To add to that, almost six months exactly without new episodes.

And it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the funny reactions/summations to the ensuing experiments are spliced in after the fact. The opening setups for each myth most likely have to be scripted (this is more noticeable when the build team is involved - Kari and Grant especially are lousy actors). Therefore, they must've been left with nothing in the pipeline and had to start over from scratch. The show is more scripted than is let on, enough that the Writers' Guild strike shut down production.It's still one of the most popular shows on Discovery, but there have been no new episodes in almost six months (including the entire May sweeps period). We aren't doing special effects any more.M5 is still doing some outside work, but it is mostly R&D.'

Jamie Hyneman himself writes on the M5 web page: 'M5 is still here, we are pretty well dominated by Mythbusters of the Discovery Channel.

Also, the data for some of their experiments will actually end up being published in scientific papers. In Comic-Con 2011, the Mythbusters revealed that they have moonlighted as consultants for many scientific firms and have even helped develop blast-proof armor for the US military.

Not to mention that the Mythbusters are starting to branch out from special effects and the show.

That said, as long as the team has special effects and urban legends to mess with, who's complaining?

Probably it was a combination of both-the growing prevalence of using CGI, combined with the ever-growing popularity of Mythbusters, meant that most companies who otherwise would have gone to M5 for their special effects chickened out for fear that their project would be playing second banana to Mythbusters.

I've read a lot of stories about how cost-effective CGI has put a lot of practical special-effects places out of business, and that same tour you mentioned has a lot of 'Now they do this with CGI' comments in it.

While I'm not disagreeing, I get the impression that it is sort of the opposite: Mythbusters saved M5.

This indicates that, even considering the explosive use of CG in movies and commercials now, the show's success has caused business to falter dramatically - possibly because potential customers are afraid of disrupting the show's schedule more likely, they're afraid the show would take priority over their schedule - essentially shutting out M5 as a special effects business.

Jamie himself admitted in a tour through the company that the show has more or less fully taken over, with most of the things they used to do (toy prototype design, special effects, etc.) having petered out due to lack of interest from other companies. M5 has been out of business ever since the show first aired.

Well, the Skynet explanation seems likely because his creation, Geoff Peterson, acts like a Terminator endoskeleton from time to time.When the robots make their move to take over the world, he will spare the other MythBusters because they taught him love.

All the robots he builds will be soldiers in the robot uprising.

Grant is clearly a Ridiculously Human Robot sent from the future to warm the public up to the idea of our future robot overlords.

Only Grant is pro-robot John Connor, and Kari is from the future to influence him.

While Grant being a robot civil rights activist from the future, as of the C-4 Microwave myth (October 2009), the 'robosexual rights' part may be confirmed.

This troper asked on Twitter if this was true, and he replied with 'I competed in # BattleBots.

Or he was sent by an alternate Skynet that Heel Face Turned and feels guilty it sent him back to make friendly AI and avert its Big Bad incarnation.

Or he was sent by Skynet to win us over with his silly disposition to the machine's 'cool' side of silly cat-droids, surfing robots, and explosive hijinks, all while a certain local politician kills John Connor, the person who will keep this fun future down.

Even more specifically, the future that Grant is from is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou where he had clearly been a successful advocate.

Grant Imahara is a robots civil rights activist from the futureSpecifically, robosexual rights.

Mythbusters narrator