentary The Murder Detective begins late at 11:05pm.

Can I watch Channel 4 online for free?

Yes. Channel 4 streams live and on demand for free at channel4.com and through the Channel 4 app. A free account is required to watch. The service is available on smart TVs, phones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most streaming sticks. Channel 4 is ad-supported, so adverts are included in the stream.

Does Channel 4 have a streaming service?

Yes. It’s the same free service covered above at channel4.com and via the Channel 4 app, previously known as All 4 before Channel 4 dropped the separate branding in 2023.

Verdict

Monday 31 August is a proper launch night for Channel 4, not just a schedule refresh. Fred’s Ultimate Hotels is the headline new commission, giving Fred Sirieix a format built around his actual expertise rather than a reality-show gimmick, and it earns its 8pm slot. The Murder Detective, tucked away at 11:05pm, is the more serious piece of work: a soberly made three-parter built on years of access to a genuinely difficult case.

Around them, the evening is otherwise business as usual — the returning A New Life in the Sun spin-off, Channel 4 News, a familiar property format, and the long-running 24 Hours in A&E and Love Cheats. It’s the two launches that make tonight worth planning around, not the schedule as a whole.

Watch

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 4 Schedule | BBC One TV Guide | Films on TV This Week