5Action TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On 5Action Tonight

Published: 18 September 2026

5Action is Channel 5’s cop-show and action channel, and it has had more names than most channels manage in a decade: Spike at launch in 2015, 5Spike from 2017, merged with the UK’s Paramount Network in 2020, and 5Action since January 2022. Tonight, Saturday 19 September 2026, is a western-and-action film night rather than the usual cop-show run. Hell Bent for Leather closes out at 6pm before Rio Lobo takes the 6:35pm slot, broken briefly by Entertainment News on 5, and Bloodsport runs from 9pm with the same short interruption. Two X-Files reruns close the night from 10:55pm.

5Action Schedule: Saturday 19 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Saturday 19 September 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Saturday’s overnight hours open with Rescue 999: Seconds to Save a Life at 12:50am, then Outback Truckers at 1:50am and a pair of Trucking Hell episodes carry the schedule to 4am, when three hours of Teleshopping take over. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit fills both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am.

Police Interceptors then holds the schedule for four straight episodes from 9am to midday, before Traffic Cops takes over for a run of its own through the early afternoon, including a Traffic Cops: Under Attack instalment at 2:55pm. Hell Bent for Leather opens the western run at 4:55pm and carries the schedule into this evening.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 19 September 2026.

Hell Bent for Leather — 5Action, 6pm

The last half hour of Hell Bent for Leather, Audie Murphy’s brisk 1960 western, wraps up here before Rio Lobo replaces it at 6:35pm.

Rio Lobo — 5Action, 6:35pm

Rio Lobo, Howard Hawks’s 1970 western reuniting him with John Wayne for what turned out to be both men’s last western, opens at 6:35pm. Entertainment News on 5 interrupts for five minutes at 7:35pm before the film resumes at 7:40pm to run through to nine.

Bloodsport — 5Action, 9pm

Bloodsport, the 1988 martial-arts film that made Jean-Claude Van Damme a star as a soldier fighting his way through an underground tournament, opens at 9pm. The same five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin breaks it at 10pm before it picks back up at 10:05pm to close out.

The X-Files — 5Action, 10:55pm

The X-Files returns to the schedule with a season six rerun, Mulder and Scully working a case from partway through the show’s mid-1990s network peak.

The X-Files — 5Action, 11:55pm

A second season six episode follows straight after, taking the schedule to the edge of Sunday with another hour of the same investigative pairing.

What kind of shows are on 5Action

Cop shows and roads policing documentaries

This is the channel, really. Police Interceptors, Traffic Cops and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders between them account for most of the grid, and they are built to an identical template: dashcam and body-cam footage, a narrator over the top, and the officer explaining afterwards what made them look twice. John Thomson narrates one, Jamie Theakston another, Nicky Campbell the third, and that voice is often the quickest way to work out which show you have actually landed on.

Action films and westerns

Older genre cinema fills the afternoons, mostly westerns. Gunsmoke, The Walking Hills and Horizons West come round often, usually split either side of a news bulletin. A full western occasionally makes it into an evening slot, but not often.

Heavy recovery and trucking documentaries

Highway Thru Hell, Trucking Hell and Outback Truckers cover the same job on three continents: British roadsides, the Australian outback, the Canadian mountain passes. Highway Thru Hell is the best of them and 5Action seems to know it, since it tends to get a decent evening slot rather than being buried overnight.

How to watch 5Action

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find 5Action across the main UK television platforms:

5Action is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Virgin Media and Freesat numbers can vary slightly by region and box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

5Action streams live and free through 5, Channel 5’s combined broadcast and streaming platform, at channel5.com and via the 5 app on smart TVs, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TV. The service was known as My5 until Channel 5 merged its linear channels and catch-up library into the single “5” brand in March 2025. A free account is all you need, and recent episodes of shows like Police Interceptors and Highway Thru Hell are generally available to catch up on afterwards.

5Action sister channels

5Action sits under Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, itself part of Paramount Skydance Corporation, alongside three siblings. 5USA runs American crime dramas and imported US series, so it is far more scripted than anything here. 5Star does reality and true crime, personality-led where 5Action is all dashcam and recovery trucks. Channel 5 is the flagship and takes the group’s biggest dramas, documentaries and 5 News; the other three pick up the specialisms it does not have room for.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is 5Action on?

Freeview 33, Sky 150 (Sky Q) or 165 (Sky Glass and Sky Stream), Virgin Media 150 in HD or 187 in SD, and Freesat 132.

What’s on 5Action tonight?

No live sport tonight, and a western-and-action film night in place of the usual cop shows. Hell Bent for Leather closes out at 6pm, Rio Lobo runs from 6:35pm with a short break for Entertainment News on 5, and Bloodsport takes the 9pm slot with the same interruption at 10pm. Two X-Files reruns close the night from 10:55pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

Is 5Action free to watch?

Yes, completely free to air with no subscription, though it carries advertising and teleshopping strands throughout the schedule, particularly during the day.

Can I watch 5Action online for free?

Yes. It streams live at channel5.com and through the 5 app, the platform formerly known as My5. A free account is all that’s required.

Verdict

Tonight breaks from the channel’s usual cop-show template in favour of two western and action films. Hell Bent for Leather closes out its run at 6pm, Rio Lobo takes over at 6:35pm broken briefly by Entertainment News on 5, and Bloodsport runs from 9pm with the same short interruption.

Two X-Files reruns see the schedule out from 10:55pm. Daytime runs the usual mix of factual and recovery programming: Rescue 999: Seconds to Save a Life and Trucking Hell overnight, Cruise TV with LoveitBookit through breakfast, then four Police Interceptors episodes and a run of Traffic Cops carrying the late morning into the afternoon.

Related: Channel 5 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week