Fifth Gear is ruined

Defcon

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Jun 11, 2005
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The point of a car show with presenters is to have them talk to each other. They got rid of Tim and Tom, their banter used to be quite good. And they kept Vicki who has become even more annoying. Tiff v Jason is like a loop which keeps repeating itself, its the exact same segment just with different cars.

Why does 5th gear keep experimenting with format changes every single season? Even the 'for drivers by drivers' bit is getting old, and its the only hook left. They should've focused on developing the hosts and keeping the same segments, instead of introducing new ones every time.
 
The point of a car show with presenters is to have them talk to each other? Which rulebook is that written in? Not every show can be like Top Gear where they have in-studio bits in between each segment. They tried that before and everyone bitched and moaned about it. Besides, in segments where there are 2 presenters together they "banter" with each other quite well.

Also, Fifth Gear had to change its format this season because they lost a half hour of their time. Its not much different than the previous few seasons but now that they have more limited time they have to change the way they do things. Its simple.
 
Not every show can be like Top Gear.

+1
That's the whole point of Fifth Gear, it's an alternative to Top Gear. They tried being TG with studio bits and silly stuff but it didn't work. Now they've gone back to basics and it's working extremely well.

Fifth Gear has not been not 'ruined', it has been saved.
 
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I like Fifth Gear, but a 30 minute show is just too damn short.... after you filter out the promotional BS and ignorant trivia question you have about 16 minutes of real car stuff, and that just blows.
 
This new Series of Fifth Gear is greatly improved. They have thankfully got rid of that Tim Shaw idiot and all the other rubbish that had been damaging the show. It's a shame that Tom Ford has left but the show has now distanced itself nicely from Top Gear.

The two shows now complement each other perfectly now.
 
I agree with the topic title, but not the rant. I think that the format has ruined it, much too short for serious reviews...
 
For me, fifth gear was the best somewhere around after they ditched that cafe and lovejoy and when tim shaw came..

I remember the episode when shaw was showing the difference to change a lightbuld on megane vs golf :D

Also, I liked john bentley as well....

i agree that the show needs more conversations like top gear has, and it definitely needs to last 45 min, because currently it just flies by, especially with that annoying announcements like coming up every 5 min....
 
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For me, fifth gear was the best somewhere around after they ditched that cafe and lovejoy and when tim shaw came..

I remember the episode when shaw was showing he difference to change a lightbuld on megane vs golf :D

Also, I liked john bentley as well....

i agree that the show needs more conversations like top gear has, and it definitely needs to last 45 min, because currently it just flies by, especially with that annoying announcements like coming up every 5 min....
 
I liked this series I must say - now Desmond owns Ch5 watch this space, we may loose it completely. Rumour is he is buying in 2nd and 3rd rate US and Aus shows instead of making his own - (Gadget show in the sights then. ? Booo Hooo).
 
Am I right in thinking that Tom Ford and Tim Shaw hated each other?
 
Something has clearly gone wrong, the Scene didn't even bother to rip it. Shows where the levels of interest are this season, the worst one since the begining.
 
The series has been ruined the second they started replacing half the show with "OMG ENTER OUR COMPETITION WAIT DID WE TELL YOU ABOUT THE COMPETITION OH AND CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE HEY DID WE TELL YOU ABOUT OUR WEBSITE?"
 
I have to say I 100% approve of what they've done with FG, I always loved the show when it was 1/2 hour. The problem with the full hour was that they clearly struggled to fill all that time and hence we got some third rate filler material to pass the time, by which time the average viewer would have turned off by then. IN anycase, the full hour format change had more to do with them trying to emulate TG, which clearly failed.

Hopefully the half hour format will mean the show will survive, and I sure hope so: for the first time ever I am enjoying FG as much as TG, if not slightly more :)
 
100 people, 100 tastes I guess. But they didn't have to do TG stuff in the 1hr format, just get more cars in, do more down to earth things..
 
The series has been ruined the second they started replacing half the show with "OMG ENTER OUR COMPETITION WAIT DID WE TELL YOU ABOUT THE COMPETITION OH AND CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE HEY DID WE TELL YOU ABOUT OUR WEBSITE?"

That's my biggest complaint. A half hour show is short enough when you have to make room for commericals. Spending a significant portion of what's left hyping the website/competition/what's coming up next doesn't leave much left for actual content.
 
Spending way too much time talking about the prize and website is the only problem I have with the current series, so I don't think it's ruined. They should just refer to the website for details about the competition and tell people to check out the other features while they are there. They could spend a total of 20 seconds talking about it and it would be more than adequate.
 
The Tim Lovejoy Experiment did a huge amount of damage to Fifth Gear. Things have improved since but it has been a slow rise back to what it used to be.

Just for a laugh I dug up an old episode (07x04 to be exact) just to remind myself what it used to be like... back then it was still the 30 min format, no website crap just a fairly quick bit for the competition (they just offered a car, not a car, fuel, and a heap of other shit)... Tom was great, not sure what happened there but they never should have got rid of him... Tif hasn't changed much since but Jason was calmer and less OTT than he is these days... same with Vick, even her single squeal didn't give me the shits like it usually does. Overall the whole thing was more focused, better written and much nicer to watch.

It's kinda hard to summarise but back then FG was simple with substance.... these days it's trying to be flashier and generally failing miserably.
 
The Tim Lovejoy Experiment did a huge amount of damage to Fifth Gear.
I have to disagree at this point. Putting Mister Love and Tom Ford together talking & introducing various Bits of the Show wasn't bad at all. IMHO, the real big damage was the ACE Cafe because it looked like they couldn't afford a Studio.

Then the Show evolved with the Car Park plus Studio. This was a big step forward. Sadly, they exchanged their presenters over the years too often. What's more, it got too expensive I think.

To get the lost Audience back, I suggest, FG should do the following=

Presenters:
Bring back Tom Ford
Fire Plato immediately, his Voice is annoying as hell. And VBH is good enough for Competitions against Tiff or Tom (although she screams like a Hampster).

Let's list them again: Tiff, Tom, Vicky and Johnny. Each presenter has to keep its special Role in the Show.

The Show itself:
Cancel the weekly Winning Competition or at least reduce it to two times per season. The saved money can be taken into more important parts of the Show. Give away a Car, Insurance and Fuel Money -that's fairly enough.
Go back to that Car Park with the little Race Track
The FG Website Ad is good, but has to move to the end of the Episode and should be ~30secs
Achieve 30min Episode length, excluding the Commercials
No more real Sportscars and Supercars, that belongs to Top Gear (this Restriction doesn't include Power Limousines like M5/RS6 etc). Normal Cars from Tata Nano up to S-Class/Phaeton/A8 etc plus Vans and of course SUVs are allowed.
 
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