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

Published: 12 September 2026

5USA is Channel 5’s home for imported American crime and legal drama, the channel that keeps NCIS 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 13 September 2026, is a Columbo double bill: Blueprint for Murder opens at 6:50pm and Dead Weight follows at 8:25pm, two different cases from Peter Falk’s archive rather than a two-part story, before two closing episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit take the 10pm and 11pm hours.

5USA Schedule: Sunday 13 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5USA schedule for Sunday 13 September 2026, on Freeview 21.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5USA today

Sunday’s schedule opens with two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes running from midnight to just before 2am, then two NCIS: Los Angeles episodes carry the overnight through to 3:45am, followed by a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin and two hours of Teleshopping. Ideal World Shopping fills the whole breakfast run from 6am to 9am, then a brief news update and a short Cops episode lead into four Blue Bloods episodes running from mid-morning into early afternoon. From 1:20pm, the schedule turns over almost entirely to Columbo: three archive cases — Last Salute to the Commodore, Ransom for a Dead Man and A Case of Immunity — run back to back through the afternoon and into early evening, setting up the Blueprint for Murder and Dead Weight double bill that carries into tonight’s primetime.

5USA tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5USA primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 13 September 2026.

Columbo: Blueprint for Murder — 5USA, 6:50pm

Lieutenant Columbo works a case from deep in the original run, one of the early episodes built around a suspect confident enough to let the detective right into the investigation. Peter Falk’s rumpled delivery hasn’t dated the way the clothes around him have.

Columbo: Dead Weight — 5USA, 8:25pm

A separate case follows straight after, with a different suspect and a different method rather than a second helping of the same story. Pairing two unconnected episodes back to back is how the archive gets used here, since there’s no ongoing plot to keep straight and viewers can join at either one.

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

“Guardians and Gladiators” and “Ballad of Dwight and Irena” close out the night, moving the schedule from Columbo’s slower procedural style into Dick Wolf’s faster precinct-and-courtroom format. Both come from series 22, well into Mariska Hargitay’s run as captain rather than detective.

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.

Overnight legal drama and the Columbo archive

Tonight’s overnight hours go to two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes running from midnight to just before 2am, then two NCIS: Los Angeles episodes carry through to about 3:45am. When the Columbo archive turns up, as it does through this afternoon and evening, it tends to fill several daytime or early-evening hours back to back rather than a lone late slot, drawn from across Peter Falk’s original run rather than any one series. The exact overnight mix rotates week to week between NCIS spin-offs, Law & Order eras and older US legal drama.

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 double bill holds the first part of the evening, Blueprint for Murder at 6:50pm followed by Dead Weight at 8:25pm. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit then closes out the night with two episodes 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

Tonight breaks from the channel’s default template rather than sticking to it: instead of a long NCIS or Law & Order run, two separate Columbo cases from the archive fill 6:50pm to 10pm. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit then closes out the night with two episodes at 10pm and 11pm. Nothing here demands you catch it live rather than mid-repeat, which is exactly what the channel is for.

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