5 USA reflects the energy, pulse and guts of the USA’s great cities. 5 USA will be showcasing the best of American TV including The Beast, starring Patrick Swayze as unorthodox, undercover FBI agent; acclaimed comedy 30 Rock and hit series, The Shield with the further exploits of Detective Vic Mackey.
5USA is a British free-to-air television channel. It is owned by Viacom and is a sister channel of Channel 5, 5Spike, 5Star and 5Select. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the second digital terrestrial television channel in the UK to be launched by RTL Group (the owner at the time) as part of their multi-channel strategy, the first being Five Life (now 5Star).
5USA concentrates on showing imported movies and programs from the United States. The channel's original broadcast hours were from 4:00 pm to 01:00 am, however, it extended its hours starting at 12:00 pm on June 2007. On 1 November 2015, the channel extended its hours again and began broadcasting from 7:00 am until 3:00 am. The channel changes its program slots and shows from time to time.
British comedian Russell Kane was the 'face of the channel', presenting short clips between some programs which acted as space fillers to comply with advertising regulations in the UK (UK regulation allows fewer minutes of advertising than in the US) until 16 February 2009. The music used during the idents until February 2009 was "The Dress Looks Nice on You!" and "Jacksonville" by Sufjan Stevens.
On 28 August 2007, Five US launched a timeshift channel named Five US +1 available only on Sky. On 22 January 2009, it was announced that Five US would be rebranded to Five USA on 16 February (amended to 5USA in March 2011 as part of a corporate rebranding).
The channel's highest ratings to date were on 12 February 2008 for the second part of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Without a Trace crossover. The show averaged 2.580 million viewers between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm equating to a multichannel share of 13.9%. Those numbers made the show the most-watched multichannel program in its slot – beating every other channel (digital and analog) aside from BBC One, and is currently one of the highest ratings for a multichannel in the United Kingdom.
