Fifth Gear is ruined

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.

x10

Agreed, if they could somehow take the show back to how it was back then I reckon they're onto a sure fire winner
 
After watching the new episode, and remembering the 3 or 4 past seasons, I can say that I will never watch Fifth Gear again. every time I watch it for the past 3 - 4 seasons I feel like "why I even bothered". A complete empty show. It's is rushed, the presenters are annoying, there is no entertainment and no information, at least interesting info. So fak it!
 
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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.

I'm fairly sure the only reason that Fifth Gear only exists in the eyes of the Five executives is beacuse of the competitions. Suppose 2 million people watch the show and 10% call to enter the competiton - bang, they've far exceeded the costs of the prize. So they're not going to save any money by scrapping the competition, plain and simple. I'd imagine if we all watched the programme with commericials, mentioning the competition twice in the show wouldn't seem so exterme.

I'm annoyed that they got rid of Tom Ford and Tim (He was slightly annoying, but he worked for consumer advice), but they still need to focus the show more. One less segment with more of a focus on the rest of the show ought to improve the content. I get really annoyed when a comparison test only goes for 5 or so minutes, it captures you in only to quickly wrap up. Seems an awful lot like we're missing something, for example the M3 v. C63 review last week.

Ben Collins is alright... but there's a reason why he was The Stig. The man has no real emotion... or he sucks bollocks trying to feign it.
 
It's just way to short now. 22 minutes including some contest... That's YouTube territory, not a tv show.
 
its not what it used to be. i agree that the tests are far too short and most of the presenters are getting rather irritating. i hope to get the earlier seasons off someone in the near future.
 
I think the new shorter format works better, but they need to drop the "fluff" (cocking about segments last series and Ben Collins this series) and use that time to flesh out the other segments so they don't feel so rushed.
 
I've stopped watching 5G a number of seasons ago. Just doesn't work for me any more. The old 30min format was great, things started to go south with the 1hr slot, and now 30min slot with commercials and all the fluff? kthxbai.
 
I quite like the current Fifth Gear format

/thread
 
Give them a bit longer so they can fit in half an hour of content, comp/website pimping and adverts into their timeslot.
 
Fifth Gear needs to drop the stupid text message contest. It takes 2 minutes to announce it each time. Since they do it twice in the show, that's 4 minutes lost to bullshit. 4 minutes out of a 22 minute show and what's left? 18 minutes of car tests and presentations. Does someone have some statistics of how much money the show does with the contest? Does anyone care about texting the answers? For example, this last episode, it was the second week straight that the contest car's a second-hand Audi TT. What, noone won it the week before?
 
I like the return of the old format. The forced, happy banter was straining. Now they need to stop plugging their website constantly and get back to the cars. They could also stand to cut some of the airing time for their weekly contest. I don't care if they keep doing it for the people in the UK who can participate, but a few moments is all it really takes.

I don't see the show as ruined.
 
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+1 Gingertom. This thread should be called "Fifth gear is saved" and I'm very glad that (IHMO) they managed to get back on the track. FG used to have the ability to be serious without being too dry but then it turned into a "confused teenager" that could not make up it's mind on what style to follow. It seems to me that now they are finally back at what they do best - a fun yet fact-based motoring show. Welcome back, FG :)
 
Just watched the shows from the new season and they have experimented again. I used to really enjoy the show, it wasn't TG it was different (enjoyed both) but this latest seasons offerings is for lack of a better description dull. While I can think of several clips from older series even after just watching these the only thing that pops to mind is the bit about the NB'rhing. If you offered my big money I still couldn't name one of the gang/group cars that were tested. That segment is just that dull. Tiff vs Jason has its moments but would be interesting if the two would blurt out a bit more about why they do things when they compete. Sort of along the line of the here is a chance if I late brake I can have him etc. Other than those snippets the segments are down to shots of two guys driving around. One car was faster but why? One guy was faster but what got him there?

I do agree about previous posts about those stupid contest adverts. I thought they popped up more than twice in a few episodes. Would be different if the show was 45 minutes (and that alone might allow them to do things better/un-rushed etc) but in 22 minutes they are a bit much. The one previous post on that says 4 minutes out of 22. Curious enough I'm going to have to time it now.
 
Mods, please edit thread title to 'Fifth Gear has been saved' Thanks
 
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