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

Published: 3 September 2026

5USA is Channel 5’s home for imported American crime and legal drama, the channel that keeps NCIS, the Law & Order franchise and Beauty and the Beast 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 4 September 2026, three consecutive episodes of NCIS run from 6pm to 8pm (series 4, episodes 3 to 5), followed by two episodes of Beauty and the Beast at 9pm and 10pm (series 2, episodes 7 and 8), and the night closes with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 11pm.

5USA Schedule: Friday 4 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Friday 4 September 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Friday’s schedule opens with two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes running from midnight (series 20, episodes 13 and 14), then two episodes of Prodigal Son taking it through to just before 4am, followed by an Entertainment News on 5 bulletin. Teleshopping fills the next two hours, and Ideal World Shopping takes the whole breakfast slot from 6am to 9am. A second Entertainment News bulletin at 9am hands over to three NCIS episodes from series 3, running through to midday. The afternoon then belongs to Law & Order: three episodes close out series 7 from noon, then three more open series 8 from 3pm, running through to 6pm, when NCIS returns for the evening’s run.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 4 September 2026.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm to 8pm

Three series 4 episodes run back to back this evening, and that’s the whole shape of 5USA’s early primetime. “Singled Out” opens the block at 6pm (episode 3), with the team chasing down a missing navy lieutenant after her car is found empty and bloodied. “Faking It” follows at 7pm (episode 4), built around the arrest of a Russian arms dealer over the death of a chief petty officer, and “Dead And Unburied” closes it out at 8pm (episode 5) when a missing lance corporal turns up dead inside an abandoned property.

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

Two series 2 episodes take over for the second half of the evening. At 9pm, episode 7 has Cat pushing to spend Thanksgiving with her father in the hope of learning more about the missions putting Vincent in danger. Episode 8 at 10pm turns on a rift between Vincent and Cat over how to handle Agent Reynolds, a disagreement that leaves Vincent questioning how much of himself is still human rather than beast.

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

The 11pm hour belongs to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (series 21, episode 3).

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. It isn’t on tonight’s schedule, though — Friday’s evening belongs entirely to NCIS and Beauty and the Beast. Bull, Michael Weatherly’s post-NCIS drama about a trial-science consultancy, fills a similar afternoon role more lightly when it does appear. CBS ended it in 2022 after six seasons. Neither is on today, and the daytime grid otherwise rotates through NCIS spin-offs and different eras of Law & Order, 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 first half of the evening, with three series 4 episodes running back to back from 6pm to 8pm. Two episodes of Beauty and the Beast follow at 9pm and 10pm (series 2, episodes 7 and 8), and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit closes out the night at 11pm with a series 21 episode.

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

Friday keeps things simple on 5USA, and honestly that’s the whole story: three consecutive NCIS episodes from 6pm through the early run of series 4, then two episodes of Beauty and the Beast at 9pm and 10pm, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit closing the night at 11pm. No Blue Bloods, no film, no live sport. It’s straightforward crime-drama scheduling rather than an event evening, but the back-to-back format makes it easy to drop in at any point.

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