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

Published: 22 August 2026

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, Sunday 23 August 2026, there’s no film anywhere in the schedule — instead the evening runs entirely on returning documentary strands. Four episodes of Police Interceptors carry the channel from 5pm to 9pm, with three of them falling inside primetime as Cumbria’s pursuit teams work through a suspected gunman call-out, a driver trapped under a car and a cannabis farm raid. Trauma Room One takes over at 9pm, then Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death at 10pm and A&E After Dark at 11pm close out the night.

5Star Schedule: Sunday 23 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Star schedule for Sunday 23 August 2026, on Freeview 32.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Star today

Sunday’s overnight run is built around true-crime documentary rather than drama repeats: Killer on the Run (series 1, episode 3) opens at 12:50am, followed by #Text Me When You Get Home (series 1, episode 10) at 1:50am and Killer at the Crime Scene (series 4, episode 8) at 2:40am. A single episode of Friends (series 10, episode 2) airs at 3:25am, a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin follows at 3:50am, and Teleshopping then holds the schedule from 4am to 7am.

Daytime opens with two shopping strands, Shop: Must Have Ideas at 7am and eFOLDi Mobility Scooters at 7:30am, before four episodes of Friends run from 8am to 10am (series 10, episodes 8 to 11). Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords takes the 10am slot with a single case from Wigan (series 6, episode 2), then Car Pound Cops airs twice from 11am to 1pm (series 2, episodes 4 and 5) and four episodes of Traffic Cops fill the rest of the afternoon from 1pm to 5pm (series 5 and series 8 episodes), before Police Interceptors opens the evening below.

5Star tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

There’s no film anywhere on 5Star tonight. Four editions of Police Interceptors carry the channel from 5pm through to 9pm, then three factual strands share the rest of the night between them. Here’s the full primetime rundown for Sunday 23 August 2026.

Police Interceptors — 5Star, 6pm

Duncan gets a shock in episode two: a badly injured cyclist pinned beneath a vehicle turns out to be an old acquaintance of his.

Police Interceptors — 5Star, 7pm

Three separate incidents keep episode three’s crews busy: a firearms scare, a casualty pinned beneath a car, and a raid that shuts down a cannabis farm.

Police Interceptors — 5Star, 8pm

A repeat offender leads officers on a long chase in episode four, and it doesn’t end well for him.

Trauma Room One — 5Star, 9pm

Series 2 opens inside Liverpool’s Walton Centre, where surgeons keep David conscious throughout brain surgery — a procedure where a millimetre either way can be the difference between success and catastrophe.

Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death — 5Star, 10pm

ENT surgeon Shahz Ahmed works to remove a bone tumour that’s pressing into a patient’s skull, while a second case follows a high-risk operation on a patient with pancreatic cancer (series 2, episode 4).

A&E After Dark — 5Star, 11pm

Hull Royal Infirmary’s night shift deals with a 69-year-old fisherman airlifted in after an accident at sea, alongside a patient bleeding on the brain after being struck by a lorry (series 3, episode 4).

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?

There’s no film at all in tonight’s schedule. Four editions of Police Interceptors run from 5pm to 9pm, with Cumbria’s teams tackling a suspected gunman, a trapped cyclist and a cannabis farm during the primetime episodes. Trauma Room One follows at 9pm, then Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death at 10pm and A&E After Dark at 11pm close out the night. 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

Sunday drops the film library altogether and hands the whole evening to 5Star’s documentary bread and butter. Four episodes of Police Interceptors carry the channel from 5pm to 9pm, Cumbria’s pursuit teams working through everything from a suspected gunman to a raided cannabis farm, before Trauma Room One, Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death and A&E After Dark take the schedule through to midnight with three different medical strands back to back.

There’s no premiere and no film tonight — the whole evening runs on returning series. Daytime is more varied than usual: four episodes of Friends lead into a single Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords case from Wigan, then Car Pound Cops and four editions of Traffic Cops fill the afternoon before Police Interceptors opens the evening.

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