What’s on USA Network tonight? Here is the full USA Network schedule for Tuesday, October 27, 2026, with times in Eastern Time (ET).

USA Network is a Law & Order: SVU channel, and Tuesday is no exception

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

If you want Special Victims Unit tonight, USA has sixteen hours of it, spread across the day and ending with a primetime block of season 27. If you want anything else, the options shrink to Chicago P.D. in the morning, a half-hour of Forensic Files at 5:30am ET, and The Rainmaker at 11pm ET. This is a one-show channel today.

Primetime runs Clickbait at 8pm ET/PT (7pm Central), Feed the Craving at 9pm ET/PT, and False Idols at 10pm ET/PT, all from season 27. They are episodes four, five and seven, so episode six is missing from the run. That is worth knowing if you are following the season in order: this is not a clean sequence. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has now run 28 series and 594 episodes, with Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T in the cast, and its original broadcaster is NBC. USA airs it every day, so it is a fixture rather than an event.

The pick is Clickbait at 8pm ET, mainly because it is the one that starts the block and the easiest place to join. It is up against Dancing with the Stars on ABC, NCIS on CBS and The Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo, so it is the hour with the most going on. By 9pm ET the competition from NCIS: New York and Road Wars is lighter, and at 10pm ET it is up against RJ Decker on ABC and NCIS: Origins on CBS. Three stars: dependable, but the real question is whether you want three in a row.

The daytime schedule is the same show at different points in its history. Season 2 runs overnight from 12:30am ET, season 25 fills the afternoon, season 26 takes the early evening, and Chicago P.D. season 6 runs across the morning, six episodes from 6am ET. The Rainmaker at 11pm ET closes the night. USA isn’t saying what it is, so there isn’t much to add beyond when it airs; it turns up on nine days across the next week and a half, which makes it a regular late slot. Two stars, on the evidence available.


Also on TV tonight at 8pm ET

  • ABC: Dancing with the Stars
  • NBC: NBA Basketball
  • CBS: NCIS
  • FOX: 2026 World Series
  • PBS: Finding Your Roots
  • The CW: WWE NXT
  • ION: Chicago Fire
  • TCM: Arsenic and Old Lace
  • AMC: A Nightmare on Elm Street (from 7pm ET)
  • FX: Independence Day (from 6pm ET)

Every channel tonight, side by side · Movies on TV this week · Tomorrow’s TV


Frequently asked questions

What’s on USA Network tonight?

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

Is there a movie on USA Network tonight?

No. USA Network has no movies in its evening schedule on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.

What’s on USA Network late tonight?

After 11pm ET, USA Network has The Rainmaker at 11pm ET.

What time does USA Network’s evening start?

The evening schedule starts with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 6pm ET.

USA Network is a Law & Order: SVU channel with live sport on top

If USA Network is on, there is a good chance Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is too. Across the two weeks we tracked, SVU aired 157 times on fourteen of the fifteen days, often for twelve hours or more at a stretch, and it was the only title on the channel to run on most days. Suspense dramas took 95% of primetime, and 86% of all airtime went to titles that came back on three or more days.

What breaks the reruns is sport. USA carries English Premier League soccer on weekend mornings and some weekday afternoons, NASCAR on Sunday afternoons, college football on Saturday evenings and WWE Friday Night SmackDown on Fridays. In the window it also carried the WNBA Finals in primetime, which is a seasonal visitor rather than a fixture. The result is a channel with a very predictable weekday and a very busy weekend.

What its day looks like

Weekdays are built from single-show marathons, often 10 to 20 hours long. A day typically starts at 6am ET with one series and runs it until the evening, when SVU takes over into the night. In the window:

  • SVU ran from midnight to 7pm or later with almost no break on several weekdays.
  • Chicago P.D. took 6am to 4pm on some days, handing over to 9-1-1 from 4pm until 6am the next morning.
  • The Rainmaker had one full day of its own, 1pm to 11pm, and a regular 10pm ET slot on other nights.
  • Chicago Fire filled the morning on one Friday, from 6am to 2pm.

On some Mondays and Fridays the afternoon belonged to soccer: Premier League Live at 2pm ET, a live English Premier League match at 3pm and Premier League Goal Zone at 5pm.

Fridays at 8pm ET are WWE Friday Night SmackDown, two hours in the same slot both weeks, with The Rainmaker or SVU after it.

Saturdays start early with soccer: Premier League Mornings from 7am ET, Premier League matches at 7:30am and 10am, then German Bundesliga soccer at 12:30pm. The afternoon goes to How I Met Your Mother or SVU, and college football takes 6pm ET onward. One late Saturday night went to Two and a Half Men instead.

Sundays bring Premier League Mornings and a match at 9am, SVU through lunchtime, then NASCAR Cup Series coverage from 2:30pm with the race at 3pm ET and a post-race show after it. The evening goes back to SVU, and Anna Pigeon, a series that turned up on a few evenings in the window, sometimes takes a slot.

Primetime on a weekday is whichever drama the day belongs to, very often SVU from 7pm to 11pm. Late night is more of the same: SVU, 9-1-1 or Chicago P.D. through to the morning, with only the odd episode of Forensic Files in between.

The repeat habit

USA is close to the opposite of a film channel. It averaged about ten “films” a week across the window, but nearly all of them were sports broadcasts listed as one-off events. The rest of the schedule is a handful of long-running dramas in heavy rotation. Chicago P.D. aired 37 times on four days, 9-1-1 27 times on four days and Chicago Fire 13 times on two. Comedy rose from 3% of weekday airtime to 23% at weekends, almost all of it How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men.

Popular shows on USA Network

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is a police procedural that began in 1999 and has run to 27 seasons and 594 episodes, starring Mariska Hargitay with Ice-T, Richard Belzer and Dann Florek among its cast. It is the backbone of USA’s schedule, on almost every day and through most nights.

Chicago P.D. is a police procedural that began in 2014 and has reached 13 seasons and 264 episodes, with Jason Beghe, Jesse Lee Soffer, Sophia Bush and Patrick Flueger. On USA it gets whole mornings and afternoons at a time.

Chicago Fire is a drama series that began in 2012 and has run to 14 seasons and 295 episodes, with Jesse Spencer, Monica Raymund and Christian Stolte in its cast. It appeared less often than Chicago P.D. in the window, in long morning and overnight blocks.

WWE Friday Night SmackDown is a professional wrestling program that began in 1999 and has passed 1,300 episodes, with a roster that has included Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio and Jey Uso. It holds Fridays at 8pm ET on USA.

How I Met Your Mother is a sitcom that began in 2005 and ran for nine seasons and 208 episodes, with Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan. USA runs it in blocks on weekend afternoons and late nights.

How to watch USA Network

USA Network is a cable channel, so it is not available free over the air with an antenna. The live channel is carried by YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV and DirecTV Stream, and USA has its own app, the USA Network app. Two gaps are worth knowing about: USA’s shows are no longer on Peacock, and Fubo does not carry the channel.

Channels like USA Network

  • ION is the closest match, built almost entirely on crime and emergency reruns, including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Chicago Fire.
  • TNT mixes crime reruns such as FBI and Cold Case with college football on weekends.
  • TBS pairs heavy sitcom reruns with live sport and wrestling, from MLB playoff baseball to All Elite Wrestling.
  • Hallmark Mystery gives whole days to single detective shows in the same marathon style, though its shows are older and gentler.

Who it’s for

USA Network is for viewers who want a crime procedural on whenever they turn the TV on, and for soccer, NASCAR and wrestling fans who know which slot their sport lives in. Weekdays offer little choice: on most of them, one show runs all day. Anyone after a film or a new comedy should look elsewhere, but for SVU in quantity few channels come close.

What’s on USA Network most nights?

Usually Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, from 7pm ET into the early hours. On Fridays, WWE Friday Night SmackDown takes 8pm to 10pm ET.

Does USA Network show soccer?

Yes. It carried English Premier League matches every weekend in the window, from as early as 7:30am ET, plus a live match at 3pm ET on some Mondays and Fridays, and German Bundesliga soccer on Saturdays.

How can I watch USA Network without cable?

Through YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV or DirecTV Stream, all of which carry the live channel. Fubo does not, and USA’s shows are no longer on Peacock.

When is SmackDown on USA Network?

Fridays at 8pm ET, for two hours.