This week, the panelists on Fox News Channel’s unexpected ensemble hit, The Five, mark two years on the air — or 22 months longer than planned.

The program’s deceptively simple premise is five folks sitting around a table at 5 p.m., kicking around the day’s news and hot topics. The Five has emerged as Fox’s second most popular show this year, behind only Bill O’Reilly, despite not having the larger pool of potential viewers that prime time usually provides.

When Glenn Beck left Fox in 2011, Eric Bolling of the Fox Business Network pitched himself to Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.

“I sent the boss an email and said, ‘I’d kill for that 5 o’clock slot,’ ” Bolling said. “He said: ‘You and 500 others. Come up and talk to me at the end of the week.’ ”

Ailes already had another idea. He was mixing and matching personalities to see who might fit into a discussion format. There are actually seven who work on The Five, allowing for substitutions. Cast members are Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor who once worked at Court TV; veteran Fox analyst Juan Williams; Dana Perino, White House press secretary for President George W. Bush; campaign strategist Bob Beckel, who ran Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign in 1984; Republican consultant Andrea Tantaros; libertarian satirist Greg Gutfeld, who hosts the wee-hours Fox show Red Eye; and Bolling.

They shot two test episodes and “the chemistry … was undeniable,” Tantaros said. “When they said it was temporary, I thought, ‘Wow, but this is really fun.’ ”

Publicly, The Five was billed as a summer replacement series for Beck. It probably would have remained so if it didn’t click. Instead, the summer essentially served as a successful pilot for a network that does not introduce many new shows.

It is averaging 2 million viewers so far this year, up from just under 1.5 million during its first six months, according to the Nielsen Co. Beck brought new viewers to a time slot usually considered slow, and now The Five has a larger audience than Beck had during his final year at Fox.

During the loosely structured hour, the hosts take turns introducing subjects and steering the conversation. The idea is to recreate a dinner conversation, said Porter Berry, the show’s executive producer. The set consists of five chairs and an oval table where, up close, you can see the scratches and masking tape.

Perino said she’s met a woman who told her she cooks for her family more because she watches The Five while making dinner. There are viewing parties in suburban cul-de-sacs. Many fans watch while on the elliptical trainer.

Conversational shows aren’t unique, as The View has demonstrated. The Five was timely in countering a cable news movement toward hours focused on a single host with a dominant personality.

“You can never write off a trend in television,” said Scot Safon, chief executive of the HLN network. “They are always there to be reintroduced and re-embraced.”

Serious news and politics dominate the show’s first half. Later, the hosts try to lighten things up and in the process reveal more about themselves, such as when topics like relationship advice pop up. Guests or substitutes beyond the seven cast members do not appear.