For all the haggling and worrying about money etc, Richard apparently receives $50k per episode from Discovery and if celebritynetworth is even remotely accurate, he's also worth about $15m, so he's scarcely on the breadline.
So to retain the Discovery contract, he needs to keep the viewer entertained and that doesn't happen by looking at the intimate aspects of a car build and the shop usually farms out work that they can't do anyway. So you don't watch the show to take notes as to what to do for your own '67 Fastback restoration job, no you watch the show to see the interaction between the people and be entertained. Christie & Sue are the real stars of the show. Christie never takes a backward step in front of the boss and Sue is just hilarious, "why you always bring me junk?"
You get the usual formulaic car show things, ie., check out the car, detract its worth, haggle on the price etc but the episodes zip along at a good pace and sometimes throw in some very clever spins (such as the Smokey & the Bandit episode) and the few cameo's the show has along the way.
Richard is actually quite an astute businessman though & the show has followed the growth of Gas Monkey from a rented space at Phipps Automotive to his own premises, to opening his own restaurant & then taking Tom Smith, his most engaging employee/star (outside of Aaron), "firing" him, and hey, look, Richard's producing a show called "Misfit Garage" about Tom & Jordan's rival set up, "Fired Up Garage", who, surprise surprise, are renting the space at Phipps' once more....
Richard's no dummy and as long as he keeps me entertained with whatever show he has, I'll keep watching and laughing.
If you want a serious car show, I'm sure they exist somewhere but this isn't it.
Now, where's my beer assistant?
