Coming soon: Season 2

How did an unassuming software engineer become one of the richest people on the planet? This is the story of how Zhang Yiming transformed social media by creating TikTok, and how the Chinese tech company ByteDance became a multi-billion dollar business. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explore Yiming’s various successes with different apps before he hit the jackpot with TikTok. Then they decide whether they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw built a pharmaceutical empire after failing to get a job brewing beer. She also overcame gender bias to become India’s first self-made female billionaire. Her company Biocon is now Asia's biggest insulin producer. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng follow her story, from a childhood living on a brewery compound in Bangalore to adventures in Australia and Ireland. How did Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw go from extracting enzymes from papaya fruit to mass-manufacturing medicines and being named among Time magazine's most influential people in the world? She calls herself an accidental entrepreneur; Simon and Zing decide whether they think she’s good, bad or just another billionaire.

George Soros escaped Nazi occupation in Hungary, before becoming one of the most successful investors in history. After making his name on Wall Street and setting up the hedge fund Quantum, he also become known as “the man who broke the Bank of England” after making a billion dollars in a day by “betting against” the pound. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng track the incredible life of one of the world’s most polarising billionaires, and find out how the philanthropist became the target of countless conspiracy theories. According to Soros himself, he’s “a little good, a little bad”. Ultimately, Simon and Zing decide whether they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

Jerry Seinfeld has a life-long obsession with jokes, but his smash hit sitcom turned the New York stand-up into the richest comedian of all time. Seinfeld was the most watched programme in America when it ended in in 1998, but it’s what came next that made the real Jerry Seinfeld mega rich – streaming and syndication. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng find out how transcendental meditation, a top Hollywood agent, the unexpected death of a parent and an “inability to act” all helped drive his spectacular success, before deciding if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

How did Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson become one of only four filmmakers worth a billion dollars, and one of just three billionaires from New Zealand? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng find out how a childhood obsession with movies led to a booming film industry in Jackson’s homeland. From Bad Taste to King Kong and The Hobbit, he went from shooting home movies and directing low budget horror films to running a major special effects house and creating some of cinema's biggest hits. Simon and Zing look back at the life of a Wellywood legend, before deciding if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

How a communist mime artist became the billionaire boss of a luxury fashion house. Miuccia Prada changed her name, then made it famous with one of the runway’s biggest brands. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how the Italian fashion designer turned her grandfather’s shop into a fashion powerhouse. Alongside her husband, she’s run her empire from Milan for over four decades, becoming known affectionately known as ‘the master of ugly’. Simon and Zing look back on her life before deciding if they think she’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

By founding Google, tech titan Sergey Brin helped shape the internet. He also got very, very rich, as his company Alphabet became one of the biggest in the world. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story of the billionaire who partied on planes after escaping prejudice in Russia. Sergey Brin and his best friend Larry Page became two of history’s biggest tech giants by building the planet’s most popular search engine. How did their technology startup become one of the world's biggest companies? Simon and Zing find out, before deciding if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

Golfing superstardom made him incredibly rich. Personal disasters nearly took it all away. How did Tiger Woods go from a child golfing prodigy to the world’s highest paid athlete for a whole decade? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how one of the greatest golfers of all time broke barriers in his sport, winning 15 major golf championships and 82 PGA Tour events. He’s an inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, won the Masters five times, the PGA Championship four times and both the Open and the US Open three times, as well as helping the US win the Ryder Cup. High-profile sponsorship deals and business ventures made him a billionaire, but then came affairs, car crashes and scandal. Simon and Zing track the spectacular rise of this global sporting superstar, then decide if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

There are now even more billionaires. How did the super-rich become so rich? Good, Bad Billionaire is coming back with season 2 to find out. New episodes released on Mondays from 29 July.

We’ll discover more about the lives of the people on the planet who have the most money, then Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng will decide if they think they are good, bad, or just another billionaire. Learn how the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Peter Jackson, Doris Fisher and George Soros came to join the billionaires' club. Explore how Tiger Woods went from a child golfing prodigy to the world’s highest paid athlete, how a communist mime artist became the boss of fashion house Prada, and how the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought an English football club. Find out how Mukesh Ambani became Asia’s richest person, and how Patrice Motsepe became the first black billionaire in a post-apartheid South Africa. Plus, hear about some of the biggest names behind the technology shaping our world – the founders of TikTok, Google, ChatGPT, Alibaba and Bumble.

It’s a global journey through huge amounts of cash - on our list are billionaires in the US, the UK, Italy, Mexico, China, New Zealand, India, South Africa Nigeria, and elsewhere around the world.

Join Simon Jack, business editor for BBC News, and journalist, author and podcaster Zing Tsjeng as Good, Bad Billionaire unravels tales of fortune, power, ambition and moral responsibility, and invites you to make up your own mind: are they good, bad, or just another billionaire?

How one social media site birthed an empire. The story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng take us from his childhood to joining the billionaires club soon after, at just 23, then on to his current status as one of the four richest people on the planet. He dropped out of Harvard to mix with other founders in Silicon Valley and still retains absolute control over his company, now called Meta.

From buying up Instagram and WhatsApp, getting investments from Peter Thiel and Bill Gates, they trace Zuckerberg's spectacular rise. Plus discover what was true and what was made up in David Fincher's film about him, The Social Network.