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

5USA is Channel 5’s home for imported American crime and legal drama, the channel that keeps NCIS, Blue Bloods and the Law & Order franchise on British screens night after night. It launched as Five US in October 2006, took the 5USA name in 2011, and has sat inside the Paramount-owned Channel 5 family since 2014. Tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026, NCIS: Los Angeles takes the 6pm, 7pm and 8pm hours as the primetime tail of a long afternoon run, NCIS holds the 9pm slot, and two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit close the evening at 10pm and 11pm.

5USA Schedule: Saturday 29 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Saturday 29 August 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Saturday’s schedule opens with three Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes running from midnight to 3am, followed by a single episode of Wild Cards and a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin just before 4am. Teleshopping fills the small hours to 6am, then Ideal World Shopping takes the whole breakfast slot through to 9am. A second Entertainment News bulletin at 9am hands over to Blue Bloods, which runs five episodes back to back from 9:10am to 1pm, series 5 throughout. NCIS: Los Angeles then takes over for the rest of the afternoon and early evening, working through seven episodes in a row from 1:55pm to 8pm, starting with the back end of series 5 before moving into series 6 for the run’s second half.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026.

NCIS: Los Angeles — 5USA, 6pm to 8pm

5USA closes out a seven-episode NCIS: Los Angeles run with its final three instalments back to back at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. All three are series 6 (episodes 3 to 5), carrying straight on from the series 5 episodes shown earlier in the afternoon rather than starting the run fresh. It’s the busiest stretch of the day for the franchise, and there’s no break in the story arc between hours.

NCIS — 5USA, 9pm

NCIS holds the 9pm hour on its own, with series 22, episode 19. It’s the one hour tonight that isn’t part of a longer run, sitting between the Los Angeles spin-off and the Special Victims Unit double bill that follows.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — 5USA, 10pm and 11pm

Two consecutive Special Victims Unit episodes close the night, series 20, episodes 15 and 16, shown in that order. Worth flagging plainly: this is the only Law & Order franchise entry on 5USA today, and it’s Special Victims Unit rather than the original series.

What kind of shows are on 5USA

NCIS and the naval procedural strand

NCIS is the spine of the schedule. Donald P. Bellisario’s naval investigative drama spun off from JAG in 2003 and has since piled up more than twenty seasons of case-of-the-week plotting, which 5USA works through steadily, usually a season or two behind the current US broadcast.

Law & Order and the Chicago-style franchise format

Dick Wolf’s Law & Order universe, headlined here by Special Victims Unit, is the other pillar. The channel likes to string two or three episodes together in one block, which works because the franchise was built on a rotating cast of detectives and prosecutors rather than a single running story. You can drop in anywhere.

Family and legal drama: Blue Bloods and Bull

Blue Bloods brings the one thing most of 5USA’s imports skip: a family at the centre of the case files, with the Reagans’ dinner-table scenes doing as much work as the investigations. Bull, Michael Weatherly’s post-NCIS drama about a trial-science consultancy, fills a similar afternoon role more lightly. CBS ended it in 2022 after six seasons.

TV movies, classic mystery and reruns

The gaps go to Jesse Stone TV films, Murder She Wrote reruns and reality strands like Cops. Nothing on 5USA is live.

How to watch 5USA

Channel numbers

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

Virgin Media and regional Sky channel numbers can shift slightly depending on your box and area, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

5USA streams live and free at channel5.com and via the 5 app (formerly My5) on smart TVs, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire TV. You’ll need a free 5 account, which costs nothing to set up. Selected NCIS, Blue Bloods and Law & Order episodes also turn up on demand, though licensing means not everything broadcast makes it there and availability windows vary by title.

5USA +1 and sister channels

5USA +1 runs the same schedule an hour behind on Freeview and Freesat channel 130. If a show has already started on the main channel, it’s just beginning on 5USA +1.

The sister channels split the rest of Channel 5’s imports between them. 5Star takes US reality and lifestyle, 5Action takes films and adventure series, and 5Select, the newest of them, handles documentary and factual.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on 5USA tonight?

NCIS: Los Angeles takes 6pm, 7pm and 8pm (series 6, episodes 3 to 5), the primetime end of a seven-episode run that began at 1:55pm. NCIS follows at 9pm on its own (series 22, episode 19), and two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit close the night at 10pm and 11pm (series 20, episodes 15 and 16).

What time do the main shows start on 5USA?

Primetime on 5USA typically runs from around 7pm through to midnight, with the headline procedural slot usually landing at 9pm. Daytime hours are mostly given over to earlier seasons of the same shows, run in double or triple bills.

Is 5USA free to watch?

Yes, entirely free to air on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. There are ad breaks throughout, as with any commercial channel, but no subscription fee anywhere.

Can I watch 5USA online for free?

Yes. It streams live at channel5.com and through the 5 app; you’ll need a free account. Selected episodes of its biggest shows also appear on demand afterwards, though not every episode makes the cut.

Verdict

Saturday splits into three parts: NCIS: Los Angeles closes out its afternoon-long run with three primetime episodes in series order at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm, NCIS takes the 9pm hour on its own, and two Special Victims Unit episodes close the night at 10pm and 11pm. There’s no live sport on 5USA tonight, and no plain Law & Order either — just proper runs shown in order rather than a scattershot of unrelated repeats.

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