Archive for the ‘Discussion’ Category

The 2012 season of The Biggest Loser Australia is due to kick off on the 23rd of January. This year we’re back to single contestants, rather than families or couples. They’re also single in the sense of not having a significant other in their life, which will presumably be attributed to their weight even if their singledom is actually related more to them being jerkfaces.

In another twist to the formula this year they’re not just having a battle of the sexes but a battle of the age groups. Tiffiny’s returning to lead the white team and this year it’ll be a group of 4 women all under the age of 30. Michelle’s back too, of course, and her red team will also be all women except over the age of 30. Shannan’s getting a group of under 30 men in blue and The Commando will be taking on the group of over 30s men in black.

This puts Shannan and Commando in the early lead since the men always tend towards losing a lot more weight at the start of the show. But when those initial easy kilograms have fallen off will the men be able to keep ahead of the women?

Another teaser trailer has also appeared on the official site, you can check it out by clicking here. This one has the under-30 James, the over-30 Brenda and the over-30 Alex. It may have been up for a while. If it has, shut up. :)

James looks a little bit like Season 3 Loser Sam – Or is that just me? In any event he doesn’t really look all that big, which doesn’t bode well for his chances, but should mean he’ll come out the other end a lot healthier and happier, which is always nice.

Brenda looks like somebody’s Mum. But that would mean she’d found love at some point. So she couldn’t be on the show. RIGHT?

And Alex is huge! Like, properly rounded. But is 50 too old to handle the rigours of Commando-style training? It worked for Bob, so Alex could be one to watch.

We’re down to four nights a week this year. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 7pm and 8pm.

Are we excited yet?

Cue the onslaught of ads, please!

Channel Ten has posted the first, presumably of many, teasing video from next year’s season of The Biggest Loser Australia.

I don’t know if there’s a version I can embed but you can click this link to watch: http://www.twitvid.com/1H7G5

First thoughts: My, that Hamish is a big fellow, isn’t he? Hope he makes it to the later weeks, I want to see what his face looks like when all that fat melts away!

Second thought: My, they’re laying on the “looking for lurve” stuff pretty heavily, aren’t they? What happened to the people wanting to lose weight so they don’t die while being so big they need to be buried in a skip?

Yep, don’t go expecting any sympathy from me if that’s what they’re going to whine about all season!

What’s everyone else thinking after that 1 minute insight?

In news I can only describe as disturbing, the next season of The Biggest Loser Australia is said to be fishing for unattached singles in attempt to “sex up its weight loss format”. (Source: News.com.au )

Getting beyond the obvious “oh my lord I don’t want to think about fat people having sex” issue we get to the area of greater concern – who watches The Biggest Loser for the romance?

Most of the contestants spend most of their time on camera sweating, crying, swearing, backstabbing or otherwise competing with each other. That shit is why we watch. And for the payoff at the end where many of them have gone from morbidly obese to more or less “normal”.

The friendships and romances that have sprung up on the show have been interesting, certainly. Who wasn’t wondering if Michael and Sheridan ever hooked up? Or Garry and Carrianne? Or Lara and Shannan… I mean Lara and Jarrod?

But those hookups were never the main drawcard and there was never an intention to try and make anything happen. They run the risk of alienating their current fans in the chase for others… who probably don’t want to watch a bunch of fat people slog it out every week, else they’d already be watching.

The other side of the coin presents a problem, too. What if they get 20 fat singles, cram them all into Camp Biggest Loser and none of them get along well enough for anything juicy to happen?

Or will next year’s Wheel of Temptation be more like Spin the Bottle?

[Update]

There’s now a First Look trailer: http://www.mythor.net/thebiggestloser/2011/12/12/the-biggest-loser-australia-2012-first-look/

Just a reminder that there’s a “Very Special Episode” of Biggest Loser tonight featuring some of the best transformations of past contestants.

I’m not planning on writing a recap for the episode. Am expecting it will just be a series of short catch up bits with some of the success stories.

People don’t want to hear about the failures like David Hilyander who’re still morbidly obese to this day or Chris who piled the weight back on after starving his way to victory. They want fluffy feel good stories and that’s what they’ll get.

Should be an entertaining hour of TV. Or you could watch Mythbusters on SBS. These are the only two options that are acceptable. :-)

With the exception of Greg, whose profile is currently involved in a mix-up on the official site, all the contestant profiles are now available on the Official Biggest Loser Website.

And, of course, here on The Biggest Loser Recap.

The Challenors: Joe, Damien, Greg, Nathaniel. Trainer: Michelle.

The Moons: Kellie, Rebecca, Jodie, Sarah. Trainer: Commando Steve.

The Westrens: Leigh, Lara, Sharlene, Craig. Trainer: Shannan.

The Duncans: Emma, Jarrod, Sarah-Jayne, Meg. Trainer: Tiffiny.

Read on for some analysis and my top tips for this year.

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