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

Updated: 14 July 2026

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, was renamed 5USA in 2011, and has been part of the Paramount-owned Channel 5 family since 2014. Tonight, Tuesday 14 July 2026, it’s back to the usual procedural churn: NCIS runs three episodes from 6pm before Law & Order: Special Victims Unit takes over with a new-to-UK instalment at 9pm, then sees out the night with two further reruns. Channel numbers are in the table further down.

5USA Schedule: Tuesday 14 July 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Tuesday 14 July 2026, on Freeview 21.

What’s on 5USA today

Tuesday on 5USA opens overnight with two leftover episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, then Blue Bloods and Bull carry the schedule through to the teleshopping block at 4am. Ideal World Shopping fills the mid-morning slot until Entertainment News on 5 clears the way for three episodes of NCIS from 9:10am. From 11:55am the channel switches to an earlier Law & Order run, working through six episodes back to back until 6pm, when a fresher run of NCIS takes over for the early evening. A new-to-UK Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and two further reruns close out the night; full details below.

5USA Tonight — Primetime and the Evening Schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 14 July 2026.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm

Three back-to-back reruns from season 20 open the evening, starting at 6pm. It’s familiar territory for anyone who’s followed the naval crime unit this far into the run.

NCIS — 5USA, 7pm

The second instalment of the run follows straight after at 7pm.

NCIS — 5USA, 8pm

A third episode from the same block rounds off the NCIS hour before the schedule hands over to Law & Order.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — 5USA, 9pm

Tonight’s pick of the schedule: a new-to-UK episode of Special Victims Unit, part of the show’s twenty-sixth season, built around an attack on a group of law students. Mariska Hargitay continues to lead the unit as Olivia Benson, a role she’s held since the franchise spin-off began in 1999, and Carisi’s prosecution work is central to tonight’s case.

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

Two further Special Victims Unit reruns close out the night from 10pm, drawn from an earlier run of the show.

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

The second of that pair airs at 11pm, taking the schedule through to midnight.

What kind of shows are on 5USA

NCIS and the naval procedural strand

NCIS anchors 5USA’s schedule more than any other single title. Donald P. Bellisario’s naval investigative drama, spun off from JAG in 2003, has built up more than twenty seasons of case-of-the-week plotting, and 5USA works steadily through that back catalogue, usually running a season or two behind the current US broadcast. It’s comfort television in the purest sense: turn it on at any point and you’ll know exactly what you’re getting.

Law & Order and the Chicago-style franchise format

Dick Wolf’s Law & Order universe, headlined here by Special Victims Unit, is 5USA’s other pillar. The channel frequently strings two or three episodes together in a single slot, a scheduling trick that suits a franchise built around a rotating cast of detectives, prosecutors, and a formula sturdy enough to survive well over two decades of reruns without feeling stale.

Family and legal drama: Blue Bloods and Bull

Blue Bloods brings something 5USA’s other imports mostly skip: a family at the centre of the case files, with the Reagans’ dinner-table scenes doing as much work as the investigations themselves. Bull, Michael Weatherly’s post-NCIS legal drama about a trial-science consultancy, fills a similar afternoon role with a lighter, more procedural touch, running for six seasons before ending on CBS in 2022.

TV movies, classic mystery and reruns

Beyond the flagship dramas, 5USA fills gaps with the Jesse Stone TV films, Murder She Wrote reruns, and reality strands like Cops. It’s a schedule built almost entirely around library content rather than live programming, which is exactly what a channel like this is for: a dependable rotation of familiar American crime drama, available at any hour of the day.

How to watch 5USA

Channel numbers

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

5USA is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. 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. Sit down at 9.15pm with NCIS already underway on the main channel, and +1 lets you pick it up close to the start instead of catching it mid-episode.

5USA sits alongside a small family of Channel 5 spin-off channels: 5Star, which leans towards US reality and lifestyle programming; 5Action, built around action films and adventure series; and 5Select, the newest addition, focused on documentary and factual strands. Between them, Channel 5’s satellite channels cover most of the ground the main channel doesn’t have room for during peak hours.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on 5USA tonight?

Three episodes of NCIS run from 6pm, a new-to-UK episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit takes the 9pm slot, and two further Special Victims Unit reruns see the night out from 10pm. Check the schedule table above for the full day’s listings.

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 largely 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

5USA does one job and does it consistently: American crime, legal and genre drama, scheduled back to back, at almost any hour you turn it on. NCIS remains the strongest reason to keep the channel bookmarked most nights, and the Law & Order strand is close behind it. Blue Bloods is the strand that adds warmth to the schedule on the nights it turns up, and Bull provides the softer, courtroom-set alternative through the afternoon and into early evening.

Tonight is a fairly standard weeknight shape for the channel. Three NCIS reruns carry the schedule from 6pm, a new-to-UK episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit breaks up the run at 9pm, and two further Special Victims Unit reruns take the last two hours. Nothing here is appointment viewing exactly, but that’s rarely the point on 5USA. It’s a channel built for switching on partway through and knowing roughly where you stand.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 5 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide