Reality TV is always hit or miss, but back in the 2000s, when skinniness was in and obesity was just a soft target, producer Dave Broome had a lightbulb moment when he was at his local gym. He saw a sign where an obese man was asking for a trainer to “save his life,” and this gave him the idea of starting a survival-esque show where people lost weight on television to compete for 250,000 dollars. This became the superhit reality show “The Biggest Loser.” Let’s assume the intentions were genuinely good, but at the end of the day, this is television, and no matter what, it is for entertainment and scandal, which is exactly what “The Biggest Loser” became. The show begins with a woman, in public, introducing herself in a bikini to get the attention of the producers of the show, screaming, “I want to be on The Biggest Loser.” But I suppose this is one of the tamer things we see on the show.
Winning the Lottery
Fit For TV episode 1 begins with an intro by Danny Cahill, winner of season 8 of “The Biggest Loser.” Danny lost 239 pounds in a little over 6 months at the time and became the champion. But how did this affect him later on? In the present day, we see Danny sitting in a chair, and the camera zooms out to show us how he’s returned to his old state. The whole point of the show was to motivate people to lose weight the regular way, exercising and fixing their diet. Next comes Ryan Benson, winner of season 1. While Danny was a regular family man, Ryan was an actor who had gained weight and lost work in the process over time. Ryan wondered to himself if he really needed to go on a show to lose weight, but apparently, he did.
The two trainers were Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. Let me tell you early on, Jillian never shows up in the documentary. We transition from Ryan talking to the camera, to Jillian and Bob screaming into people’s faces to lose weight. One of the producers, JD Roth, talks about how Jillian used to be intimidating to him at the time. I can only imagine how bad it was for the contestants. As you can imagine, the whole point of the show was spectacle, so the biggest transformation would mean the highest TV ratings. Up front, it looked like these people were working hard every day to get fit, but in truth, they were pushing themselves way over the limit. Ryan wasn’t even eating and drinking by the end of his season, leaving him peeing blood because of severe dehydration.
We then see Bob, the personal trainer that all of America was obsessed with. Before “The Biggest Loser,” the man was training only fit celebrities, pushing them to get hotter. But this was something entirely different for him, a “wake-up call,” as he calls it. Another person on the show is Aubrey Gordon, an author and co-host of the “Maintenance Phase” podcast. She brings in the perspective of how fat people are treated for simply existing. Nothing will work out for you if you don’t lose weight, thinness is what makes you a better person. As you can imagine, the show catapulted Bob and Jillian to fame, but it also made the contestants quite famous.
We’re then introduced to Joelle Gwynn, a contestant from season 7 who was basically made the villain of her season. Joelle’s perspective is that of a Black woman on the show and how her identity made people see her and treat her differently. Joelle was on a season where there had to be two people coming in together, and she and her friend, Carla, made a video where they wore shiny silver pants to grab the producers’ attention, which worked. At the same time, we’re introduced to Tracey Yukich, a woman, who was struggling with a cheating husband. All she really wanted was to get fit for her kids and to show people that she was worthy of love again. And finally, there’s Alison Sweeney, host of seasons 4-16.
Carla and Joelle were picked by Bob as his team. Joelle talks about how they needed to burn a minimum of 6000 calories a day. I think I’d struggle burning that much in a week. At the same time, there were contracts they had to sign in isolation before the show that said even if they died, they wouldn’t hold the show runners responsible, of course. But to make matters even worse, there were games like “temptation” on the show, where contestants were meant to eat the “most” calories in five minutes off of a table full of food to get special treatment on the show. How can anyone imagine this is healthy? The thing that most irks me is that everything was set up to be embarrassing or to make people look bad for sure. Finally, at the end of episode 1, we’re introduced to Rob Huizenga, or Dr. H, the consulting doctor on the show. Immediately, he talks about how a lot of stuff was never discussed with him and how, as seasons went by, the starting weights of the contestants went so high up that they wouldn’t be able to exercise. The first episode ends with Tracey nearly dying after running on a beach to qualify for her season.
Hunger Games
In Fit For TV episode 2, we’re introduced to Dr. H, who was the youngest doctor to ever work in the NFL at the time. Dr. H talked about how exercising is something that would decrease appetite naturally. So the thing really was, the show wanted overweight people to work out with the intensity of professional athletes. Now, when it came to Tracey, she had rhabdomyolysis, a fatal condition that essentially stops your muscles from working altogether. But this somehow motivated Tracey to be on the show even more. She just wanted to prove to everybody that she could do it. It was Dr. H who acted as her therapist and guide. Danny talks about how he started eating 800 calories while burning 6-8000 calories a day. Dr. H and the trainers often clashed with each other. Honestly, Bob talking about a god complex made me wonder if he had the problem himself, eh?
We then move on to the fact that Jillian gave the contestants caffeine pills called stackers, which were a drug at the end of the day. On the other hand, we then see how Tracey was very close to Dr. H, who cared for and took care of her, but nobody on the show agreed with this and wanted to see her fail. We’re then introduced to Olivia Ward, winner of season 11, and Hannah Young, runner-up of the same season. While Olivia wanted to lose weight to achieve her goal of becoming an opera singer, Hannah gained weight after a massive injury, changing her life forever. The thing here is that Olivia and Hannah both went into the show relatively thinner than the rest of the contestants, so Roth wondered why it would be interesting to watch them, but Olivia told him that they were representing most of America, who were in the same position as her.
“The Biggest Loser” never focused on mental health or the effects of these crazy workouts on the contestants. No, instead Bob and Jillian acted as makeshift therapists, and we can all imagine how that turned out. Joelle had the worst time with Bob and Jillian. She was mistreated, berated, and humiliated in front of everybody. This wasn’t motivation; it was just insults. She was even injured during the show. The other thing was that Joelle was pitted against her own friend, Carla, to make for good TV. Ultimately, they got eliminated, and Joelle was disliked by most of the contestants for her “difficult” attitude. She felt that they wanted her to be the “angry Black female character.”
When Tracey was eliminated, she had to take a helicopter again (after the beach incident) because it was traumatic for her. But when she got home, it was a moment of pride for her and her family. But unfortunately (or fortunately), Tracey’s marriage was definitely over by the time she was done with the show. Episode 2 ends with sisters Olivia and Hannah going around the country as a motivational duo. They became the poster children for the show, which then made the show much bigger. Spinoffs, magazine covers, and brand deals—so you can imagine there was a lot of money there. So, as Bob states, “They’re going to come for you” if you get big, and that is what happened. Jillian was ultimately called out for giving her team drugs, and the whole thing blew up.
Tipping the Scale
At the end of episode 2, we’re introduced to Suzanne Mendonca, another contestant from season 2. Episode 3 begins with a warning that says that this show is for entertainment purposes and you need to go to a doctor for medical advice. I wonder if a documentary like this one could really impact anybody, but okay. Suzie was a cop who worked during 9/11, but as the only woman among her peers, she was insulted, and none of the men wanted to work with her. But to make matters worse, there was an incident that left Suzie broken and gaining weight because of her many injuries. Suzanne had already started working hard on getting healthy before the show, but the producers made her gain weight if she wanted to make it on the show, and she did.
Tracey was on Jay Leno after her elimination from the show because there was so much hate for her, despite her having nearly died just before starting out. Somehow, the show painted her as the big villain of the season, and this took a massive toll on her because she’s still just a regular human, but people were literally sending her death threats. We’re then introduced to Dr. Jen Kerns, a former contestant and medical advisor. Jen worried that, as a medical professional, if people saw her as obese, as someone who couldn’t take care of herself, how would she take care of them? She had a great experience on the show and then became an assistant to Dr. H. She talks about how H wanted to keep things safe, but the producers only cared about good TV.
Danny had the chance to go on a TV doctor show, where he got to get the excess skin on his body removed after the weight loss. The contestants went from being shirtless to wearing long tank tops in the latter half of the show because of what happened to their skin. But his “success” was short-lived. It turns out, they all started gaining weight again because their metabolism was permanently damaged. According to the NYTimes, the contestants had a “metabolic adaptation.” Suzanne was gaining weight back instantly after the show, so she became an entirely different person. She became obsessed with weight and developed an eating disorder. The academy class even humiliated her by weighing her in front of all 300 men (disgusting).
Apparently, since it was a TV show, it didn’t make sense for them to provide people with “aftercare,” which Danny was desperate for. Joelle and Suzanne spoke to the New York Post, which really blew up. But Joelle says that what she said was taken out of context, and it made it seem like she was given drugs to lose weight. During season 15, Rachel Frederickson and a bunch of the alumni were on the show, but when Rachel came out, it shocked even Bob and Jillian. Finally, it seemed people realized the real problem of the show. With everything coming at the same time, after 17 seasons, the show finally ended, and then Bob, the “healthy” trainer, had a heart attack. And apparently, Jillian never contacted him again after his heart attack.
At the end of Fit For TV episode 3, we see Tracey and Dr. H having run a marathon, still pretty close and healthy. Dr. Dhruv talks about how if the show aired today, we’d just be seeing people inject themselves, and this is where it turns into an ad for Ozempic. Joelle and Suzanne talk about how it worked for them, but Danny says it’s something he’d never try. Dave then admits that if he were going to make the show now, he’d run it without putting a price on it, because it’s all about saving lives. Danny seems to be eager to work on himself now. Meanwhile, Olivia and Hannah claim the show is the best thing that has happened to them. Tracey is happy and healthy now, married to someone else, and together with her family. She’s now happy to cheer for herself. She claims she changed her life.
