The UK television show Dragons' Den usually features five investors on its panel.
Each entrepreneur enters the Den and presents a business proposal to the assembled Dragons. The five-person panel creates a demanding setting: investors may ask separate questions, challenge the valuation and compete with one another for a stake. A pitch can attract one Dragon, several Dragons or none at all.
The panel is not permanently fixed. Individual Dragons have joined and left across different series, and guest or replacement investors have appeared. Nevertheless, five has been the standard number associated with the programme’s main pitch format.
Viewers sometimes count only the Dragons who make an offer, but the question concerns the panel itself. Investors who say they are “out” remain part of the panel and may continue discussing the proposal. The show’s title refers to these investors rather than to a literal group of mythical creatures.