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 15 August 2026, five NCIS: Los Angeles episodes run through the afternoon before a Jesse Stone TV movie takes the early evening slot, NCIS proper airs at 9pm, and two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night.

5USA Schedule: Saturday 15 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Saturday 15 August 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Saturday’s daytime schedule opens with Ideal World Shopping from 6am, followed by an Entertainment News on 5 bulletin and a short Cops rerun just after 9am. Two NCIS: Los Angeles episodes from series five fill the rest of the morning, then Blue Bloods takes over at 11:25am for three episodes running into early afternoon. From 2:20pm it’s NCIS: Los Angeles again, five episodes back to back through to 6:20pm, continuing the same series five run from earlier in the day. There’s no film in the daytime schedule; the two procedurals carry the whole day between them until the evening’s Jesse Stone film and NCIS take over at 7:15pm and 9pm.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 15 August 2026.

NCIS: Los Angeles — 5USA, 6:20pm

Saturday’s fifth and final NCIS: Los Angeles rerun of the day closes out the afternoon run (series 5, episode 15). Sam and Callen head south of the border chasing a retired assassin wanted over a diplomat’s murder, while the rest of the team works the case from LA.

Jesse Stone: Lost In Paradise — 5USA, 7:15pm

Tom Selleck’s small-town police chief gets the evening’s TV-movie slot in Jesse Stone: Lost In Paradise (2016), tracking a serial killer through Boston while keeping an eye on a teenager who has drifted into trouble back home in Paradise. Entertainment News on 5 breaks in briefly at 8:15pm before the film resumes at 8:20pm to play out its final forty minutes.

NCIS — 5USA, 9pm

NCIS itself lands at 9pm with series 22, episode 17, built around the fallout from catching a hitman known only as the Poet. The team spend the hour working out who paid for the killing of a Navy chief, several seasons on from the NCIS: Los Angeles reruns filling the rest of the day.

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

Two Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night back to back. At 10pm, the squad investigates a case at a school for children with special needs, with Rollins tracing one student’s injuries back to an unexpected cause. The 11pm follow-up sends the team into a protest that turned violent, forcing them to set their own politics aside to make an arrest.

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?

Five NCIS: Los Angeles episodes run through the afternoon into early evening, ending at 6:20pm. A Jesse Stone TV movie, Lost In Paradise, takes over at 7:15pm, interrupted briefly by an Entertainment News on 5 bulletin, before NCIS itself airs at 9pm. Two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night at 10pm and 11pm.

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: Los Angeles is the day’s workhorse, turning up seven times between mid-morning and early evening, all drawn from the same series five run. Blue Bloods breaks up the middle of the day for three episodes, the schedule’s one dose of family drama before the procedurals resume.

Tonight’s headline slot belongs to NCIS itself, a newer episode than anything else on the channel today and the only hour that isn’t a rerun of something already broadcast elsewhere. Everything either side of it, the Jesse Stone TV movie, the NCIS: Los Angeles run, the Special Victims Unit double bill, is repeat programming doing exactly the job repeat programming is meant to do: filling the hours reliably, night after night.

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