One regular segment, “Campus Craziness,” moves Mr. Carlson to “remember when the left believed in free speech.” “Top This,” a sampler of political-correctness outrages, might as well be called, “Look at This Stupid Liberal.”

The show is expert culture-trolling — another common thread with Mr. O’Reilly and other Fox hosts — and a testament to the unifying power of mutual enemies. Like many establishment conservatives, Mr. Carlson has solved the dilemma of how to be pro-Trump by being anti-anti-Trump.

Where Mr. Carlson’s show pits him against the (left-leaning) world, the panelists on its follow-up, “The Five,” are their own source of fodder, and sometimes their own worst enemies.

“The Five” began as a happy-hour gabfest at 5 p.m. Now it’s like “Talking Dead” to Mr. Carlson’s “The Walking Dead,” punchily chewing over much of the material that filled the hour before.