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

Published: 30 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, Monday 31 August 2026, NCIS holds the whole of early primetime with three episodes back to back from 6pm, all from the same stretch of series 3. Wild Cards follows at 9pm, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit closes the night with two genuinely consecutive episodes at 10pm and 11pm.

5USA Schedule: Monday 31 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Monday 31 August 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Monday’s schedule opens with two more Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes either side of midnight, then two of NCIS: Los Angeles running to just before 4am, with an Entertainment News on 5 bulletin between the two pairs. Teleshopping covers the small hours from 4am, and Ideal World Shopping takes the whole breakfast slot from 6am to 9am. A second Entertainment News bulletin at 9am hands over to three episodes of NCIS running through to midday — the first wraps up series 2, and the other two open series 3. The afternoon then belongs to Law & Order, six episodes from noon to 5pm, though the run isn’t a clean sequence: it plays series 7 episodes 8, 9 and 10 in order, jumps straight to episode 23, then picks up series 8 from 4pm.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 31 August 2026.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm

5USA hands the whole of early primetime to NCIS, running three episodes back to back at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm, all from the same run of series 3. None of the three carries a premiere flag, so this is a straightforwardly repeat-heavy start to the evening rather than anything new — though stringing them together in order does mean anyone tuning in for just one hour gets a proper run rather than a random episode.

Wild Cards — 5USA, 9pm

Wild Cards takes the 9pm slot with series 2, episode 3. The feed marks it New:, but it’s a mid-series outing rather than a season opener — this time Ellis takes on the case of a paranoid biomedical engineer dealing with a bout of amnesia.

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

Two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit close the night at 10pm and 11pm, series 20 episodes 19 and 20 — a genuinely consecutive pair for once, rather than two instalments pulled from opposite ends of the show’s run.

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. Neither is on today, and the daytime grid rotates through NCIS spin-offs and different eras of Law & Order instead, so the exact line-up shifts from week to week.

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?

NCIS holds the whole of early primetime with three episodes back to back at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm, all from series 3. Wild Cards follows at 9pm, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit closes the night with two genuinely consecutive episodes, series 20 episodes 19 and 20, 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 is a genuinely repeat-heavy night rather than an eventful one: three NCIS episodes in a row from 6pm, a Wild Cards outing wearing a New: flag it hasn’t quite earned, and a Special Victims Unit pairing that at least runs in proper sequence for once. No films, no live sport, and nothing that amounts to a premiere — just 5USA doing what it does most nights.

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