Can't watch Emily for longer than a couple of minutes, she's SO irritating, full of herself and smug. I'm staggered at the prices, too - and I'm curious as to how they sell most of it at the prices they're charging. I've also noticed that some of the 'old faithful' names that used to be cropping up all the time don't seem to be coming through. Admittedly I don't watch it for long, but I'd bet that they've lost a lot of the 'old' viewers.
I used to watch daily - but I tend to have a glance in at the start of each hour to see if there's anything new or worthwhile, and then vanish again.
As you say, Emily is unwatchable for more than a couple of minutes, and as much as I like Jim, he doesn't suit Gem Collector.
I think Gem Collector will have lost its old 'core' viewers for five key reasons:
1. The prices are beyond expensive.
2. Most of the stones are poor quality (windowed, fish-eyed, badly cut, heavily included and/or wishy-washy in 'colour') - as well as being heavily treated. Why the hell would collectors want or pay for irradiated Smokey Quartz or heated Rose Quartz when both are available from most retailers, in untreated form, cheaply.
3. They can no longer be trusted to get basic information correct - such as gemstone names and treatments.
4. Patronising and insulting sales pitches - insulting viewers' intelligence by referring to bog standard stones as 'rare' or claiming that viewers are getting a bargain because their absurd starting price of £1200 for an irradiated Swiss Blue Topaz stone has been dropped to a still overpriced £50 'auction price'.
5. There's no longer a 'personal' feel to the channel. Alex has gone - and now viewers are spoken to as general viewers in a manner similar to Gems TV and other selly-telly channels. Alex used to talk to people on a 'personal' level as well as addressing people in general as viewers.
Personally, in my opinion, I feel that if Gem Collector is to survive, it needs to seriously address its pricing structure, quality of gemstones, and equally as importantly, replace Jim and Emily with calmer, less hard-sell, knowledgeable presenters. Nick and Millie Griffiths would be PERFECT in style for Gem Collector. Keep the screaming hard sellers with ludicrous claims for Gems TV, where that behaviour seems to be the norm.
It's always a breath of fresh air to see Nick filling in. He was covering yesterday - and he's just SO calm, knowledgeable without a single ounce of BS or dodgy sales spiel.