Peep and the Big Wide World

Main

• Peep (voiced by Scott Beaudin in seasons 1–3, Shawn Molko in season 4 and Maxwell Uretsky in season 5) is a male, yellow chicken who is very curious. He is the youngest bird of the group. The show's title is derived from his name. However, Peep is female in the original short film.
• Chirp (voiced by Amanda Soha) is a female, red robin who is also very curious, and attempts frequently to fly, with unsatisfying results, until "A Daring Duck", when she flies to the ground. In "Big Bird", she meets an adult robin for the first time. She is Peep and Quack's best friend. However, Chirp is male in the original short film.
• Quack (voiced by Jamie Watson) is a male, eggplant purple duck who wears a white sailor's hat. He is older than Peep and Chirp, as they are still chicks. He frequently boasts about himself and ducks as a whole, and unwittingly makes many discoveries. Quack is purple in the original short film and is now referred to as blue, but is still quite indigo. He also seems to have a hoarding issue, as evidenced in the episode "An Inconvenient Tooth, Part 1".
• The Narrator (voiced by Joan Cusack) is an omniscient voice who narrates each episode. She usually remains separate from the action, but occasionally, the characters are shown to be able to hear her and will interact with her.

Minor

• Ant (voiced by Rob Tinkler) is a very busy male ant who is leader of the ants.
• Bat (voiced by Ron Rubin in season 1 and Ron Pardo in season 2) is a very shy bat.
• Beaver Boy (voiced by Tessa Marshall in seasons 1–3 and Amanda Gryniewski in seasons 4–5) is a young naïve male beaver who lives in an adjoining pond to Quack's pond. He appears in several episodes. His desire to please his mom and dad often results in him chewing down too many trees. He often calls Quack "Blue Sailor", Peep "Yellow Guy", and Chirp "Red Round".
• Beaver Dad (voiced by Phillip Williams) is Beaver Boy's businesslike father.
• Beaver Mom (voiced by Kathleen Laskey in season 1 and Debra McGrath seasons 2–3) is Beaver Boy's workaholic mother.
• Blue Jays (voiced by David Huband and Kathleen Laskey for male and female, resp.) are very silly blue and white birds who love to cause lots of trouble when they see stuff.
• Bunnies (voiced by Melanie Tonello, Raquel Cadilha, Alexander Conti, resp. in seasons 1–2; Avigail Humphreys and Riele Downs in seasons 4–5) are inhabitants who live in rabbit holes. In season 1, three bunnies who lived in a rabbit hole became Peep's friends in "Peep in Rabbitland". In season 4, five bunnies are aided by Peep and Quack to find their bunnysitter in "You Can Count on Bunnies".
• Bunnysitter (voiced by Jake Sim) is a bunny who babysits the 5 bunnies.
• Dragonfly (voiced by Catherine Disher) is a quiet dragonfly.
• Fish (voiced by John McGrath in season 1 and Robert Tinkler in season 2) are cohabitations of Quack's pond.
• Fish Jr. (voiced by Phoebe McAuley in seasons 1–2 and Sarah Commisso in season 3) is the youngest fish in the pond and Quack's best fish friend.
• Frog (voiced by Rob Tinkler) is a frog who lives in Quack's pond. He mostly just says "ribbit" but in episodes such as "Sounds Like..." and "Hide and Go Peep", he is heard talking. He is light green in early episodes, but in later episodes, he is a more darker green. Frog is frequently seen sitting on a lily pad in the pond.
• Groundhog (voiced by Rachel Marcus) is a young groundhog destined to find her shadow.
• Old Groundhog (voiced by Adrian Truss) is the oldest of all groundhogs.
• Hoot (voiced by Corinne Conley) is a menacing, but kind purple female owl who lives in the Deep Dark Woods.
• "Me" Tiny Ant (voiced by Erica Commisso) is the tiniest ant in the anthill. "Me" was named after a misinterpretation from Peep.
• Nellie (voiced by Marium Carvell) is a red female dog who acts as a seemingly maternal figure for the birds.
• Newton (voiced by Colin Fox) is an old, male, dark-green turtle who lives under an apple tree. He is a friend to Peep, Chirp, and Quack.
• Quack #2 (voiced by Megan Mullally) is a female duck who has her own pond, built by Quack, Peep, Chirp, Beaver Boy and his parents, and Quack's pink doppelgänger. Like Quack, Quack #2 is boastful and narcissistic, but unlike Quack, Quack #2 is annoying, cruel, and bad-intentioned.
• Rabbit (voiced by Jayne Eastwood) is an excitable and somewhat distracted rabbit.
• Raccoon (voiced by Jeff Lumby) is a gobbo, male brown & black raccoon who has lots of rubbish.
• Robins (voiced by Kathleen Laskey and Holly Hunter respectively) are two individual robins with differentiating personalities. One is a blue robin who flies around giving Chirp pep talks and comes from "Chirp Builds a Nest". Another is an adult robin who appears in "Big Bird" and "Chirp Flies the Coop".
• Skunk (voiced by Adrian Truss) is a rather deadpan skunk who lives near Quack's pond.
• Snail (voiced by Laura Lynn) is a pondweller in Quack's pond.
• Spider (voiced by Marium Carvell) is a smart and sneaky spider.
• Splendid Bird from Paradise (voiced by Jabella A. Urrejola-Lugo) is a green bird who was captured from the jungle, adopted by a little girl and found her way in the Big Wide World.
• Squeak (voiced by Kathleen Laskey) is an anxious pink, female mouse who lives under a brick and always worries a lot about what could go wrong.
• Squirrel (voiced by Peter Wildman) is a brown squirrel with a long tail who favors acorns.
• Tom (voiced by Alex Hood in season 1 and Matthew Knight in season 2) is a sly, male blue cat with black stripes who often tries to eat Peep, Chirp, and Quack. He is the sole antagonist.

Season 1 (2004)

Season 2 (2005–06)

Season 3 (2007)

Season 4 (2010)

Season 5 (2011)

United States

Peep and the Big Wide World was originally broadcast on TLC and Discovery Kids — the latter as part of the Ready Set Learn! preschool block — from April 12, 2004, to September 14, 2007. Carriage on the Discovery children's networks ended on October 8, 2010, when Discovery Kids discontinued the block and reruns of the first three seasons to make way for the new network to launch known as The Hub on October 10. WGBH began airing the series on August 1, 2004, and it was later offered to public television stations via independent public television distributor American Public Television from April 1, 2007, to January 3, 2018.

The last two seasons were broadcast exclusively on select local public television stations with episodes distributed by APT from January 4, 2010 to October 14, 2011, though second-runs of previous episodes began as early as April 1, 2007. APT continued distributing reruns until January 3, 2018, well after commercial networks dropped the program. A total of 60 episodes (120 segments) were broadcast.

Beginning on January 1, 2018, distribution and reruns of Peep and the Big Wide World began airing on the 24-hour PBS Kids channel, marking the first time the series aired nationally on PBS Kids. Despite being a production of PBS station WGBH, Peep and the Big Wide World was turned down by PBS in 2003 in favor of developing programming directed at "slightly older children". (The series was geared toward preschool children ages 3–5; meanwhile, PBS eventually launched the PBS Kids Go! block in 2004 which was intended for children above the preschool level.) The U.S. broadcasts of the series ended on December 26, 2021, when it was replaced with reruns of Dinosaur Train at a 7:30 AM weekend morning timeslot.

APT and PBS Kids broadcasts of Peep and the Big Wide World were paired with a short episode from Pocoyo, which aired immediately after each show from 2010 to 2021.

Home video

WGBH Boston Video released the episodes of the first season on DVD in 2005. The 2005 DVD releases each contained six segments of the specified subject; Peep Explores, Peep Finds, Peep Floats, Peep's New Friends, Chirp Flies, and Quack Knows It All. The 2007 DVD release, Peep Figures It Out contained six segments as usual, plus two bonus segments. In 2011, PBS Kids Video released two DVDs; Seasons of Adventure, and Star Light, Star Bright, which contains episodes from seasons two and three respectively. In 2012, PBS Kids Video released two more DVDs; Finders Keepers and Bringing Spring. In 2014, PBS Kids Video released two more DVDs; Diva Duck, and Peep Discovers (which was once available as a limited release to retail stores). As of 2024, all of these DVDs are now out of print and very hard to find, but commonly found at public libraries. In Canada, Entertainment One released four DVDs in both English and French languages; Quack Quack, Peep's Moon Mission, Stick With Me, and Flower Shower.

PBS LearningMedia shorts

On July 26, 2017, WGBH released PEEP and the Big Wide World: Weather Factors, a media gallery in PBS LearningMedia's Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms project. Weather Factors contains 4 animated shorts: "Peep and the Too Windy Day", "Peep and the Chilly Dam", "Peep and the Changing Sky", and "Peep and the Rainy, Snowy Day".