It's like 8 out of 10 that close. The show lies. Check Yelp for the bar's name.
Almost always its a ditch effort to make some quick money before they actually close up. For a couple weeks after the show airs those bars receive a ton of business.
You`re quite right. I don`t have the facts for Bar Rescue, but I`ve seen statistics from Gordon Ramsays Kitchen Nightmare series, and there is in reality very, very few restaurants Mr. Ramsay manages to save.
I`m not trashing Mr. Ramsay, he`s an excellent chef, truly world class. But the program is all bullshit!
The original Kitchen Nightmares series filmed in England was much more genuine, but even there quite a few of the restaurants featured on the show went belly up.
I`m not really having a go at Mr. Ramsay, Mr. Taffer or other similiar tv stars.
The restaurant and bar business is notoriously hard to make money in. I have spent almost 15 years of my life in that world. I have worked as a chef, bartender/mixologist, barista, butcher etc. so I know this business pretty good.
I have seen people get lucky and I have seen people fail in this business.
Even the best laid plans, from the most sincere people can fail. This industry is so sensetive to fluctuations in the economy, there is almost no wiggle room, unless you have a rich backer, who don`t mind pouring money into a black hole.