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

Quest is Warner Bros. Discovery’s free-to-air factual channel, built around cars, engineering and the kind of programming where someone always ends up covered in grease or sawdust. Channel numbers are further down the page. Thursday 20 August 2026 runs the usual salvage-and-workshop daytime, with doubled-up episodes of Salvage Hunters, Aussie Gold Hunters and Outback Opal Hunters carrying the morning before the evening turns to Australia. Two fresh episodes anchor primetime: Outback Truckers at 8pm and Outback Opal Hunters at 9pm, the latter finding the Blacklighters chasing down expert help for a rare fossil find. The Repair Shop follows with a rerun at 10pm. Full breakdown below.

Quest Schedule: Thursday 20 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Quest schedule for Thursday 20 August 2026, on Freeview 17.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Quest today

Thursday’s daytime opens overnight with a How Do They Do It? double bill from midnight, then two episodes of Salvage Hunters back to back from 1am and Salvage Hunters: The Restorers at 3am. How It’s Made splits into two half-hour episodes from 4am, followed by an hour of Teleshopping from 5am. Salvage Hunters: The Restorers takes the 6am hour before regular Salvage Hunters runs two more episodes from 7am. Aussie Gold Hunters holds both the 9am and 10am hours, then Outback Opal Hunters takes over for a double bill from 11am. The Repair Shop returns at 1pm, Shed And Buried splits into two half-hour episodes from 2pm, Shed And Buried: Classic Cars follows at 3pm, and Find It, Fix It, Flog It closes out the afternoon at 4pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

Quest tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Quest primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 20 August 2026.

The Yorkshire Auction House — Quest, 6pm

Angus opens the evening with a rerun (series 4, episode 6), turning up a stash of quirky scientific instruments before helping a father raise money from old keepsakes for his daughter’s time at university.

Antiques Road Trip — Quest, 7pm

Anita Manning and Raj Bisram are on one of their last trips together this series (episode 4), and Anita has her eye on an Eastern deity figure she thinks could pull in a strong price at auction.

Outback Truckers — Quest, 8pm

A new series five episode, and it’s a rough one: Jim Foody works to keep bushfires and mechanical breakdowns from ending his run, Tim Alt hauls a shipment of 21 million bees over dangerous mountain roads, and Hibbo pushes a triple-trailer load through the outback.

Outback Opal Hunters — Quest, 9pm

Tonight’s new episode, titled “Crabology 101”, sends the Blacklighters looking for outside expertise after uncovering a rare fossil mid-dig. The Mooka Boys press ahead with building a wash plant, while worn-out machinery threatens to cut the Bushmen’s season short.

The Repair Shop — Quest, 10pm

Woodworker Will takes on a family table dating back to the late 1970s, and modelling expert David gets to work restoring a cherished horseracing game.

How Do They Do It? — Quest, 11pm and 11:30pm

A double bill closes the night. The 11pm episode covers the manufacture of Ford’s Transit van and the Driza-bone riding coat; the 11:30pm follow-up looks at wood-burning stoves built for Norwegian winters and the synthesiser credited with reshaping popular music.

What kind of shows are on Quest

Motoring, restoration and workshop shows

The backbone of Quest’s schedule is vehicles. Wheeler Dealers, Salvage Hunters, Shed and Buried and Chasing Classic Cars between them hold down most of the hours before mid-afternoon, all working the same basic appeal: someone spots value in a thing everyone else wrote off, then proves it by fixing it up or selling it on. It’s cheap to make and it repeats well, which is why there is so much of it.

Acquired documentaries and reality

The evenings lean on programming bought in from elsewhere. The Repair Shop is the obvious case, a series made for another broadcaster that has found a long second life here, but the later slots also take storm-chasing and survival documentaries such as In the Eye of the Storm.

How It’s Made and everyday engineering

How It’s Made is the odd one out on the schedule, a factory-floor staple that’s run in various forms for decades, taking a few minutes at a time to show how ordinary objects get manufactured. It’s exactly the sort of thing you leave running in the background, and Quest schedules it mostly in the early hours.

How to watch Quest

Channel numbers

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

Quest moved from Freeview channel 12 to channel 17 in January 2026, so retune your box if you’re still seeing the old number. Virgin Media and Freesat numbers can vary slightly by region, so check your on-screen guide if these don’t quite match.

Streaming online

Quest streams live and free through discovery+, available as an app on smart TVs, phones and tablets, and via web browser at discoveryplus.com. Registering for a free account gets you live access to Quest and its sister channels, plus 30 days of catch-up, all supported by adverts. A paid discovery+ tier exists too, and comes free with Sky TV packages from £15 a month, but it isn’t needed just to watch Quest live.

Quest +1 and sister channels

Quest +1 repeats the schedule an hour behind, on Freeview channel 70 and Sky channel 244. It’s the one to reach for if you’ve missed the start of a Wheeler Dealers marathon, or want to catch The Repair Shop an hour later.

Quest sits inside a wider family of Warner Bros. Discovery free-to-air channels. Quest Red, on Freeview channel 40 and Sky channel 149, shares the reclamation-yard DNA but skews towards a female audience with reality and lifestyle shows like My 600-lb Life and Say Yes to the Dress. Really, another channel in the same stable, sits alongside it on the Freeview line-up with its own mix of true crime and factual programming.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on Quest tonight?

Thursday’s primetime splits into two halves. The Yorkshire Auction House and Antiques Road Trip open the evening with reruns at 6pm and 7pm, then Quest hands its best two slots to fresh material: Outback Truckers at 8pm and Outback Opal Hunters at 9pm both bring new episodes. The Repair Shop follows at 10pm, and a How Do They Do It? double bill closes the night from 11pm. See the schedule table above for daytime listings in full.

What channel is Quest on Freeview?

Channel 17. It moved there from channel 12 on 13 January 2026 when Warner Bros. Discovery reshuffled its free-to-air channels. Retune your box if you’re still seeing the old number.

Is The Repair Shop a Quest original show?

No. It’s a BBC production made by Ricochet, first shown on BBC One. Quest broadcasts it in repeat, which is why it turns up so often in the evening schedule here.

Can I watch Quest online for free?

Yes. It streams live at discoveryplus.com and through the discovery+ app; a free account with adverts gives you the live channel and 30 days of catch-up.

Is Quest free to watch?

Yes, entirely free to air on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat, with the usual advert breaks but no subscription fee.

Verdict

Thursday’s schedule keeps to Quest’s usual shape, with Salvage Hunters, Aussie Gold Hunters and Outback Opal Hunters all running in doubled-up blocks through the morning before the auction and workshop shows take the afternoon.

The evening splits fairly evenly between old and new. The Yorkshire Auction House and Antiques Road Trip open primetime with reruns at 6pm and 7pm, then the channel’s two strongest slots go to fresh episodes: Outback Truckers at 8pm and Outback Opal Hunters at 9pm, where the Blacklighters need outside help identifying a fossil find. The Repair Shop closes out the 10pm hour, and a How Do They Do It? double bill sees the night through from 11pm.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Really TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week