Only just got round to watching this tonight, and wrote the following before reading the thread so apologies for any repetition.
By far the weakest thing he's done. Not to say that there weren't some very funny moments which made me laugh out loud but I'm sick to death of him playing around with his perceived status and criticising parts of the audience for not getting the joke. It was funny ten years ago, but he's done it too often and I'm just painfully bored of it. I said this after Comedy Vehicle ended but he really needs to mix things up and explore new ideas as I'm tired of this shtick and he just hasn't done so at all. And it pains me to say such a thing as I used to love the man enormously, but Content Provider is the first time I haven't seen one of his shows live since 2005 and I'm actually glad I waited for the tv broadcast as I found this a struggle at times. Still, on the plus side I loved Alan Moore's appearances, Lee's capable of a great turn of phrase and there's some strong ideas he plays around with, but yeah, overall it was a bit of a disappointment.
I get that the dividing the audience aspect is a part of his technique/style/persona, but the problem for me is the extent to which it can now dominate the material. Look back at Stand Up Comedian, 90's Comedian and 41st Best Stand Up and its there but nowhere near the extent that it is now and I would argue those 3 shows are richer in terms of material than Content Provider and even CRW because there's more time and room given to other ideas/development of the through line.
My problem with Content Provider, which I did enjoy both live and on TV, is that the first act, although it does feature some great lines and moments, feels like a slog due to way the "you've brought friends/mixed ability room" seems to dominate. The second act has less of this and explores more ideas, features more material and is a lot stronger and funnier for it. If the second act was just a repeat of the first, I think the show would overall have been much poorer. I don't want to be an arse and say the second act saves the show, because the first act does have its moments but it makes for a lopsided show as it stands.
Considering Lee is very much for experimenting with the form of stand up, and that the 4th series of CV featured him experimenting more, more often than not successfully for me (I like the Liddle routine, none of us are perfect!), I'm surprised he hasn't tried to experiment more with ways to divide the room. He tends to fall back in the 'should have been more for that joke/mixed ability' thing, but surely there are plenty more ways he could divide the room and keep things fresh, for him and his audience?