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, Monday 17 August 2026, three NCIS episodes carry the channel into the evening before Wild Cards returns for a new run at 9pm, and two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night.

5USA Schedule: Monday 17 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Monday 17 August 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Monday’s schedule opens overnight with a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit double bill and an NCIS: Los Angeles rerun, then a single Murder She Wrote episode before Entertainment News on 5 and two hours of teleshopping carry things through to 6am. Ideal World Shopping fills the breakfast hour for three hours, then a fresh Entertainment News bulletin at 9am hands over to NCIS proper: three season one episodes run back to back from 9:10am. From midday, six Law & Order episodes take the schedule through the afternoon, closing out series five and working well into series six by the time the run ends at 6pm.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 17 August 2026.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm

Three NCIS episodes run back to back from 6pm, working through season two without a break between them. An ensign’s arrest over a commander’s death opens the run, a break-in at a marine’s home follows an hour later, and by 8pm Tony has gone missing deep inside an undercover job. It’s the standard 5USA warm-up: no gaps, no fuss, straight through to whatever comes next.

Wild Cards — 5USA, 9pm

5USA’s evening builds to 9pm, when Wild Cards returns for a new run. The Canadian-made procedural pairs Cole Ellis, a detective working off a demotion, with Max Mitchell, the con artist he was originally sent to escort back in season one before the arrangement turned into something closer to a partnership. This opener finds Ellis still dealing with what Max did to him by the end of that first run, weighing up whether he can trust her again now the dust has settled. It plays lighter and glossier than most of 5USA’s case-of-the-week imports, and handing it a clean slot of its own at 9pm, rather than squeezing it between reruns, suggests the channel wants viewers to clock that a new series has landed.

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

Two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes close out the night from 10pm, series nineteen’s fifteenth and sixteenth cases run back to back with nothing in between. It’s the channel’s usual sign-off: dependable, unhurried, exactly where regular viewers expect to find it.

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 lead into the evening from 6pm, running through series two before Wild Cards returns for a new series 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

Monday’s main event is Wild Cards. Three NCIS episodes do the usual warm-up job, running back to back from 6pm without needing much comment, but handing series two its Freeview premiere a clear run at 9pm, rather than squeezing it in against a rerun, reads as 5USA treating it as the night’s actual news.

That’s a rarer move for a channel built on repeats and returning procedurals. The two Special Victims Unit episodes that close the night from 10pm are exactly what regular viewers expect from the slot, familiar and undemanding. It’s the Wild Cards return that makes this particular Monday worth flagging.

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