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, Thursday 13 August 2026, three NCIS episodes lead into a new Blue Bloods at 9pm, with two archive Special Victims Unit episodes closing out the night.

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

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Thursday 13 August 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Thursday’s daytime schedule opens with Ideal World Shopping from 6am, followed by an Entertainment News on 5 bulletin at 9am. NCIS’s first season resumes straight after, then Law & Order takes over at midday for six episodes spanning series five and the start of series six, running through to the evening’s NCIS block at 6pm. There’s no film in the schedule today — it’s an all-procedural day, six Law & Order episodes deep before the evening NCIS and Blue Bloods run.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 13 August 2026.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm, 7pm & 8pm

Three editions of NCIS open the evening, moving through the early stretch of season two (episodes 2 to 4). It’s a separate run from the season-one episodes shown earlier that morning, not a repeat of them.

Blue Bloods — 5USA, 9pm

A new Blue Bloods lands at 9pm, series 11, episode 15. Danny learns that the family’s newest addition, Joe Hill, has been embedded undercover with the ATF against a gun-running network, a revelation that unsettles the wider Reagan household. It’s the most substantial hour in tonight’s line-up, built on the family dynamics that set Blue Bloods apart from 5USA’s other imports.

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

Two archive Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes close the night, both from series 19. At 10pm, Benson draws on her own history to help a victim recover the details of a traumatic assault; at 11pm, an online hoax turns out to have real-world consequences for a social media personality.

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?

Three NCIS episodes run from 6pm through to 9pm, working through the early stretch of season two. A new Blue Bloods takes the 9pm slot, series 11, episode 15, and two archive Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night from 10pm.

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

5USA does one job and does it consistently: American crime and legal drama, back to back at almost any hour you turn it on. NCIS is normally the strongest reason to keep it bookmarked, and today it turns up twice over, once in mid-morning through season one and again in early evening at the start of season two. Law & Order fills the middle of the day reliably rather than memorably, and six episodes running together makes it easy to lose track of which one you’re on. There’s no film tonight — it’s a straight run of procedurals from midday onward.

Tonight’s headline slot belongs to a new Blue Bloods at 9pm, with the Reagan family confronting a fresh complication involving new arrival Joe Hill. Three NCIS episodes fill the hours before it, and two archive Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night.

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