Full 5USA listings for Tuesday 27 October 2026, with times in London local time.

5USA is a four-hour procedural block, and the best of it is NCIS at seven

See also: What's on tonight across all channels | Wednesday's TV guide

If you want a crime drama tonight and don’t mind which, 5USA has it from 7pm to midnight without a break. NCIS: Swan Song at 7pm is the strongest opening, and it is followed at 8pm by NCIS: Pyramid. They are episodes 23 and 24 of series 8, so the pair sit back to back in order, which is more than you can say for most of the channel’s strands.

NCIS has run for 24 series and 507 episodes, with CBS as the original broadcaster, and 5USA clearly treats it as a pillar. It also shows the show at 9.10am through to 11am and again at 6pm, so tonight’s two are the evening end of a day that already held four more. That is heavy repetition for a single title.

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit pairing at 9pm and 10pm is the more interesting hour. The first is series 26, episode 16, and the second is series 1, episode 3. Twenty-five series apart inside one evening makes this the only part of the night with any variety, so the 10pm episode is the one to watch if you want to see how far the show has moved. Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T are among the cast the show is known for. The competition at those hours is Blue Lights on BBC One and Gogglebox on E4, so the drama crowd is not short of alternatives.

Overnight, Criminal Minds returns at midnight and 1am, with series 15 beginning at 1am. That is one for the recorder rather than the sofa.

The honest summary is that 5USA’s night is dependable and unsurprising. Pick your hour and settle in.


Also on TV tonight at 9pm

  • BBC One: Blue Lights
  • BBC Two: Surgeons: At the Edge of Life
  • ITV1: New: Unbelievable Moments:…
  • Channel 4: The Great British Bake Off (from 8pm)
  • Channel 5: Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
  • BBC Four: The Normans
  • ITV2: Big Brother
  • ITV3: Vera (from 8pm)
  • ITV4: Junk and Disorderly
  • E4: Gogglebox

Every channel tonight, side by side · Films on TV tonight · Tomorrow’s TV


Frequently asked questions

What’s on 5USA tonight?

On Tuesday 27 October 2026, 5USA shows NCIS at 7pm, NCIS at 8pm, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 9pm and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10pm.

Is there a film on 5USA tonight?

No. 5USA has no films in its evening schedule on Tuesday 27 October 2026.

What’s on 5USA late tonight?

After 11pm, 5USA has Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 11pm.

What time does 5USA’s evening start?

The evening schedule starts with NCIS at 6pm.

American crime drama, back to back, all day

5USA is a British channel that launched in 2006, and it does one thing: American crime drama, shown in long runs of consecutive episodes. Crime drama is 60% of all its airtime and 62% of primetime; most of the rest is other American drama, plus shopping and short entertainment bulletins overnight. Three titles carry the channel. Over the five weeks we tracked, NCIS aired 150 times, the original Law & Order 150 times and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 121 times, more than 400 episodes between them. Nearly everything is a repeat in the plainest sense: 99% of airtime went to titles that recurred on three or more days, as high a figure as we have measured anywhere.

What a day on 5USA looks like

Overnight and early morning. The small hours mix crime drama with filler. NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Hawai’i or Prodigal Son usually start around 2.55am. Short editions of Entertainment News On 5 are scattered through the night, a teleshopping block runs at 4am and Ideal World Shopping takes 6am, on every day we measured.

Morning. Cops, a reality series about police work, sits at 9am on some days, and Bull at about 9.10am on others. Then the marathons begin.

Daytime. On a typical weekday, 5USA stacks episode after episode of the same show. NCIS appeared on 25 days and averaged six episodes on each of them; Law & Order did the same, usually from late afternoon, around 5pm. Columbo turns up in the afternoon on some days, with feature-length episodes such as Columbo Goes to the Guillotine, Columbo: Prescription: Murder and Columbo: Murder, A Self-Portrait.

The evening, 6pm to 10.30pm. NCIS usually runs into primetime, often two episodes from 8pm, with NCIS: Los Angeles or NCIS: Hawai’i at 7pm on a few nights. At 9pm the channel rotates: Blue Bloods, Beauty and the Beast, Wild Cards and Law & Order: Organized Crime all took the slot in our window. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the one fixed point: it held 10pm on 30 of the 34 evenings.

Late night. SVU keeps going after 10pm, often running again at 11pm, and it aired on every one of the 34 days we measured, more consistently than anything else on the channel. Criminal Minds fills midnight on some nights.

One genre, slightly looser at weekends

There is not much variety to describe. Crime drama takes 61% of weekday airtime and 56% at weekends, so the weekend loosens the grip only a little. Films are almost absent at under one a week, and those few were Columbo stories rather than cinema releases. There is no comedy, no factual programming beyond Cops and no British drama. The furthest the evening strays is Beauty and the Beast, a fantasy drama that took the 9pm slot on a handful of nights, often as a double bill.

Popular shows on 5USA

NCIS is the channel’s daytime engine, shown in blocks of half a dozen episodes and again in the evening.

Law & Order is its partner in the daytime, with the same number of airings across the window and the same marathon habit.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the most reliable title on 5USA: on all 34 days, and at 10pm on almost every evening.

Law & Order: Organized Crime is an American police procedural that began in 2021, with five seasons and 75 episodes. It takes the 9pm slot on some nights.

Wild Cards is a Canadian police procedural, three seasons and 33 episodes long, and one of the newer series in the 9pm rotation.

Columbo appears in feature-length episodes in the afternoons and early evening, on five days in our window.

How to watch 5USA

5USA is free-to-air on Freeview channel 21, Sky 141 (169 in Scotland, 129 on Sky Glass), Virgin Media 120 (162 in Scotland), Freesat 129 and Freely 29. 5USA+1 is on Sky 241 and Freesat 130. The free 5 streaming service, formerly My5, shows it live and on catch-up. Watching any UK channel live needs a TV Licence.

5USA and its sister channels

5USA belongs to the family headed by Channel 5, shown on screen as 5, with 5STAR, 5ACTION and 5Drama, which replaces 5Select. Channel 5 is children’s television in the morning and British factual in the evening. 5STAR covers medical and emergency documentaries. 5ACTION is the nearest in spirit, but its crime is real: Police Interceptors and Motorway Cops rather than scripted drama.

Outside the family, ITV3 is the closest free channel for crime drama, though its detectives are British, with Midsomer Murders and Vera in the evening. Great! TV is another place to look for older American series.

Who it’s for

5USA is for people who can happily watch NCIS or Law & Order for an afternoon, and for anyone who wants SVU at 10pm almost without fail. If you want to follow a series in order, or want anything other than American police and crime drama, this channel will not help.

What channel is 5USA on Freeview?

5USA is on Freeview channel 21.

Can I watch 5USA online?

Yes. The free 5 streaming service, formerly My5, carries 5USA live and on catch-up.

What time is Law & Order: SVU on 5USA?

Usually 10pm, and often again around 11pm. It aired on every day we tracked.

Is NCIS on 5USA every day?

Most days. It appeared on 25 of the 34 days we measured, about six episodes a day when it did.