Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Fixer’ On Fox, Where Investor Marcus Lemonis Tries To Turn Businesses Around Before Deciding Whether To Invest

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In The Fixer, Marcus Lemonis, who is the CEO of Camping World, Beyond and Good Sam Enterprises, meets with small businesses to see which ones he’d like to investigate more in order to invest. Each episode starts with quick Shark Tank–like pitches, where the business owners present their opportunities to Lemonis and tell him what their revenues and profit are. All of them are at some sort of crossroads, where they either want to grow but don’t have the wherewithal to do it, or the company’s revenues and profits are on the decline and need a boost.

THE FIXER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see investor and entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis say, “Across America, thousands of businesses are grinding it out, every single day, because the ultimate American dream is owning something you built.”

The Gist: After the pitches he gets at the beginning of each episode, Lemonis picks one of the business to look into more, visiting the locations and talking in depth with the owners and employees in order to see if they can follow his “3 Ps” philosophy: People, Process and Product. In the first episode, he visits an exercise studio named Perspirology, owned by Katie and Jason. The couple have developed a trampoline-based workout that’s proven to be popular in their original location in Sea Bright, NJ, but a new location in Middletown, NJ has garnered almost no revenue. They seem to have a decent amount of cash, but Jason is loath to invest any of it.

When Lemonis goes to both studios, he sees Jason doing low-level tasks like washing and folding towels, and is shocked that Jason has no idea what his studios’ retention rate is. The colors and environment in the empty Middletown studio are uninviting, and the couple is locked into a long-term lease that is losing the business $50k/year because there’s no revenue coming in. Before Lemonis decides whether to invest in the business or not, he has a focus group talk about the workout, suggests varying things up, and has a design team show a mock-up of a remodeled Middletown location.

In the second episode, Lemonis visits Jazz Audio on Long Island, a 34-year old shop that sells and installs aftermarket car audio gear. During his presentation, Gene, the owner, tells Lemonis that they’re making $450k profit, but when Lemonis goes to the store he finds outdated displays and inventory and a disgruntled longtime staff of installers who are tired of Gene’s verbal abuse and micromanaging. He also finds that the business isn’t nearly as profitable as Gene claimed it was.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Fixer is similar to Lemonis’ CNBC series The Profit, with some elements of Shark Tank and Kitchen Nightmares mixed in.

Our Take: We admit that we love watching dysfunctional businesses be dysfunctional on camera, and then watch someone come in and miraculously transform that business into a functional one, even if it only lasts for the time the cameras are there. It’s that element that makes The Fixer an addictive show. What we’re wondering about is why the show needs the Shark Tank-esque bake-off in the beginning.

Sure, any chance to give the blunt but empathetic Lemonis a chance to give his quick take on a business should be encouraged. When Jason of Perspirology makes his pitch to Lemonis and says he’s bad at math, Lemonis comes right out and says that’s a terrible thing to say as a business owner. Even while Lemonis is there, Jason continues to show how little he knows about being a business owner simply by opening his mouth. It makes us wonder if Lemonis and/or the producers pick businesses based on how much conflict they’ll produce rather than any financial or business reason.

So the pitch portion of each episode is a little strange, given the tone of the part of the episode where Lemonis visits the chosen business. If the pitch session where excised from each episode, they really wouldn’t be missed, though we would then miss scenes like Gene absolutely BSing his way through his pitch, but doing such a great job of it that he got Lemonis to pick him for the in-depth visit.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: We find out whether or not Lemonis has decided to invest in that episode’s featured business.

Sleeper Star: We admire the installers who have worked for Gene at Jazz Audio for literally decades; the youngest of the three has worked for him for fifteen years. Lemonis admires them too, because he used to similar work when he was younger.

Most Pilot-y Line: The product placement, for two sponsors we won’t mention here, is painfully obvious and clunkily presented.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Because of Lemonis’ bluntness and the juicy dysfunction in the businesses he visits, we enjoyed watching The Fixer. But we’re still not sure why the producers decided to graft a mini-Shark Tank onto each episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.