5*

5* (pronounced "five star") is a television channel in the United Kingdom owned by Northern & Shell. The channel was launched as "Five Life" on 15 October 2006, and was rebranded as "Fiver" on 28 April 2008, and "5*" on 7 March 2011. The channel is available on digital television via Freesat, Freeview, Sky, TalkTalk TV and Virgin Media It was originally launched alongside 5USA by Channel 5, in order to create a multi-channel strategy, which all other analogue broadcasters had already achieved. 5* broadcasts between 13:00 and 00:00. 5* is a sister channel of Channel 5 and 5USA.

Five Life (2006-2008)
Five Life was originally intended to be a female-oriented channel with an emphasis on lifestyle programming. Channel 5 announced that programming on Five Life included The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Love My Way, Windfall and Angela's Eyes, as well as a weekday double-bill of the chat show Trisha Goddard and new episodes and a weekly omnibus of Home and Away. Repeats of teenage drama Dawson's Creek started showing in December 2006.

The first programme broadcast on Five Life was Inside the Priory, a documentary about The Priory clinic, at 8pm. The launch of Five Life marked the start of Five's digital multi-channel strategy designed to compete with similar strategies from its rivals Channel 4 and ITV plc.

On 11 January 2007, it was announced that Five Life had acquired the multi-channel rights to air popular axed ITV dramas, Bad Girls (Series 4-8) and Footballers' Wives from Spring 2007.

On 28 August 2007, Five Life launched a timeshift channel named Five Life +1.

Fiver (2008-2011)
At 06:00 on 28 April 2008, Five Life relaunched as Fiver with a new on and off-air identity and a raft of new shows added to the schedule. These included Celebrity Rehab, Dirt and re-runs of Sex and the City.

5* (2011-present)
On 7 March 2011, the channel was rebranded as 5*, supported by a new logo and branding to underline the fun-loving image of the channel. On 11 April 2011, 5* reduced its broadcast hours to 13:00 to 00:00, replacing the lost hours with more teleshopping. Milkshake! programmes (for children aged 7 and under) are no longer broadcast on this channel because of this reduction, but Milkshake! continues to broadcast on Channel 5.

On 18 January 2012, 5* received its highest-ever rating for the channel since it launched in 2006. 5* began broadcasting Live from the House, the one hour live feed for Big Brother that airs after every eviction. It started out well with over three hundred thousand viewers but skyrocketed on 18 January receiving 1.04 million viewers (994,000 on 5* and 41,000 on the time shift channel, 5*+1) with a audience share of over 5%. The live feed for Big Brother was brought back by popular demand and it's expected with these ratings they will continue to air it.

Launch night
The schedule for the primetime shows on the launch night of Five Life was as follows:

The launch of Five Life was at the time ranked as the worst received multichannel launch for a terrestrial broadcaster, only managing to achieve a primetime share of 0.21%.

Current programming

 * 5* Access
 * Big Brother
 * Big Brother's Bit on the Side
 * Big Brother: Live from the House
 * Home and Away
 * Neighbours
 * The Gilmore Girls
 * Chuck
 * Alphas
 * Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
 * Human Target
 * Knight Rider
 * The Lying Game
 * The Mentalist
 * Sex and the City
 * 10 Things I Hate About You
 * Archer
 * Dharma & Greg
 * Everybody Hates Chris
 * Malcolm in the Middle
 * Two Guys and a Girl
 * Fifth Gear
 * The Gadget Show
 * The Hotel Inspector
 * Police Interceptors
 * BAMMA
 * Banged Up Abroad

Homegrown Drama

 * Minder
 * Push
 * Tripping Over

Former programming

 * 8 Simple Rules - On hiatus, returning soon.
 * Almost Live from Studio Five
 * Angela's Eyes
 * Bad Girls - Now on CBS Drama.
 * Big Love
 * Celebrity Rehab
 * Colin and Justin's How Not to Decorate
 * The Ellen DeGeneres Show - Now on Really.
 * Farmer Wants a Wife
 * Footballers' Wives - Now on CBS Drama.
 * Gay, Straight or Taken?
 * Joey
 * Love My Way
 * Make Me a Supermodel Extra
 * Milkshake! - Now on Channel 5.
 * Minder
 * Nice House, Shame About the Garden
 * Ocean Force
 * Out of the Blue
 * Rich Bride, Poor Bride
 * Sofia's Diary
 * Step It Up and Dance
 * Stylista
 * The Trisha Goddard Show
 * Trust Me - I'm a Beauty Therapist!
 * Windfall
 * The Wright Stuff - Now on Channel 5.
 * Vets in Action

Relaunch night (as Fiver)
The schedule for the primetime shows on the launch night of Fiver were as follows: