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Article Series: Weight Loss & Dieting
How Do I Really Lose Weight?
Why
Is The Biggest Loser So Popular?
The object of this ironically-named NBC reality
TV game show is to lose the most amount of weight in
the allotted time frame, thereby making him or her The Biggest Loser, in
all the right places and all the right ways. First prize: $25,000
and priceless personal satisfaction!
First broadcast in the 2004 fall season, the show pits several
contestants (12 the first year, 14 the next, and 50 in Season
3) against one another in a variety of diet and exercise related
competitions.
The first 3 seasons, The Biggest Loser was hosted by Caroline
Rhea, a Canadian comedian best know to American audiences as
Aunt Hilda from ABC TV’s Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Rhea was
replaced as host of The Biggest Loser in season 4 by Alison
Sweeney, made famous by her role on the popular NBC soap opera
Days of Our Lives.
The show is narrated by its creator and executive director,
J.D. Roth, whose first go at adult reality TV was as host of
FOX show Unan1mous.
At the start of a season of The Biggest Loser, the contestants
are divided into teams, only competing as individuals towards
the end of the season when the playing field has been considerably
whittled down. Each team is assigned a personal trainer to
support and monitor the contestants’ progress.
Each
episode of the show covers a time span of a week, and is
structured the same basic way:
1.
Temptation – In preparation for the week, contestants
are presented with a temptation, something that would defeat
their
efforts to lose weight. The catch is: giving in to the temptation
results in rewards (sometimes kept secret, sometimes revealed
up front) that may make succumbing prove worthwhile. This
part of the game emphasizes the importance of making the
right personal
choices for oneself.
2.
Rewards Challenge – Teams compete to win a prize.
Often these are athletic (or at least active, exercise-based)
competitions, that benefit all participants in their weight
loss objectives
whether they get to savor the fruits of victory or not.
3.
Weigh-In – All the contestants are weighed to determine
who lost the least (which team, while in team play; which
individual once the teams are dissolved)
4.
Vote – The team with the lowest percentage of weight
lost votes one of its members out. At the finale, once
the competition
is narrowed down to two contestants, the percentage
who lost the most weight and percentage body fat wins and
is crowned::
The Biggest Loser. Unfortunately, The Biggest Loser suffers from the same dramatic
flaws that plague most supposedly performance-based reality
game shows (like Survivor and The Apprentice) where contestants
can be voted off for being “too good” as easy as they can for
not shaping up. And still others get voted out because their
not part of the strongest alliance, a modern spin on the same
old popularity contest. Being a television show, of course,
it’s job to get ratings and keep advertisers happy, the push
for drama at the expense of progress is understandable, but
disheartening nonetheless.
Still, the formula must be working, because while initially
a U.S. show, The Biggest Loser has now become a worldwide phenomenon
and a global franchise, with 2 seasons under its belt in Australia,
2 in the U.K., 4 in the Netherlands, and 1 season each in Brazil,
Israel, and India.
Why
is The Biggest Loser so popular? Easy: because people
everywhere are concerned about their weight, and knowing that
it’s possible for them to lose it if they put their minds to
it, and seeing it happen before their eyes to other people,
provides the kind of encouragement and support you can’t get
anywhere else but in a global village. With that kind of strength,
guidance, and encouragement behind you, anyone can be inspired
to finally do what it takes to shed those unwanted pounds.
Kudos to NBC and The Biggest Loser, for lighting a torch and
leading the way. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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