Given that the newest season of The Biggest Loser started last night and there are so many fatties out there (myself included, by the way) who watch this show like it is the best show on television, I thought I’d offer some comments regarding the last season of the show. Season 12 of The Biggest Loser started in September 2011 and ended a few months later in December 2011. It was the first season of the show that I watched and was totally underwhelmed with – on all fronts. Here are some of my quick thoughts on the last season of The Biggest Loser on NBC:
- Anna Kournikova. Talk about a huge letdown to all the red-blooded men out there. Here is one of the most beautiful female athletes in the world and she didn’t know the first thing about training other people. As one of the many red-blooded men out there who was so put off by Kournikova’s inability to train her contestants that I began to resent her beautiful self being on the show, I’m glad that the folks at NBC learned their lesson and didn’t invite her back for the new season.
- Dolvett Quince just doesn’t “get it.” It’s hard to explain, but when you watch Bob Harper or Jillian Michaels train their contestants you are actually watching them make a connection with these people. Dolvett didn’t seem to “get” that last season. And it showed, too. You see, the problem with most of the people on the ranch isn’t that they eat too much or don’t workout nearly enough. The problem is that they are hiding from something or running away from something deep down inside that they don’t want to confront. There’s an inner fear there that they don’t want to face – an inner fear that they can’t succeed or they won’t succeed or whatever. Dolvett didn’t “get” that aspect of the show. He just thought his job was to be a typical trainer, but to do that job better than Bob. I can’t believe they brought him back for the new season.
- John Rhodes hurt The Biggest Loser brand. Most people go on The Biggest Loser because they hope for better things for themselves and their families. Other people go on the show because they want to prove something to themselves or to someone else. Yet there are a small percentage of people who get on the show and want to play the game first and then worry about their health second. John may have won last season and wound up as the biggest loser at the finale, but he was a complete jerk during his time on the ranch. He threw Sunny under the bus and when the only person with any integrity called him on it (Antone Davis), John turned into a big, stupid child and grew bitter towards Antone. This is an asshole who stood on the scale during the penultimate episode of the season and barked at Antone – a former NFL player – that he was going to beat him. The man has no class and few redeeming qualities as a player of this game and he hurt The Biggest Loser brand. In fact, he hurt the brand almost as much as…
- Bonnie Griffin. Don’t get me wrong – I think that John Rhodes did significant damage to The Biggest Loser brand and whoever cast him on the show should really be held to task. However, there is no question about the fact that Bonnie Griffin is the worst contestant in the history of the show. Period. No questions asked. This is a woman who celebrated losing four pounds after the first week and three pounds after the second week. She was a disgrace. Her presence on the show was a slap in the face to all of the applicants who didn’t make it on the show. There are people out there who need to be on the show for their health and yet Bonnie was given a spot on the show because she’s an old lady. Nothing turned my stomach more last season than watching Bonnie stay on the ranch week after week when she clearly was out of her league and didn’t belong there. The only thing that came nearly as close to turning my stomach as watching Bonnie’s weekly “struggle” was…
- Johnny Forger. Thank God this guy was eliminated early on. If there is a classic definition of someone who is a “creeper,” then this is the guy. I don’t know what the casting director was going for with Season 12 of The Biggest Loser, but if this guy walked into my casting room the very first thing I would do is hide the women and children. He’s just creepy. And yes – I understand that The Biggest Loser doesn’t have casting calls but, instead, has applicants submit their tapes. I would have taken Johnny’s tape and sent it right to the local authorities. He just creeps the hell out of me and he should never have been on the show.
- Antone Davis. One of the biggest issues that I had with the last season of the show was that they didn’t focus on Antone nearly enough until later in the season. He was the only contestant that had any integrity and was able to confront his fears and his inner demons and defeat them. He was on the ranch for the right reasons and he made the show worth watching in the last few weeks. But prior to the last few weeks – no one really knew his story because the show was so poorly put together. Just a bad job overall by the team at NBC.
- No rallying points. Other than Antone’s story, there were really no rallying points for the fans to get behind. In Season 11 you had the mothers who selflessly sacrificed their time on the ranch to make sure that their kids stayed there. I’ve never seen a stronger, more devoted group of people than those mothers – they defined what a parent should be on that show and they were the models of integrity. And what made their sacrifices more touching was that they sacrificed themselves for other people’s kids! Lord knows that John – the selfish, ignorant winner from last season – would have thrown all of those kids under the bus and tried to get them off the ranch. Who wants to watch that?
The reason why I decided to post this entry the day after the first episode of the new season of The Biggest Loser is because while I watched the show last night, I actually turned it off midway through the episode. NBC is bringing this franchise dangerously close to jumping the shark (i.e. becoming totally irrelevant). It’s a damn shame, too.
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