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

Published: 7 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 Columbo reruns 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, Tuesday 8 September 2026, is a straightforward procedural evening: three NCIS episodes run from 6pm to 9pm, a new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs at 9pm, and two more Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes close the night at 10pm and 11pm.

5USA Schedule: Tuesday 8 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Tuesday 8 September 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Tuesday’s schedule opens with two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes running from midnight, then Blue Bloods at 1:50am, NCIS: Los Angeles at 2:50am and an Entertainment News on 5 bulletin at 3:45am. Teleshopping fills two hours from 4am, and Ideal World Shopping takes the breakfast slot from 6am to 9am. After a short news bulletin, three NCIS episodes from series 3 run from 9:10am to noon, then six Law & Order episodes carry the schedule solidly through the afternoon from noon to 6pm, setting up tonight’s run into primetime.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 8 September 2026.

NCIS — 5USA, 6pm

Gibbs’ team open the evening with an episode from season four, years behind wherever the US broadcast has since moved on to. It’s the sort of case-of-the-week structure that means missing an episode costs you nothing — pick up cold and the show explains itself within the first ten minutes.

NCIS — 5USA, 7pm

A second episode from the same season follows straight on. Tomorrow’s case will be unrelated to tonight’s, as with most NCIS instalments, but nothing here breaks from the format that’s kept the show running for well over two decades.

NCIS — 5USA, 8pm

The third and final NCIS of the night closes out the block before Law & Order takes over. Three episodes in three hours is 5USA’s default pattern for the show, so viewers dropping in at any point tonight get a complete, self-contained case rather than a fragment of one.

Law & Order: Special Victims — 5USA, 9pm

Tonight’s edition is a new episode rather than a repeat, series 26 continuing its run of cases handled by the Special Victims Unit. It’s the one show in the evening’s line-up airing for the first time on 5USA rather than being pulled from the archive, worth knowing if you’ve already seen everything else on tonight’s grid.

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

An older episode from series 21 follows the new one — a deliberate step back a few years rather than a continuation of tonight’s case. The show’s rotating roster of detectives means the jump in era shows up more in the supporting cast than in the format itself.

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

The night closes with a second series 21 episode, back to back with the one before it. Two hours of the same show from the same era make for an easy watch, if a slightly repetitive one this late.

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 drama and the Columbo archive

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 has a single overnight slot today, at 1:50am, rather than an evening one. Columbo doesn’t feature in today’s line-up; when it does turn up it tends to fill several daytime or early-evening slots back to back, drawn from across Peter Falk’s original run rather than any one series. The exact mix rotates week to week between NCIS spin-offs, Law & Order eras and the Columbo archive.

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 episodes back to back from 6pm to 9pm, then a new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs at 9pm. Two more 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

Tuesday sticks to the channel’s default template: three NCIS episodes carry the evening from 6pm, a new Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode gets its outing at 9pm, and two more episodes of the same show close out the night from 10pm. Nothing here demands you catch it live rather than mid-repeat, which is exactly what 5USA is for.

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