The Biggest Loser - Couples

Seems like just a few weeks ago we had The Biggest Loser finale, and now here we are already again, starting off a new season. I guess we can thank the ongoing television writers' strike for that, but I for one hope they stick to their guns and hold out for a fairer distribution of the wealth. Did you know writers only make 4¢ for each DVD sold of their movies? So, for example, when Pirates of the Caribbean did 5 million dollars in business on the first day of its DVD release, the two writers took home an astounding $6,700 in royalties and they had to split it between the two of them. So from the five million dollars in sales and rentals, the writers got $3, 350 each while the producers and the video stores that wouldn't even have a product to put in theaters or to rent without writers and their ideas, well, they got millions. I would say that is a way lop-sided distribution of the profits but the producers are determined to keep it that way.

But anyway, the strike means more reality programming because reality writers are not covered by the WGA contract, another thing producers DON'T want. So we get our next season of The Biggest Loser speeded up and delivered to us in double time.

This season features 10 "couples." Some of the pairs are married, one is divorced but still friendly, there's a mother-daughter couple, a mother-son, and a father-daughter, plus two brothers, two former football teammates, two fat camp counselors who were shamed into applying for the show and two strangers, a young woman and a young man who were randomly selected and paired.

Even though it was the usual two-hour season opener, for some reason it felt rushed and I didn't feel like I got to know much about the contestants. Of course, it didn't help that my phone kept ringing, either, so maybe I missed stuff that would have made me feel like I knew the people better. There are 20 contestants instead of the usual 12 or 15, and that's a lot of folks to keep up with.

For the first challenge the couples had to race up a hill, touch a flag pole and race back down. They chose their trainer by crossing the finish line into that trainer's camp. This year it's back to Bob Harper and Jillian Matthews, the original two trainers from season one. Most of the people chose Jillian so poor Bob was left standing there with only 2 couples while Jillian was almost instantly up to her limit of 5 couples. The three couples who came straggling in weren't not all exactly happy about being on Bob's team instead of Jillian's. But I tell you, if I had a choice I would take Bob. I think Jillian is a terrific trainer and you can't argue with her results. But she and I would not get along one-on-one.

Jillian was kind of making fun of Bob saying people think he is nurturing but he's really a monster. But the fact is, he comes across as emotionally nurturing, and he takes care of his team's emotions almost as well as he takes care of their training. Now Jillian does deliver a bit of encouragement, a few pep talks here and there, but her style is mostly loud screaming and humiliation. That works well for a lot of people; it wouldn't work for me. I don't mind watching it; I couldn't bear to live it.

Sure enough, one of the couples that chose Jillian went into full tilt rebellion after the first workout. The wife did fine, but the husband was rolling around on the floor whining and crying like a baby, saying it was too hard. But the worst was the father on the father-daughter team. He refused to work out and went and took a nap instead. Of course, being a man, he still managed to lose double digits, then made fun of his hard-working daughter for only losing 7 pounds.

7 POUNDS! I would be thrilled with that. In 90 days of walking on my treadmill I only lost 5 pounds, so 7 pounds seems like a lot. Anyway, that's the team that was voted off, because the father had a negative attitude and was nasty to his daughter. I was so happy to see she kept it up and changed her habits for the better once she went home. She's now enlisted her friends to support her weight loss efforts as her father wasn't interested in helping either her or himself. She's lost another 14 pounds since she's been home for a total of 20 pounds shed. Her father has only lost 4 pounds, also for a total of 20 pounds lost. But considering he lost 16 pounds in his week on the show and only 4 pounds since coming home, I think it's pretty clear he doesn't take the thing seriously enough even though he's pushing 400 pounds.

Jillian said something really funny about not liking the set-up of this year's competition with the couples, because the arrangement allowed contestants to bring their "fat enabler" with them to the campus. She thinks it will be much tougher for her and Bob to keep the contestants on the program since they've all got their fat buddies there to keep them company and help them think up excuses. In fact, on the previews for next week, there was even a funny hint about Jillian and Bob becoming a training "couple," so they could keep their workout couples in line and on track.

It's a little too soon to pick favorites but I like the interactions between the man and woman on the team picked at random. They did well this week. And the mother-daughter team is interesting to watch, but the mom's so prone to hysteria (and daughter is not far behind) that I think they won't last long, but who knows?

Planet Fat Cat
No longer XL; now just L
Yay!