Then, have you considered that some of us have never fully enjoyed any of the 'modern' clownish challenges because of their in-your-face predictability and lack of any sophisticated irony? Not even the first time. It's just fast food of television, and even if the ingredients are right, it's cooked so half-arsedly that you can hardly enjoy it.
Don't mean to direct this at you especially, but more at most of the people complaining about personal issues with the new series (e.g who the hell is the guest?): have you ever considered the idea that there are other people in the world, who, unlike you, enjoy the messing around? People who know who the guest is? People who don't particularly find a road test of some random hatchback interesting and would much rather see an expensive, noisy and good-looking car racing around a track? I'm pretty sure the average viewer who just turns on the TV at that time to see what's on (and probably makes up the majority of the viewers) is much more interested in the messing about rather than the roadtests. I'm also fairly certain that the average viewer will not be bothering to go online and download every single damn episode so that they can compare the series to what it was before, and so don't really give a damn about whether or not gags are repeated or not. Plus, please don't tell me that you'd much rather see them go on a holiday, build their own sensible and perfectly functioning motorhomes and watch them blend in with everyone else on the road, set up at the campsite, do whatever it is which might occur and then just leave? I'm sorry, but I just can't see the majority of the viewers attracted to watching such a thing.
Sorry, but it just sort of pisses me off reading how people badmouth TG just because of what
they believe TG should be. They have to cater to the millions of viewers that they get, not a group of pissed-off people on an online forum illegally downloading their show complaining about how they should be properly sensible and review the new Mercedes A-Class rather than the Audi R8 V10 Spyder. Plus the BBC is publicly-funded, right? (I'm not sure on this) While it would be unfair to say that because you don't pay for the show, you don't get a say in what it does at all; at the same time, you are
not the ones funding them; they have to do what the people who are paying them want, not what people downloading their show for free want. Judging from the number of viewers they get, I'd think that the current style of the show appeals to the general audience quite well. Might sound a bit hypocritical since I download it as well, but at least I don't go online straight after watching it and diss them for not doing what I want.
Plus another point, which I read somewhere back in this thread; last week, people were complaining about how they compared the Camaro to the E63, as they are not direct competitors and therefore it should have been more like Camaro V Mustang, yet this week, people complain about how they compared the R8 Spyder and the 911 Turbo Convertible, which are more or less direct competitors. What the hell do you want?