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

5Star is Channel 5’s reality and factual-entertainment channel, built on the landlord, tenant and bailiff documentaries that made its daytime reputation, plus imported true-story series and Piers Morgan’s nightly opinion slot. It’s part of the Paramount-owned Channel 5 stable and free to watch on Freeview 32. Tonight, Thursday 13 August 2026, is a factual evening from start to finish: two Home and Away episodes open proceedings, the 6:30pm one new, then GPs: Behind Closed Doors, Casualty 24/7 and a run of emergency-service documentaries carry the channel through to close. Home and Away is one of only four soaps on Freeview tonight, alongside EastEnders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

5Star Schedule: Thursday 13 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Star schedule for Thursday 13 August 2026, on Freeview 32.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Star today

The overnight run opens with Cold Case Killers at 1am, a true-crime documentary revisiting an unsolved London murder, then two episodes of Police Interceptors at 2am and 2:45am and an episode of Friends at 3:35am to close out the small hours. Teleshopping then holds the schedule from 4am until 7am.

Thursday daytime follows the standard weekday pattern. Shop: Must Have Ideas at 7am and eFOLDi Mobility Scooters at 7:30am lead into two back-to-back episodes of Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun at 8am and 9am, then Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords at 10am. Three episodes of Traffic Cops run 11am to 2pm, followed by three of Police Interceptors through to 5pm, and Shoplifters: Caught Red Handed closes out the afternoon before the evening schedule takes over at 6pm.

5Star tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Thursday 13 August 2026 is an all-factual night on 5Star, running straight through from soap to medical documentary with no film break.

Home and Away — 5Star, 6pm and 6:30pm

Summer Bay opens the evening with back-to-back episodes. At 6pm, Beau has words with Sonny while Cash and Levi square off over an unresolved dispute. The 6:30pm episode is new to UK screens: Harper starts to see through Beau, Remi pushes Sonny for answers, and Cash and Levi put their differences aside to work together. It’s one of only four soaps airing anywhere on Freeview tonight, alongside EastEnders on BBC One and the ITV1 pairing of Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

GPs: Behind Closed Doors — 5Star, 7pm

A Birmingham surgery deals with a patient whose allergic reactions have no obvious cause, alongside someone trying to bring long-term epilepsy under control.

Casualty 24/7: Every Second Counts — 5Star, 8pm

Resus stays busy: a 58-year-old comes in with a dangerously fast heart rate, and another patient is brought in after a suspected overdose.

A&E After Dark — 5Star, 9pm

A collapsed lung, a combative patient who needs restraining, and a rough sleeper with burnt feet all pass through Majors in the same shift.

Ambulance: Code Red — 5Star, 10pm

A workplace accident dominates the hour, with paramedics racing to free a man whose hand has been crushed in industrial machinery.

Skin A&E — 5Star, 11pm

Two very different reasons to want clear skin: a village hall manager ahead of her 40th birthday party, and a patient heading off on holiday to Egypt.

What kind of shows are on 5Star

Landlord, tenant and bailiff documentaries

This is where 5Star has its own patch. Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords and its spin-off Extreme Nightmare Tenants follow eviction specialists and rogue-landlord investigations, while Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up! turns the same doorstep tension towards unpaid debt. No other British free-to-air channel gives this much schedule space to the subject.

Reality, true-story and consumer documentary

Skin A&E, Dirty Home Rescue and Scam City: Don’t Get Caught Out! cover the rest of the factual output, and imports such as Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly Australia bring in versions of formats British viewers already know from the domestic originals.

Opinion, news and chat

Piers Morgan Uncensored gives 5Star a nightly dose of studio argument, a YouTube-native format repurposed for a terrestrial evening slot since the 2025 deal.

Sitcom reruns

Friends is the channel’s long-serving gap-filler, though these days it tends to surface in the small hours rather than in the morning blocks it once held.

How to watch 5Star

Channel numbers

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

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

Streaming online

5Star streams live and free at channel5.com and via the 5 app (formerly known as My5, before Channel 5’s 2025 rebrand unified its linear and streaming services under one name) on smart TVs, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire TV. You’ll need a free account, which costs nothing to set up. Many 5Star programmes also turn up on demand, though not every title stays available indefinitely.

5Star +1 and sister channels

5Star+1 plays the same schedule an hour behind, which is useful on a channel that so often runs three episodes of the same series in a row. It’s on Sky (228), Virgin Media (326) and Freesat (141). There’s no +1 slot for 5Star on Freeview, so Freeview viewers who miss the start of something have to pick it up on demand.

5Star sits alongside two other channels in the Paramount-owned Channel 5 family. 5USA, on Freeview 33, carries US crime dramas and imported procedurals. 5Action, on Freeview 21, focuses on action films and adventure series. All three, plus the main Channel 5, stream together through the 5 app.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is 5Star on Freeview?

5Star is on Freeview channel 32. It’s also on Sky (128), Virgin Media (126) and Freesat (131), all free with no subscription.

What’s on 5Star tonight?

Thursday’s line-up opens with two episodes of Home and Away, the 6:30pm one new to UK screens, then hands the evening to GPs: Behind Closed Doors and Casualty 24/7: Every Second Counts before a run of emergency-service documentaries — A&E After Dark, Ambulance: Code Red and Skin A&E — carries the channel through to midnight. There’s no film in the line-up tonight. The schedule table above has the exact times for each.

Can I watch 5Star online for free?

Yes. It streams live at channel5.com and through the 5 app (formerly My5); you’ll need a free account. Many programmes also appear on demand afterwards.

Verdict

Thursday is a straight run of factual programming after 6pm, with no film to break it up. Home and Away opens the evening as usual, and the 6:30pm episode is new — worth noting given it’s one of only four soaps on Freeview tonight.

From 7pm it’s five straight hours of emergency-service documentary, with the usual film slot given over to more of the same. Whether that reads as a good night depends entirely on your appetite for the format.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 5 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week