I’m A Loser Baby, So Why Don’t Ya Kill Me?

Ya know, for someone who really hates reality TV, I seem to have watched a lot of it lately. Have you seen “The Biggest Loser?” Here’s the long and short of it…

Two teams, one male, one female. Each member of the team is overweight. Obese, in fact. The members signed up to change their lifestyle with coaches, personal trainers and nutritionists. Every week there is a weigh in and whichever team wins gets something; phone calls home, etc. The weight lost is measured in percentages so the male/female weight losses are fair.

As with any good reality TV based show with teams, someone gets voted off the island, er, fat farm. Last night, when the voting began, I was struck by the two different personalities of voters on the men’s team: compassionate and jerk.

The first man to vote said, “Seth, you’re the youngest here, you’ve consistently lost weight, you’ve showed discipline. I think you’ll have the most success in the real world trying to reach your weight loss goals.” I thought that was sweet-voting him off the fat farm because they know he’ll succeed anyway. However, the next men to vote were the typical jerks with the typical reasons: Nick, you didn’t lose weight like you said, Bob you lost four lbs., but you should have lost 10, you’re the weakest link. That sorta stuff.
This is one of the very few shows I’ve come across that is actually healthy, has a realistic end and does NOT make the person voted off feel like a big idiot. It’s doubtful I’ll ever watch this show again, but for the one time I did, it gave me a bit of a new perspective on people.