Agreed, it's not as strong as it was but I still greatly enjoy it. And it couldn't have carried on the way it was going. One of the things I like about series 1 & 2 is that the producers mixed things up a lot more -- different rounRAB, different styles of humour. By series 5 it had really changed into a tight, repetitive format with comedians cut from roughly the same cloth. Which was great. But by series 7, the format was clearly becoming stale and almost a shouting match. Something did have to change. I think the real problem is that the producers are trying to continue in the mode of series 5-7 but without the same level of talent.
As for Gina/Nigeria -- you'd be hard pushed to find any non-English comic (including Irish, Scottish, Welsh) on an English show who, at some point, doesn't tediously bang on about his or her background with implicit victimhood. Yashere was great -- I used to love her "I don't fink so!" character on (was it Lenny Henry? can't remember). But after she came back from the States she seemed to have totally lost her sense of humour.
As for Gina/Nigeria -- you'd be hard pushed to find any non-English comic (including Irish, Scottish, Welsh) on an English show who, at some point, doesn't tediously bang on about his or her background with implicit victimhood. Yashere was great -- I used to love her "I don't fink so!" character on (was it Lenny Henry? can't remember). But after she came back from the States she seemed to have totally lost her sense of humour.