Why They Are All the "Biggest Loser"

In a previous post, I tried to justify why I watch The Biggest Loser. I'm not proud of it, but my basic argument was that shows like The Biggest Loser are really just modern game shows; they're not as fundamentally despicable as the traditional reality shows like The Bachelor and The Real World. This is one of those moments where I demonstrate to everyone why this blog is called The Loaded Diaper. Because I was full of crap. I was rationalizing a TV habit that I'm not proud of.

Well friends, admitting that you have a problem is the first step in the recovery process, right? This week, after watching the most recent episode of The Biggest Loser, I've finally admitted that this show is not a game show. It's not a contest. It's not an uplifiting story of personal struggle or of overcoming obstacles. Let's be honest. Shows like The Biggest Loser, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Tough Love, and others that add an element of competition to the traditional reality show model have not improved the format. They haven't even changed the format. The Biggest Loser and its ilk have only made TV, and frankly our culture, less rich.

I know, I know ... this isn't funny. But who else is going to tell you that your habit of watching reality TV is strangling your ability to grow as a human? Huh? No one, that's who.

What made me change my mind? Here it is: I watched a complete episode of The Biggest Loser without fast-forwarding through the melodramatic parts, testing myself. If you watch the show, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Examples: Jillian or Bob "decide" that one of the participants is having a rough day in the gym, take this person outside, then poke and prod the contestant into an emotional breakdown - complete with synthesized heart-string progression chord muzak in the background; or how about the tear-streaked appeals when the contestants have to make their case every week that they should be able to stay at the ranch; or my personal favorite, the voice-over commentary from the participants describing every moment of a workout while trying to wring maximum drama out of problems that everyone faces on a daily basis. I usually fast-forward through this eye-rolling garbage, but I thought I'd try to endure the full-press Biggest Loser treatment this week.

Frankly, I was disgusted. I knew it was bad, but I don't think I truly appreciated how badly contrived and exploitative these shows are. I used to think The Learning Channel was TV's answer to the early 20th Century freak show, but I realize now it is actually NBC.

This week on The Biggest Loser, the show's producers brought back 2 previous winners to speak to the final 5 participants. If you ever bought into the illusion that this show actually helps people, this week your hopes were dashed. One of the returning winners has obviously worked hard and kept a lot of her weight off. The other returning winner gained almost all of his 217 pounds back, and was going through another cycle of workout/starvation to try and lose it again. It should be obvious there's a problem if you can't find two previous winners out of nine seasons that have managed to keep the weight off. Reality check: statistically, almost all of the contestants on this show will gain most, if not all, of their weight back when they leave the controlled environment of the ranch. This show isn't helping people, it's merely aggrandizing the exploitation of people who need serious long-term care.

Please, people! Can we decide as an enlightened culture that we no longer need to revel in the misery of others to find our entertainment? Haven't we evolved beyond gladiatorial displays of competition that eat away at our sense of community? All of the contestants on this show have lost, and so have we for watching. I, for one, have seen my last episode of The Biggest Loser.

Remember that anti-littering commercial with the Native American shaman who sheds a single tear when he sees a discarded plastic bottle on the roadside? After that, I felt guilty about shedding skin cells in public. We need another one of those campaigns ... maybe with Thomas Jefferson or Martin Luther King, Jr. packing up and moving to Canada after watching an episode of The Bachelorette.

P.S. -

Erica Durance, I love you.