In a very length press release found on the ebroadcast site, the weekly schedule for season 3 has been laid out in some detail.

If you’d like to read the whole thing, you can click here, or I can save you the trouble and point you to the only really noteworthy section.

Tuesday: The Warehouse

The Warehouse is one of the new elements to this series. Each week the contestants are faced with two different food choices in two covered crates in an old shipping warehouse. This week’s Biggest Loser is able to have first choice over the two food options. This choice will dictate the majority of what each team will eat for the rest of the week. It is a decision that should not to be taken lightly.

This is more than a little troubling, to be honest. It’s all very well to have them camping out on the lawn for the night, but messing around with their diet – particularly every week – is going to cause serious issues. The fatties have their diets planned out specifically for them and the exercise routines their trainers are putting them through and their specific dietary requirements and so on.

If we’re just talking about a choice between chicken and fish for their weekly meat quota, that’s okay. But if it’s a choice between fresh meat and vegetables and takeaway meals, for example, that’s going to be a problem.

Thursday: The Walk

The Walk is a fantastic twist in the game and the outcome of it can turn the game on its head. The winner of Immunity at the Temptation will be presented with four vessels, each containing a stone with an outcome. Some will be good for them, some could be bad. Examples include; “Eliminate a Red Team member”, “You are up for elimination”, “Add 10kg to the Blue Team”. The contestant then heads back to the group to announce the news. The choice they make could not only affect the fate of the game, but more importantly, the fate of their opposing team. They could have the power to make a drastic change to the outcome of the competition.

The return of The Walk is why I am so pessimistic regarding the Warehouse. The audience was in an uproar over The Walk multiple times last season and it is widely cited as one of the most reviled features of the show… and yet the producers have brought it back? And brought it back apparently without removing the problem people had with it – mostly the instant elimination idea.

I know it’s a TV show and they need to inject some drama, but I think the producers occasionally forget that they’re messing with people’s lives when they do this. The people on the show know they could get turfed at some point, so they do the best they can and hope that’s enough to keep their team safe. But when you introduce completely abitrary and unfair means of elimination to the mix, it sort of invalidates the hard work people put in from week to week.

The only other thing really noteworthy in the press release is the claim that there’ll be 15 contestants. We’ve already seen 28 walking up the road and unless they’re going to have 3 teams of 5 each and do god knows what with the remaining 13, I’d say that’s a mistake.

Still, the weekly schedule makes for a nice introduction to the game for newcomers, so if you’ve never watched the show before, give it a read.