List of programs broadcast by CNBC

The List of programs broadcast by CNBC is a comprehensive catalog of current and former television series, specials, and documentaries aired on CNBC, the American pay television business news channel owned by NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. Launched on April 17, 1989, as the Consumer News and Business Channel, CNBC has evolved into a global leader in real-time financial market coverage and business journalism, reaching over 355 million viewers monthly across its platforms.^[1][2][3] CNBC's programming schedule features approximately 14 hours of live weekday broadcasts from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET, focusing on stock market analysis, economic news, corporate earnings, and interviews with business leaders and policymakers.^[1] Flagship original shows include morning staples like Squawk Box, which delivers pre-market insights and high-profile interviews, and Squawk on the Street, providing real-time updates from the New York Stock Exchange floor; midday programs such as Halftime Report, Power Lunch, and The Exchange, which dissect market trends and investment strategies; and closing segments like Closing Bell and Fast Money, offering end-of-day recaps and trader discussions.^[4][5][6] Evening and primetime content expands into entertainment-infused business topics with series like Mad Money, hosted by Jim Cramer for stock-picking advice, and investigative formats including American Greed, which explores corporate fraud and financial scandals.^[7] The channel also airs documentaries on economic issues, syndicated content such as Shark Tank reruns, alongside sports business specials and holiday events.^[8][9] This diverse lineup reflects CNBC's dual role as a 24/7 news source and producer of original long-form content, with historical programs tracing back to early consumer-focused shows that laid the foundation for its current emphasis on financial empowerment and market intelligence.^[1][2]

Current programming

Weekday programs

CNBC's weekday programming focuses on live market coverage, business news, and analysis during business hours, typically from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET as of November 2025. The schedule emphasizes real-time financial updates, interviews, and expert insights from the New York Stock Exchange and global markets.^[10] Key programs include early morning previews, pre-market discussions, midday trading analysis, and closing recaps. The lineup has evolved to integrate digital tools and extended coverage amid post-pandemic viewer shifts to streaming platforms.

Primetime programs

CNBC's primetime lineup as of November 2025 centers on financial advice, reality reruns, and investigative series, airing from 6:00 p.m. ET onward to attract broader audiences beyond daytime business news. The schedule includes original content and syndicated programming, with a focus on entertainment-infused business topics.^[10]

Former programming

Weekday programs

CNBC's weekday programming during business hours has undergone significant changes over the years, with several market analysis and business news shows discontinued to adapt to evolving viewer interests, technological advancements, and competitive landscapes in financial media. These programs typically aired between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, focusing on live market coverage, stock analysis, and economic insights from the New York Stock Exchange floor or studio settings. Discontinuations often coincided with broader network shifts, such as post-2020 audience migrations to digital platforms and post-pandemic market volatility that prompted format mergers and efficiency measures.^[12] Early in the network's history, shows like Market Watch provided foundational midday market reporting, premiering shortly after CNBC's launch in 1989. It aired from approximately 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET and was discontinued in the early 2000s as part of schedule consolidations amid the dot-com bust and rising competition from Fox Business. The program emphasized conceptual market trends over granular data, helping establish CNBC's role in real-time financial education.^[13] Subsequent decades saw the rise and fall of targeted formats, including Business Center, one of CNBC's longest-running staples, which premiered in 1989 as an evening weekday wrap-up but shifted to pre-5 p.m. slots, airing from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET with hosts like Sue Herera and Ron Insana. The two-hour format delivered comprehensive daily recaps, extended-hours trading previews, and economic analysis until its discontinuation in the late 1990s, replaced by extended Closing Bell segments to streamline prime trading-hour content amid audience fragmentation. Reasons included post-financial crisis viewer shifts to online sources and internal mergers for cost efficiency.^[14][15] More recent discontinuations reflect digital integration and schedule optimizations. Options Action, a weekday options trading education show from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET starting in 2009 and hosted by Mike Khouw and others, demystified derivatives through expert panels and trade breakdowns. It was quietly canceled in September 2023, folded into Fast Money Halftime Report to consolidate specialized content amid declining interest in standalone options programming post-2022 rate hikes.^[16] Notable former programs also include Nightly Business Report, a syndicated evening business news program that aired on CNBC from its 1989 launch until its production ended on December 27, 2019, after 40 years, due to shifts in syndication and digital news consumption.^[17] Additionally, The Kudlow Report, hosted by Larry Kudlow from 2002 to 2021, provided conservative economic commentary and interviews in a late-afternoon slot until Kudlow's departure to serve as White House economic advisor.^[18]

Primetime programs

In the 2010s, CNBC pivoted its primetime schedule toward reality programming to engage wider audiences with entrepreneurial stories and business dramas, departing from its traditional news focus. This shift began in 2012 with the network's first slate of reality developments, including formats centered on startups, investments, and high-stakes deals.^[19] By the early 2020s, however, many of these series were discontinued as CNBC streamlined its entertainment slate amid lower viewership and a strategic return to core financial content.^[20] Key former primetime programs emphasized themes of innovation, risk, and self-made success, often featuring investor interventions in struggling ventures. The following table summarizes major discontinued series, including their run lengths, primary hosts or investors, episode totals where available, and central concepts. These series often highlighted real-world business pitfalls, such as mismanagement and market pressures, with episodes featuring crossover elements like follow-ups on prior investments or ties to broader CNBC documentaries on fraud cases. For instance, The Profit's intervention format influenced later investor-focused panels, though the show's run concluded without a direct spin-off.^[28] Overall, the primetime experiment boosted CNBC's evening viewership in the mid-2010s but waned as entertainment budgets were reallocated post-2020.^[29]

Specials and documentaries

Current specials and documentaries

CNBC's current specials and documentaries focus on investigative journalism, innovation showcases, and timely economic events, offering viewers extended explorations beyond daily programming. These productions, often produced in-house by CNBC's documentary unit, emphasize corporate intrigue, technological advancements, and policy impacts, with many receiving critical acclaim including multiple News and Documentary Emmy Awards for outstanding business and economic reporting over the years.^[30][31] The annual CNBC Disruptor 50, produced by CNBC since 2013, highlights innovative private companies driving industry change, with the 2025 list announced on June 10 and topping with defense technology firm Anduril amid an AI investment surge; the program profiles 50 companies, including OpenAI and Databricks, collectively valued at $798 billion.^[32] This recurring event underscores CNBC's role in spotlighting entrepreneurial disruption, with special on-air coverage during programs like Squawk Box. Investigative specials tied to American Greed, CNBC's long-running series on financial crimes, continue with standalone episodes updating fraud cases such as cryptocurrency schemes in 2025, produced by the same team and maintaining the series' focus on ethical lapses in business. A related limited series, Deadly Rich from 2018, delves into high-stakes scandals involving wealth and murder.^[7][33] Event-based specials include coverage of the inaugural CNBC AI Summit on October 15, 2025, in Nashville, featuring CEO interviews from leaders at companies like Databricks on AI's business implications, broadcast live with themed panels on workforce transformation.^[34] Similarly, the debut Invest in America Forum on October 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C., aired sessions with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and executives from Pfizer and Wells Fargo, produced by CNBC Events to explore domestic investment strategies amid global shifts.^[35] Holiday programming features annual market retrospectives, such as end-of-year specials reviewing the prior year's stock performance and outlook for the coming year, aired in December to guide investor reflections. Recent standalone documentaries like RiskyRX, premiered digitally on November 13, 2025, investigate alternative funding for expensive medications, highlighting patient risks in the pharmaceutical industry, produced by CNBC's investigative team.^[36] These efforts have contributed to CNBC's strong quarterly viewership.

Former specials and documentaries

CNBC's former specials and documentaries encompassed a range of investigative pieces, limited series, and one-off reports that delved into economic risks, corporate scandals, and entrepreneurial ventures, often airing during primetime slots to fill programming gaps between regular news blocks. These productions, spanning from the network's early years in the 1990s through the 2010s, provided in-depth analyses of business events and societal impacts, but many were discontinued after single seasons or episodes due to their event-specific nature or shifts in viewer preferences toward streaming formats.^[8] One notable limited series was Cleveland Hustles, which premiered in 2016 and ran for one season of eight episodes, featuring LeBron James and Maverick Carter investing in Cleveland-area small businesses to revitalize local economies post-recession. The show highlighted community-driven entrepreneurship, with investors evaluating pitches from ventures like a bagel shop and a barber college, ultimately providing funding and mentorship to selected participants. It ended after its initial run, as it was designed as a finite project tied to James's hometown initiative, though episodes continue to stream on platforms like Peacock.^[37][38] The Car Chasers, airing from 2013 to 2015 across three seasons, followed car restoration experts Jeff Allen and Perry Barndt as they scouted auctions for classic vehicles, restored them, and flipped them for profit, often risking significant capital on high-stakes bids for items like Shelby Mustangs. The series showcased the volatile auto collector market and restoration challenges, drawing modest audiences but concluding amid CNBC's pivot from reality formats to more news-oriented content in the mid-2010s.^[39][40] In the documentary realm, early 2000s specials like The Age of Wal-Mart: Inside America's Most Powerful Company (2004) offered an insider's view of the retail giant's operations, supply chain dominance, and labor practices, earning a Peabody Award for its balanced examination of corporate power's societal effects. Similarly, Dirty Money: The Business of High-End Prostitution (2008), hosted by Melissa Francis, investigated the economics of elite escort services, revealing how affluent clients spent lavishly in a shadowy industry estimated to generate billions annually. These one-off reports, part of CNBC's broader "Dirty Money" specials, ceased production as the format evolved.^[41][42] The 2008 special The Russian Gamble, reported by Erin Burnett from Moscow, explored Russia's economic turmoil amid the global financial crisis, using gambling as a metaphor for the high-risk bets by oligarchs and the government on oil revenues and foreign investment. It highlighted contrasts between everyday citizens' cash-based lives and elite casino excesses, airing as a timely response to geopolitical business shifts but not renewed due to its event-driven focus. Pre-2010 election-related specials, such as business impact analyses during the 2000 and 2008 presidential races, examined market reactions to policy debates on taxes and trade, often integrated into live coverage rather than standalone productions.^[43] Many of these specials ended in the late 2010s and early 2020s amid broader industry challenges, including budget constraints from cord-cutting and the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted NBCUniversal to reduce original programming investments across its networks. For instance, investigative docs on fraud and greed, like those in the Dirty Money vein, garnered critical acclaim but faced declining linear TV viewership, leading to a focus on evergreen series. Their emphasis on psychological drivers of financial misdeeds left a legacy influencing ongoing formats such as American Greed.^[44]