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

Updated: 20 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, Sunday 20 September 2026, live NFL football takes over the early evening as the Cincinnati Bengals visit the Houston Texans from 5:30pm, ahead of three Cops episodes back to back from 9pm and Major Crimes Unit closing the night at 10:30pm.

5Action Schedule: Sunday 20 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Sunday 20 September 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Sunday’s overnight hours open with three X-Files reruns from 12:55am, then Trucking Hell at 3:45am ahead of three hours of Teleshopping from 4am. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit fills both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am.

Gunsmoke then holds the schedule for four straight episodes from 9am to 1:05pm, before The Fastest Gun Alive and Cahill, U.S. Marshal split the afternoon either side of the regular Entertainment News on 5 bulletins. Trucking Hell returns briefly at 5:10pm ahead of this evening’s live NFL coverage.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 20 September 2026.

Live: NFL on 5: Cincinnati Bengals @ Houston Texans — 5Action, 5:30pm

Live coverage of the Bengals’ trip to Houston fills the whole early evening, with three and a half hours pencilled in. As with any live game, a slow fourth quarter can push the finish later than its nominal 9pm end point.

Cops — 5Action, 9pm–10pm

Three episodes run back to back once the football coverage wraps up, drawn from two different seasons of the long-running US ride-along series (series 33, episodes 4 and 5, and series 37, episode 36).

Major Crimes Unit — 5Action, 10:30pm

The night closes on more real case footage, this time following detectives working serious UK investigations rather than uniformed patrol officers (series 1, episode 2).

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?

Live NFL football takes over the early evening, with the Cincinnati Bengals facing the Houston Texans from 5:30pm. Three Cops episodes follow from 9pm once coverage finishes, and Major Crimes Unit closes the night at 10:30pm. 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 hands the early evening to live sport rather than the usual cop-show template: the Bengals travel to the Texans from 5:30pm, with three and a half hours pencilled in for the broadcast. Cops takes over once the football finishes, running three episodes from 9pm, and Major Crimes Unit sees the night out at 10:30pm.

Daytime runs a mix of reruns and westerns: three X-Files episodes and Trucking Hell overnight, Cruise TV with LoveitBookit through breakfast, then four Gunsmoke episodes and a run of Fastest Gun Alive and Cahill, U.S. Marshal carrying the late morning into the afternoon.

Related: Channel 5 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Tonight’s Films on Freeview