The Biggest Loser-Couples: The Scales Have Tipped!
When this season began, we were really looking forward to writing this blog. Being fans of this show from the beginning, we were interested to see how the couples would fare, how their relationships would impact their weight loss, how the interactions and interpersonal issues would get dealt with and resolved in the house. We even for the most part liked the contestants and as with every season, we had our favorites and were cheering them on, as they struggled through their intense workouts and challenges.
But beginning last week, The Biggest Loser took a turn and last night that turn went entirely in the wrong direction.
Perhaps because no one knows how to fill two hours each week (this show was decidedly better when it was an hour), or perhaps because the reality show competition is more heated than ever, or perhaps the producers actually no longer care at all about these contestants and their struggles. But whatever the reasons, The Biggest Loser has crossed a serious line and broken a trust not only with the contestants, but with the audience as well.
Last night the show began with Bob and Jillian being pitted against each other in a challenge - running up and down an escalator ten times. The first person to do it would win something, what that something was no one knew.
Surprisingly (especially for those of us who think of Jillian as being able to kick anyone's butt) Bob won the challenge quite handily, but his reward was to choose what would become his blue team for the rest of the competition. This meant that the contestants were once again in a position to be "chosen" or "left behind." Reluctantly, Bob made his choices, and each one had consequences. Jillian, showing more emotion this season than in the past, wept as favorite people, with whom she trained from the beginning, were handed blue tee shirts. The "leftovers" were given black shirts and they became team Jillian.
In the past, it was preferable to work with Jillian. But either because Bob won the challenge, or because this season Bob has stepped up his game and become more strategic and successful, Bob was the trainer to get, so the black team felt like second class citizens. One team in particular, Bernie and Brittany - the two who did not know each other at all when this began - were especially demoralized by Bob's choices; they had felt very close to Bob and they were crushed when they did not get chosen.
Jillian worked hard to inspire her team and tried to make them work as a cohesive group, but their emotions - expressed mostly as disappointment and despair - impacted greatly their performance, both in the challenge and the weigh-in. Jillian's black team lost, and then it was announced that rather than eliminating a "team" as in past weeks, they would now vote off an individual, thus breaking up a team and leaving someone on their own.
It was a striking, depressing, disillusioning weigh-in, with dismal results for the black team. Not only did very few of them lose weight of any significance, Kelly lost none and Paul, who only last week felt like his old warrior self, actually gained three pounds.
So what happened?
Emotional upheaval, that's what. And not the kind that might naturally occur in circumstances that are already contrived to say the least. But the kind that comes from a group of earnest, hard-working people, struggling with their demons, being manipulated by producers more interested in contrived drama than in people getting healthy and achieving their goals. And it was a sad night for us all.
It was not weight that was lost, but principles. And the victims were the contestants, who surely signed on for quite a different experience.
As the producers go about sabotaging these contestants, we are left watching these poor people struggle with more than their weight loss - they are struggling against the twists and turns of a reality show run amok. And this was one show where the central goal was the drama. Even Jillian and Bob seem confused and unhappy about the show's ever-shifting rules and the ways in which even they are being manipulated for dramatic effect.
The Biggest Loser - Couples proved two things last night:
(c) NBC Universal.
Related Topics:
But beginning last week, The Biggest Loser took a turn and last night that turn went entirely in the wrong direction.
Perhaps because no one knows how to fill two hours each week (this show was decidedly better when it was an hour), or perhaps because the reality show competition is more heated than ever, or perhaps the producers actually no longer care at all about these contestants and their struggles. But whatever the reasons, The Biggest Loser has crossed a serious line and broken a trust not only with the contestants, but with the audience as well.
Surprisingly (especially for those of us who think of Jillian as being able to kick anyone's butt) Bob won the challenge quite handily, but his reward was to choose what would become his blue team for the rest of the competition. This meant that the contestants were once again in a position to be "chosen" or "left behind." Reluctantly, Bob made his choices, and each one had consequences. Jillian, showing more emotion this season than in the past, wept as favorite people, with whom she trained from the beginning, were handed blue tee shirts. The "leftovers" were given black shirts and they became team Jillian.
In the past, it was preferable to work with Jillian. But either because Bob won the challenge, or because this season Bob has stepped up his game and become more strategic and successful, Bob was the trainer to get, so the black team felt like second class citizens. One team in particular, Bernie and Brittany - the two who did not know each other at all when this began - were especially demoralized by Bob's choices; they had felt very close to Bob and they were crushed when they did not get chosen.
Jillian worked hard to inspire her team and tried to make them work as a cohesive group, but their emotions - expressed mostly as disappointment and despair - impacted greatly their performance, both in the challenge and the weigh-in. Jillian's black team lost, and then it was announced that rather than eliminating a "team" as in past weeks, they would now vote off an individual, thus breaking up a team and leaving someone on their own.
It was a striking, depressing, disillusioning weigh-in, with dismal results for the black team. Not only did very few of them lose weight of any significance, Kelly lost none and Paul, who only last week felt like his old warrior self, actually gained three pounds.
So what happened?
Emotional upheaval, that's what. And not the kind that might naturally occur in circumstances that are already contrived to say the least. But the kind that comes from a group of earnest, hard-working people, struggling with their demons, being manipulated by producers more interested in contrived drama than in people getting healthy and achieving their goals. And it was a sad night for us all.
It was not weight that was lost, but principles. And the victims were the contestants, who surely signed on for quite a different experience.
As the producers go about sabotaging these contestants, we are left watching these poor people struggle with more than their weight loss - they are struggling against the twists and turns of a reality show run amok. And this was one show where the central goal was the drama. Even Jillian and Bob seem confused and unhappy about the show's ever-shifting rules and the ways in which even they are being manipulated for dramatic effect.
The Biggest Loser - Couples proved two things last night:
- One--it really is mind over matter - when you're miserable, no matter how hard you work out, you're not likely to lose weight.
- And, two, television producers and networks are willing to sacrifice anything - even people's emotional well being - for the appearance of drama.
(c) NBC Universal.
Related Topics:
- WebMD Video: Emotional Pain Feeds Many Obesity Problems
- WebMD Video: Tips to Overcome Emotional Eating
1 Comments:
What a total shame that we are now seeing with "The Biggest Loser" what has happened to so many other well-meaning tv shows: success leading to exploitation. This show gets strong ratings (which could explain the unfortunate 2-hour situation), and so of course, instead of keeping it the same, inspirational, enjoyable show that it has previously been, the producers and higher-ups at NBC decided to inject angst and drama to keep their audiences coming back for more.
But the contestants on this show are real people, with real feelings and struggles and battles, and to see them being torn up emotionally is disturbing to say the least.
I will never understand why tv producers make the same mistake over and over again: they think that viewers want new and jazzier and different, but really viewers want quality television, consistency, and not to be left with the feeling that they are being totally manipulated.
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