E4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On E4 Tonight

E4 is Channel 4’s younger-skewing entertainment channel: American sitcom reruns through the day, reality formats after dark, and the Hollyoaks first-look Monday to Wednesday at 7pm. Wednesday 12 August is one of those first-look nights, with a new Hollyoaks episode at 7pm following a 6:30pm repeat, and The Simpsons either side of the soap, closing out a three-episode run at 6pm before returning at 7:30pm. Vanderpump Rules opens a new series at 8pm, and Gogglebox airs twice back to back from 9pm ahead of Naked Attraction at 11pm.

E4 Schedule: Wednesday 12 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete E4 schedule for Wednesday 12 August 2026, on Freeview 13.

What’s on E4 today

The small hours are reruns: a Gogglebox repeat just after midnight, then a Vanderpump Rules repeat and a Below Deck Down Under repeat back to back. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA, a Simpsons episode and two of The Goldbergs carry the channel past 4am, before two Brooklyn Nine-Nine repeats and two Hollyoaks episodes lead into a short Rude(ish) Tube Shorts filler just before 7am.

Couples Come Dine with Me opens the working day, then two Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA repeats run either side of 8am and 9am. America’s Funniest Home Videos and a Below Deck Mediterranean episode carry the channel into midday. From there it’s sitcom reruns into early evening: four Simpsons episodes from noon, two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, four of Modern Family, then Simpsons returns for a three-episode run from 5pm that leads straight into the two Hollyoaks episodes at 6:30pm and 7pm.

E4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the E4 primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 12 August 2026.

The Simpsons — E4, 5pm, 5:30pm & 7:30pm

The Simpsons bookends the evening rather than filling one slot. A trio of season-six-era episodes runs from 5pm through to 6pm, then a fourth turns up at 7:30pm once Hollyoaks has finished, this time an outing built around Marge gathering the family for a Bridges of Madison County-inspired chat about love, with Michelle Pfeiffer guesting.

Hollyoaks — E4, 6:30pm & 7pm

E4’s first-look slot runs a repeat at 6:30pm before the new episode goes out at 7pm, a full day before Channel 4 gets it. Jonah’s party plans come together while Dee Dee catches Abigail mid-meltdown in her car, and Mercedes starts to suspect Warren is drowning his sorrows for a reason.

New: Vanderpump Rules — E4, 8pm

A new series lands at 8pm. The Paso Robles crew are barely out of the gate before an overheard phone call has Audrey questioning things with Chris, and the group’s night out gets messier from there.

Gogglebox — E4, 9pm & 10pm

Two back-to-back hours of sofa commentary, and two different sets of clips. The 9pm edition takes in Married at First Sight Australia, Only Connect and Naked and Afraid; the 10pm follow-up switches to The Piano, MILF Manor and the muted Match of the Day that aired after Gary Lineker’s BBC suspension made headlines.

Naked Attraction — E4, 11pm

The night closes with two more hopefuls: a trans woman named Amira looking for a partner unfazed by public affection, and a rugby player who reckons there’s a softer side to him worth discovering.

Popular shows on E4

Reality

Married at First Sight Australia is E4’s most-watched acquisition and the one that reorders the whole schedule when a series is on. Three or four episodes a week, strangers paired off by “experts”, married at first meeting, then sat at a dinner party until somebody says the unforgivable thing. The UK version plays much quieter. Its couples absorb the pressure rather than detonate at the table, which is more realistic and considerably less watchable.

Celebs Go Dating has been on E4 since 2016 and has never changed shape: two relationship coaches, currently Paul C. Brunson and Anna Williamson, a handful of celebrity clients, and dates with members of the public.

Gogglebox is a Friday-night Channel 4 show. E4 runs the repeats.

Soap

Hollyoaks has been on Channel 4 since 1995 and in E4’s first-look slot long enough that most viewers under 35 have never known it any other way. It takes on the heavy issue storylines soaps go in for, mental health and addiction and the rest, while keeping the pace quick and the cast young.

US comedy

The Big Bang Theory, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Modern Family anchor daytime, and all three sit on Channel 4’s streaming service on demand. The Simpsons is the exception to everything. E4 holds so much of it that a single day can jump across two decades of the show without anyone at the channel appearing to mind.

How to watch E4

Channel numbers

Where to find E4 by platform:

E4 is free-to-air everywhere. A Freeview aerial carries it, and so does every Sky package as standard.

Streaming

E4 streams live and on demand for free through Channel 4’s app and channel4.com, covering smart TVs, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most streaming sticks. Registration is free and asks for no payment details. Adverts play regardless. The full E4 library is there as well, including complete runs of Married at First Sight Australia and MAFS UK, and Hollyoaks as catch-up after transmission.

E4 +1, E4 Extra and the Channel 4 family

E4 +1 on Freeview 30 is a straight one-hour timeshift, so 7pm here is 8pm there.

E4 Extra is the sister channel for repeats and extra runs of E4’s biggest shows. It launched in 2022 in the slot 4Music vacated, and sits on Freeview 31 and Sky 139.

Both sit in the wider Channel 4 family alongside the main channel, More4 for factual and Film4 for cinema. All of them are commercially funded. Channel 4 is publicly owned but takes no licence fee money and no government subsidy, a distinction worth remembering the next time somebody complains about the adverts.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on E4 tonight?

It’s a first-look Hollyoaks night. A repeat of the previous episode airs at 6:30pm, then the new instalment goes out at 7pm, a day ahead of Channel 4. Vanderpump Rules opens a new series at 8pm, and Gogglebox runs two episodes back to back from 9pm before Naked Attraction closes the night at 11pm. Times are in the schedule table above.

Does E4 have adverts?

Yes. It is a commercial channel, so ad breaks run on linear TV and on the streaming free tier alike. No licence fee, no subscription. Record it on a PVR and you can skip them as usual.

When did E4 launch?

E4 launched on 18 January 2001 as a companion to Channel 4, aimed at younger viewers from day one. It began as a subscription service, later went free-to-air, and reached Freeview in May 2005.

Verdict

Wednesday is one of the week’s three first-look nights, and it shows in the schedule: Hollyoaks gets a 6:30pm repeat before the new episode proper at 7pm, with Simpsons reruns propping it up on either side. Vanderpump Rules opens a new series at 8pm.

Worth knowing before the 8pm slot: this is a fresh Vanderpump Rules series rather than a returning episode, so it’s a sensible point to pick the show back up if you’ve fallen out of the habit. Gogglebox follows with two different episodes back to back at 9pm and 10pm rather than a repeat of the same one.

The daytime hours are unremarkable sitcom reruns, four Simpsons blocks and stretches of Modern Family and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but the 6:30pm to 11pm run is as strong as E4 gets on a weeknight.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 4 TV Guide | E4 Schedule | Films on TV This Week