Reaction to the show among critics has been mostly positive, though the week it premiered,
Alex Pareene, columnist for the website
Salon.com, slammed it as "boring and lame" and "not even worth getting outraged about."
Entertainment Weekly TV critic
Ken Tucker dubbed the show his "favorite guilty pleasure" and praised its freewheeling style and zany humor, calling it "a delightfully nutty show with an undercurrent of ragin' crazy."
Mediaite's Frances Martel, examining cable news' shift toward more personality-driven commentary, praised
The Five for adding an element of entertainment to the news: In 2014,
The Daily Show echoed these sentiments when their "correspondent"
Samantha Bee debuted her "one-woman show" about the supposed romantic subplot on
The Five. The show's loose and uncensored structure has led it into some minor controversies, particularly involving co-host
Bob Beckel's on-air profanity and insensitive remarks. In August 2011, Beckel was forced to apologize on-air when, while trying to clarify an earlier remark wherein he called
Michael Vick a "redneck," said the term was not racial, because "blacks are rednecks, whites are rednecks, I was a redneck,
Chinamen are rednecks." Beckel was later compelled to apologize for using the term "Chinamen". The music the show's producers use to lead in and out of segments has also led to controversy, such as an incident in 2011 that prompted a Twitter war between
Adam Levine and various Fox News personalities, over the producers' use of a song from Levine's band
Maroon 5. In April 2017, just two days after joining the show, co-host Jesse Watters came under scrutiny for a suggestive joke about the way
Ivanka Trump was speaking into a microphone. The day after Watters made the comments, he announced that he would be "taking a vacation" for the remainder of the week amid calls for his firing. The success of the show has resulted in
Fox News debuting several other talk shows such as
Outnumbered in 2014,
Gutfeld! in 2021,
The Big Weekend Show in 2023 as well as
The Big Money Show and
The Bottom Line w/ Dagen & Duffy on
Fox Business. On March 28, 2024, it was reported that former
Hunter Biden business partner
Tony Bobulinski was suing liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov for $30 million after comments she made regarding allegations that a Trump Super-Pac was paying Bobulinki's legal bills, a claim that he denies. Tarlov made an on air correction the day after she made those comments saying “I have seen no indication those payments were made in connection with Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees and he denies that they were.” == Programming announcements and changes ==