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

Published: 22 August 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, took the 5USA name in 2011, and has sat inside the Paramount-owned Channel 5 family since 2014. Tonight, Sunday 23 August 2026, the usual procedurals stand aside for a Columbo triple bill running from 5:05pm to 10pm, before a two-part Special Victims Unit story sees the night out at 10pm and 11pm.

5USA Schedule: Sunday 23 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Sunday 23 August 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Sunday’s schedule opens with two Special Victims Unit episodes back to back, taking the channel through to 2am, then two episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles run to just before 4am, followed by a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin. Ideal World Shopping then takes the whole breakfast run, three hours from 6am to 9am, before Cops opens the morning proper at 9am. Five episodes of Blue Bloods carry the schedule from 9:20am into the early afternoon, working through the back half of series five. Columbo takes over just before 2pm for five films back to back: Fade into Murder and A Matter of Honor fill the afternoon, then Double Shock, A Deadly State of Mind and Playback run in succession from 5:05pm to 10pm. A two-part Special Victims Unit story closes the day at 10pm and 11pm. Eleven different programmes fill all 19 slots between them, and there’s no NCIS or NCIS: Los Angeles anywhere in the evening — a genuine break from 5USA’s usual shape.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 23 August 2026.

Columbo: Double Shock — 5USA, 5:05pm

The Sunday triple bill opens with 1973’s Double Shock, and it owns the 6pm hour outright, running until 6:45pm. Peter Falk’s rumpled lieutenant investigates a case built around twin brothers, both played by Martin Landau, after their wealthy uncle is killed by a rigged appliance in his own kitchen.

Columbo: A Deadly State of Mind — 5USA, 6:45pm

Second up is 1975’s A Deadly State of Mind, with George Hamilton cast as a psychiatrist whose bedside manner strays well beyond professional boundaries. Columbo, characteristically, has spotted the crack in the story long before anyone thinks to confess.

Columbo: Playback — 5USA, 8:20pm

The triple bill closes with Playback (1975), pitting Falk against Oskar Werner’s gadget-obsessed inventor, who murders his mother-in-law and is convinced his own surveillance kit has given him the perfect cover. It’s one of the more tech-driven entries in the run, decades before home cameras were routine.

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

Columbo hands over to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10pm, the third episode of series 20, with Benson working to free a trafficked child and reunite her with her mother while Rollins reconsiders a relationship she’d walked away from.

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

A second SVU episode follows straight after at 11pm, series 20’s fourth, as the squad tracks an online forum back to the suspect behind a run of violent break-ins, closing out 5USA’s night.

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?

A Columbo triple bill runs from 5:05pm to 10pm, working through three of Peter Falk’s feature-length outings — Double Shock, A Deadly State of Mind and Playback — before a two-part Special Victims Unit story, drawn from early in series 20, closes out the night at 10pm and 11pm. Neither NCIS nor NCIS: Los Angeles airs on 5USA this evening.

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

Sunday breaks 5USA’s usual pattern rather than repeating it. The day runs to just 19 slots across eleven different programmes, and for once the evening isn’t built around NCIS or NCIS: Los Angeles at all — a Columbo triple bill takes the whole stretch from 5:05pm to 10pm instead, three vintage Peter Falk films back to back. Special Victims Unit still sees the night out, as it does most evenings, but everything ahead of it is a genuine change of pace.

There’s no premiere and no live sport to flag tonight. It’s still American crime drama from start to finish, just arranged around three feature-length films rather than the usual run of case-of-the-week imports.

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