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Archive through October 19, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Other Reality Shows ARCHIVES: Archives for 2005-3: The Biggest Loser (ARCHIVES): Archive through October 19, 2004 users admin

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Rslover
Member

11-19-2002

Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 6:42 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
On Tuesday, October 19, at 8PM ET/PT, NBC will premiere The Biggest Loser, a show in which overweight contestants lose weight -- or, in NBC's words, they "receive the opportunity to undergo a radical physical makeover without any kind of surgery." The show will be hosted by stand-up comedian and former talk-show host Caroline Rhea, who has discussed her own weight-loss struggles in her comedy routines.

The simple idea of the one-hour unscripted series, familiar to dieters the world over, is that "whomever loses the most...wins." Losing weight will be difficult, though, as the 12 contestants (six male and six female) will be faced with "real-life temptations" that their new "approved weight-loss skills and resources" should help them overcome -- if they want to win, that is.

The twelve contestants will be divided into two teams of six, cleverly named the Blue team and the Red team. The teams will be mixed by gender (unlike, say, the current editions of Survivor and The Apprentice) and will be organized to be approximately equal in weight. Each team will then be assigned a "team trainer" to teach it individual fitness and nutrition regimens. According to NBC, one trainer has a tough 'boot camp' attitude while the other offers a much calmer approach yet remains strict and focused on results. So ... will the carrot or the stick work better?

Viewers will also have the opportunity to study and learn the two dieting methods that the "celebrity trainers" incorporate into their team's nutrition plan. If the success of the Atkins and South Beach diet books is any indication, this part of The Biggest Loser will soon become its own book.

During each week's broadcast, the teams will face difficult and demanding daily work-outs culminating in a weekly competition in the form of a challenge, but the moment of truth will come during a weekly weigh-in. At the weigh-in, each team member will be weighed to determine the total pounds lost as a team. The team that loses the least amount of weight is faced with having to eliminate one of their own. In the end, the winner of The Biggest Loser walks away with $250,000 and a healthier body augmented by new coping skills ... or so NBC claims.



Scorpiomoon
Member

06-06-2002

Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 1:32 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I was just waiting for someone to produce a show like this. I'm looking forward to it.

Watching2
Member

07-07-2001

Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 12:19 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Now here's a show I could have been a great contestant for! How come I never hear about casting calls anywhere? LOL

Sweetbabygirl
Member

08-31-2002

Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 3:27 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yeah, Watching!! I wish I could have been a part of the team, and I am soooooo looking forward to watching!!

Roppiepie
Member

05-06-2004

Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 11:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Where do I sign up???? October 19th has a big red circle around it to remind me to watch!!!

Mssilhouette
Member

07-11-2001

Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Well at least this is one show were we can potentially cheer for all the contestants.

Justavice
Member

07-12-2003

Friday, October 08, 2004 - 6:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Isn't this a little like Dr. Phil's Weight Loss Challenge??

Mssilhouette
Member

07-11-2001

Friday, October 08, 2004 - 10:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yes but now it's MUST SEE TV! Weight Loss Challenge and but with MONEY and FEAR FACTOR style tasks...but with food...so its FOOD FACTOR! (Crap I think I just gave a TV exec an idea...if you see it next year, you heard it from me first)

Rabernet
Member

08-19-2002

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 4:36 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I can't wait to see this either. I'm currently in my own weight loss journey with Weight Watchers and in one week shy of six months have lost 52.4 lbs to date! Ever since I started doing WW, I am suddenly very interested in all the diet shows and weight loss shows (like the news magazines showing a group trying to lose weight for their high school reunion and what diet they are doing).

Although, to me, WW is not a diet, it's truly been a lifestyle change for me! And something I can live with the rest of my life.

Watching2
Member

07-07-2001

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 7:26 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Congrats to you Rabernet! I really really REALLY want to get truly motivated to do what you are doing! Good for you!

Riviere
Member

09-09-2000

Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 4:50 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This one sounds good!!! My cousin has been with WW for a year and trimmed 78 lbs, and I'm getting that lovely middle age spread myself now. I'll look forward to "The Biggest Loser" to help me stay motivated and cheer on all losers!

Scorpiomoon
Member

06-06-2002

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 8:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
DON"T FORGET: This show premieres tonight--NBC--8PM. It's 90 minutes.

Here's a recent USA Today article.

Health/fitness craze sparks reality-show makeover
By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY

In a turn away from the prevalent plastic-surgery makeovers, TV shows are sending messages that you can redo yourself without going under the knife.
Biggest Loser contestants compete Survivor-style, but instead of an immunity challenge, teams weigh in. The team with the lower net loss votes off a member.
NBC

Tuesday, NBC premieres The Biggest Loser (8 ET/PT), a reality show about 12 people who compete to lose weight through exercise and diet. "Fitness and nutrition and dieting are the new religion," executive producer Ben Silverman says. "There is a real obsession with the culture of health."

On Loser, six male and six female contestants are divided into two teams. Each team is assigned a personal trainer. In a Survivor-like game, contestants undergo physical challenges and temptations.

Each week, the teams weigh in on a scale to determine which team, as a group, has lost the most. The team that loses the least must vote off one of its members. Caroline Rhea is the host, and at the end, "the biggest loser becomes the biggest winner," as NBC says, with a prize of $250,000, not to mention a trimmer bod.

Though the show might seem to be making light of a serious medical problem, Silverman says, "it's a sensitive issue, and I think the show handles it in a sensitive way, while still providing entertainment."

Also hoping to entertain with old-fashioned diet and exercise makeover tactics:

•10 Years Younger, in which a team of stylists helps contestants take a decade off their looks using anything but surgical means. The half-hour show, adapted from a British series, is to air next year on TLC.

•Celebrity Fit Club, featuring two teams — actors Daniel Baldwin, Kim Coles and Joe Gannascoli (The Sopranos), rapper Biz Markie, comedian Ralphie May, model Mia Tyler and Wendy the Snapple Lady — who face challenges as diverse as belly dancing and synchronized swimming. Each week, they step on the scale to see whether they've helped their team by losing weight. The show is due next year on VH1.

•Flab to Fab, a VH1 series in which host A.J. Johnson leads a group of men and women on a workout/diet program modeled after their favorite celebrity. Viewers follow the contestants as they go through the weigh-in, the workouts with personal trainers and the ultimate makeover. New episodes begin Nov. 29 (8 p.m. ET/PT).

"It's unlike other shows where you can go under a knife — that's a quick fix," says Claire McCabe, Flab executive producer. "We give you 12 weeks, and you can walk away saying, 'I can do that at home, cook like that, eat like that, exercise like that.' It's a commitment, but you can do it whether you're in Hollywood, New York, Ohio, Kansas — wherever you are."

Among the highlights of the upcoming season, McCabe says, are three gay men who follow Madonna's workouts and a group of women who work out with singer Brandy.

Ultimately, McCabe says, Flab is about helping people at home get motivated.

"With the health concerns in our country today, you can go under the knife and have fat sucked out, but that doesn't mean you won't have diabetes in 10 years. You follow Flab to Fab, and you can learn how to prevent those risks."

As a character put it on Nip/Tuck, the edgy FX drama about two surgeons in Miami: "Healthy food is the new plastic surgery."

But if that doesn't appeal to you, don't worry: The Swan returns on Monday (Fox, 8 p.m. ET/PT), offering its usual boot camp/diet/sequestering/multiple plastic surgeries/beauty pageant show. Creator Nely Galan also has written a book to go with it, The SwanCurriculum (ReganBooks, $16.95). There are even a few pages on how to plan for and find the right doctor for your own plastic surgery.

Nickovtyme
Member

07-29-2004

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 6:32 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
What an inspiring show...I'm hooked.

Lilfair
Member

07-09-2003

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 6:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
That chick trainer is intense and the guy seems like a real sweet. Both good reality show types. The premise is something everyone can root for and the contestants seem likeable enogh. On paper, for me, it might be a winner.

Oh and the host is ok, too.

Nickovtyme
Member

07-29-2004

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 6:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I couldn't get over the irony that the host is..*ahem*...slightly over weight.

Maurice is my favorite and it's only the first show...I'm gonna call him - Mighty Moe!

I was wondering though...how many days was it from the start till the eviction weigh in...was it a solid week? Twenty pounds is a lot to lose in a week.

Lilfair
Member

07-09-2003

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 6:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nick, I assumed it was a solid week, seven days. I too, thought anything over 10 lbs was a lot. Most of this kind of weight loss is water, right?

I wonder if 10lbs a week will continue?

Was there any talk of goal weights, anyone know?

Nickovtyme
Member

07-29-2004

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I suppose with water loss...twenty pounds doesn't seem too impossible; but, does that mean the people that lost few pounds, lost mass?

I was surprised that Mighty Moe only lost thirteen pounds; whereas, Italian guy..(I can't remember their names...he may not have been Italian...but he looked it) lost twenty.

And Dana...she only needed to lose fifteen more pounds to be in ideal shape for a woman her size. She couldn't possibly have stayed much longer or she would have ended up looking anorexic. She stated that she wanted to weight 130lbs...she had lost five by tonight's show...she would have wasted away. I thought it was a good decision to evict her.

As far as anybody else...I never heard anybody else mention what their goal was...maybe that will come later in the show.

Biggest Loser = Big Brother + Survivor + Cold Turkey in one little neatly wrapped package.

Autumn
Member

10-29-2003

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
That seemed like a lot to lose in a week as well but that one trainer was really pushing them! Wow! (and I felt bad for the lady who had the mini-breakdown: crying and asking if they were doing their food journals/was she getting enough to eat.)

I wasn't sure why they voted that girl off because I thought the other lady had lost even less. ???

Nickovtyme
Member

07-29-2004

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dana lost 5, Andrea lost 6 and Latino girl only lost 3...but she was on the other team...so she didn't have to worry about getting voted out.

Autumn
Member

10-29-2003

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:24 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ty Nick, for some reason I had the "3" stuck in my head.

Pennykandy
Member

08-05-2004

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I taped it but thought it was only an hour, so I missed the last 30 minutes. So which team lost?

Lilfair
Member

07-09-2003

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Blue team with the guy trainer ended up losing even though they won the car pull race, which won them a bag of lard weighing 5 lbs that was added onto the red teams weight.

Snoopsmom
Member

02-19-2003

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:39 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Overall I liked the show and will watch it again. Thought it was good that they are promoting good eating habits and exercise. At the beginning of the show it seemed a bit exploitive, but these people signed up for it, so not a big deal.
A few things bothered me:
1. Huge weight loss like that, even in the first week, is not healthy weight loss.
2. The cheesy "time to cut the fat" line and the revealing of the votes on silver food platters seemed very Joe Schmoe. Seems like NBC can't do a reality show without being cheesy (For Love or Money, Average Joe come to mind.)
3. Choosing the winning team based on pounds lost really isn't a fair way to do it. People lose weight at different rates for a number of reasons - age, sex, metabolism, amount needed to lose overall. A more fair way would be to measure BMI for body fat loss, but then you would lose the drama. I know from my own experience when dieting, I am not a big first week loser but tend to lose more the second week.

Scorpiomoon
Member

06-06-2002

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 7:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Huge weight loss like that, even in the first week, is not healthy weight loss.

That is absolutely not true. If these people were eating 2500-3000 calories a day and not exercising and then, within a week ate 1600 calories a day and were working out, losing a large amount of weight isn't unhealthy it is inevitable.

Some aspects of this show are absolutely inane--from the elimination room with the fridges to the lame challenges. But the stuff in between is compelling to watch.

Yankee_in_ca
Member

08-01-2000

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 8:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
For anyone in Canada ... I wonder how similar this is to "Taking It Off"? Sure seems similar from the descriptions.