The "E" stands for entertainment and the channel is primarily aimed at the 16–34 age group (similar to BBC Three, ITV2, 5Star, Sky One, Universal TV, Comedy Central and Dave).

The slot initially ran through much of the morning/daytime schedule, though was later reduced to mornings only, with the amount of scripted comedy and drama screened in daytime increased.

The final episode was rescheduled for 1 October 2021 at 9pm on E4, taking over the Friday night film slot, with Married at First Sight: Afters scheduled for 10pm.

[20] E4 Extra is dedicated to comedy programming, with already existing comedy programmes such as The Big Bang Theory moving to the new channel, alongside the entertainment programming that airs on 4Music, which will move to the slot accompanied by Box Hits and transition back to a full-time music channel, before 4Music closed on 30 June 2024.

As of 2023, most comedy and drama had been moved (or, in the case of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, had come to an end) with weekday evening slots being given over increasingly to reality and unscripted programming – a mixture of original series (such as Teen Mum Academy and the 2022 revival of Embarrassing Bodies), first-run imports such as the Below Deck franchise, and repeated Channel 4 series, with Naked Attraction and Gogglebox in particular being especially prominent in primetime.

On 6 January 2025, American animated comedy series The Simpsons began airing on E4, after being broadcast on Channel 4 for 20 years since its debut in November 2004.

[22][23] The channel has also moved many of its acquired US shows such as Harley Quinn, Batwoman, The Goldbergs and Duncanville[24] out of peak and put them in a daytime or a late night slot to continue their seasons.

[26] Even though E4 has decided to move a lot of its acquired US programmes to overnight slots, there are some notable exceptions, with Rick and Morty heavily promoted and shown in primetime, whilst repeats of The Big Bang Theory and new episodes of spin-off Young Sheldon are also shown in peak slots,[27] while repeats of shows such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Modern Family fill up the daytime schedule.

[32] This came about after the initial plan to play the final season on 4Music – as had been promoted in on-air trails in the weeks prior – was scrapped when the Red Bee incident disrupted transmission of programming on 4Music for over a month.

[citation needed] After hosting repeats of the weekly Channel 4 satire panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats with Jimmy Carr, Sean Lock and Jon Richardson for many years, the production was adapted to become a title which debuted new episodes on E4 in 2017 (as the parent channel focused on its spin-off ...Cats Does Countdown).

[33] The version on E4 dispensed with the topical news questioning of later Channel 4 series and went back to being a show about random statistics and opinion polls, with Jimmy Carr continuing as host, alongside Rob Beckett and Aisling Bea as the team captains (replacing Lock and Richardson, who continued with the spin-off).

[40] Launching on Sunday 6 February 2022 at 8pm[41] and then scheduled every weekday at 7:30pm,[42][43][44][45] the programme lasted for four episodes on the channel, before it was taken off mid-series and replaced by a number of 'best of' compilations taken from Junior Bake Off.