When viewing the program catalog, and the number of programs in a category exceeds the "Courses with summaries limit", the catalog does not display the program summary but rather the information "i" icon. When you click this icon in the program catalog, you are taken to an unappealing page with a "close this window" button that does nothing.

In the course catalog, clicking the i button expands the box, accordian style, to show the course summary, and you can then hide the summary again.

I think the two functionalities, programs and courses, should work identically in the catalogs. 

Totara 2.5.9