I really don’t know how to work my TV remote. I have no idea what stations are what (remember when ABC used to be channel 5?) and I’m very glad Keith is in charge. So when he went upstairs last night to help the kid go to sleep and left the TV on, I just watched the channel that was on.
I’ve never seen The Biggest Loser before (I really don’t watch reality TV), but I’ll just say it: it’s good TV. I laughed, I cried, I gasped and pretty much just stared with rapt attention at the pretty lights emanating from the big flat box in my entertainment armoire.
The workouts are awesome. I get tickled at myself when I do a six-mile bike trail near my house and these people did a 26-mile stationary bike ride, when they are so physically disadvantaged. Good for them. I’ve seriously never seen the likes of that kind of sweat pouring off me, and I never want to work that hard, but I’m in awe of the motivation these incredible people have.
That doesn’t take away from the funny, though. Dude, a woman fell off the treadmill (who hasn’t?). The twisted sense of humor I have worked so many years to cultivate loves to watch people fall. Speaking of twisted, presenting the votes on dinner plates is a stroke of genius.
I even love that Alison Sweeney hosts, because she’s fought the chubby battle most of her life (as a former die-hard Days of Our Lives fan, I can really attest to this) and has won it … she’s the perfect role model for the contestants.
I’m so freaking proud of James, the contestant (the twin!) who got eliminated first, because he went on to lose 100 pounds in the two months since he got the boot … if he can do that, what kind of results must the contestants have? Forgive my Biggest Loser virginity….
I probably won’t watch The Biggest Loser regularly, for the same reasons I don’t watch Extreme Home Makeover. If I want to cry every week, I’ll replay the video of my kid singing “Twinkle, Twinkle” when he was two, or look at pictures of my beloved German Shepherd that passed this May. I need my TV to entertain me and make me laugh. So maybe I’ll tune into the falling off the treadmill parts.
One last thing — Am I the only one a little afraid that someone’s going to die of a massive coronary before the series ends?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jan 05, 2010 @ 22:29 EST5EDT
I’m a regular viewer of the show, and some people have come close to buying the farm in the past couple of seasons. I admit, I do laugh when someone flies off of a treadmill when I know it’s just wrong. But the show and their Pound for Pound Challenge actually motivated me to drop 30 pounds, helping myself and others by the time the process was over. The show gets a lot of flack but I do find it inspiring (and I just got the Biggest Loser Wii program). It’s a good show.
And did you know Caroline Rea actually hosted the first couple of seasons specifically for her slightly chunky shape because a traditional, super-thin TV host would have been too threatening to the contestants, but was then fired because she got too big!
*POST AUTHOR*
I love that it motivates other people too — awesome! I can’t imagine why it gets flack. Some people will never know what it is like to be that big, and I mean me (I promise to here on out stop bemoaning the extra five pounds I’m carrying and either do something about it or resign myself to being in-between sizes forever), and it was so good for me to hear the sad stories of these people and to cry along with them. I honestly have never tried to identify with someone that overweight and it’s good for all of us to become better people. Really.