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, Friday 21 August 2026, three NCIS episodes run back to back from 6pm, a Beauty and the Beast double takes over at 9pm, and a single Special Victims Unit episode closes out the night at 11pm.

5USA Schedule: Friday 21 August 2026 (Full Listings)

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

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Friday’s schedule opens with two episodes of Special Victims Unit, running from midnight to just before 2am, then two episodes of Prodigal Son carry things through to just before 4am. A short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin and two hours of teleshopping fill the rest of the small hours, before Ideal World Shopping takes the breakfast slot for three hours. A second Entertainment News bulletin at 9am hands over to NCIS, which runs three episodes from 9:10am. From midday, six Law & Order episodes, worked from series six into series seven, carry the schedule through to 6pm, when the evening’s NCIS run begins. Just eight programmes fill all 23 slots of the day between them: the two news bulletins, two shopping strands, Special Victims Unit, Prodigal Son, NCIS and Law & Order. 5USA rarely strays from that handful of returning strands, and today is no exception.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 21 August 2026 — just three programmes cover the whole six-hour stretch, which is typical for this channel.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm

Three back-to-back episodes of NCIS open the evening: “Red Cell” at 6pm (series 2, episode 20), “Hometown Hero” at 7pm (series 2, episode 21) and “S.W.A.K.” at 8pm (series 2, episode 22), in which the team is quarantined after Tony opens a letter carrying a mysterious powder. All three sit early in the show’s second season, well behind where NCIS has since got to in the US.

Beauty and the Beast — 5USA, 9pm and 10pm

A Beauty and the Beast double takes over at 9pm: “Liar, Liar” (series 2, episode 3), followed by “Hothead” at 10pm (series 2, episode 4). Cat and Vincent spend both hours chasing down an unusual creature while trying to manage agendas they’d rather keep hidden.

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

The night closes with a single Special Victims Unit episode, “Remember Me” (series 19, episode 23), in which Benson tries to talk down a woman holding a man hostage.

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 the back half of series two, before a Beauty and the Beast double takes the 9pm and 10pm slots. A single Special Victims Unit episode, drawn from series 19, closes out the night at 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

Most days on 5USA, the real story is the arithmetic rather than any single episode: today it fills 23 slots with just eight programmes, cycling Special Victims Unit, Prodigal Son, NCIS and Law & Order through the schedule from before dawn to close. Tonight’s primetime follows a similar shape, with three NCIS episodes handing over to a Beauty and the Beast double at 9pm, before a single Special Victims Unit episode sees the night out at 11pm.

There’s no premiere and no live sport to flag tonight, just a channel doing what it does most evenings: working through American procedural drama a season or two behind the current US broadcast.

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