Channel Nine has announced it will be starting Excess Baggage on Monday 30 January at 7pm so will place the fat busting shows in direct competition. (Source: Sunday Telegraph)

Channel Ten is kicking of The Biggest Loser the week before on the 23 January to try and get an early start on luring the reality TV fan in.

It will be fat and single versus celebrities and real life people wanting real life transformations.

Excess Baggage’s advantage is that it will have real life personalities and exotic Australian locations, however The Biggest Loser have real people who desperately want to change their lives which resonates well with the viewers.

Ironically Ajay Rochester who is one of the celebrities involved in Excess Baggage will be going head to head with a show she used to host.

However a Biggest Loser production source was getting bitchy about her comment on the Excess Baggage ad where she says “she had to starve herself for the show” with them saying she was first in line at catering. Ouch the gloves are now off. (Source: Daily Telegraph)

The Sunday Telegraph also says that two couples may have hooked up on the show already.

Which fat busting show will you be watching? Of course I will be watching both.

The publicity team has it easy when you have Darren Lyons on a TV show on your network.

The Excess Baggage contestant continues to generate column inches for the much anticipated celebrity weight loss reality TV show.

This time has fired the first salvo at another contestant Ajay Rochester.

In the Ros Reines column in the Sunday Telegraph he states:

“K-Fed is a pussycat and I’m the angry lion of Excess Baggage,” boasts Lyons.

“I’m just me and I don’t make any apologies for that, and people will either take to me or they won’t. I’ve never much cared what people think about me, anyway.

“I am here to be judged.”

Not that Lyons is at all averse to making a few judgments of his own, particularly when it involves Rochester.

 ”She’s one person I can’t stand on the show,” he says of his fellow celebrity contestant.Lyons, in a case of the pot calling the kettle black, accuses Rochester of setting up her own paparazzi shots and says the Australian actress and author is just a publicity desperado.

The Sunday Telegraph are saying that a couple of the contestants are leaking from the set and telling the paps where they are to increase the amount of publicity they are getting in the papers.

No surprise that one of the alleged leakers named is paparazzi man himself Darren Lyon, but the other person named is Ajay Rochester.

See the full cast of the celebrities on the show in a former blog post here.

Also the article says she spends a lot of time on camera crying. To see if this is true we will have to wait and see if this is true when the show airs early in 2012 on Channel Nine.

Ajay Rochester is in town to promote her new book has taken a slash at Alex Perry  saying he hates fat women. News.com.au quotes Alex as saying the reason Ajay might be having a go at him is that he refused to dress her in the past.

However Alex and Ajay went head to head on 106.5 fm yesterday and it wasn’t very edifying for either of them. I wondered why Alex was allowing himself to be drawn into this debate, however he said on air 60% of his made to wear business are larger women.

Ajay continues to give her views on the stoush via her blog.

When Ajay Rochester was sacked from The Biggest Loser, she decided to try her luck overseas in Los Angeles. Her aim was to appear on the Oprah show, and has been auditioning for other roles.

However Ajay this week told Woman’s Day she was broke, and the move has been a bit of a disaster.

Here are some snippets from the article:
Ajay is unable to put food on the table or find work.

“…In terms of finances I have pretty much hit rock bottom.”

“Within hours of landing in LA, not only had the TV deal I had hoped to secure fell through, but we were homeless too.”

“I had decided to sub-let an apartment and handed the last of our savings, $8000, to the guy we were renting it from.

“…the guy pocketed it and ran off to Mexico.”

Since then Ajay has struggled to find any employment, despite applying for 50 jobs. But she refuses to give up on her Hollywood dream  - a dream she believes will ultimately provide the best future for her son, who has aspergers and attends a special school.

“This is not the time to be proud, and so I have applied for jobs ranging from checking nits in kids hair, to doing the nightshift in the laundry in a sports club. I even did a couple of days as a brickie for a friend who is a labourer.”

“…I can’t even land the most menial jobs because as soon as they find out who I am they just say to me ‘Why would you want this job? We cannot even consider you as you are far too qualified.’ It has been soul destroying.”

Ajay says she goes hungry on a daily basis.
“I try and hide how poor we are from Kai, but he is 11 and not stupid. Every night when he says to me ‘Mum why are you not having any dinner?’ I just tell him I have eaten before he got home from school.”

“…for the last eight months I have survived on barely more then rice and potatoes. She has also put on 10 kgs in the last 10 months.

“No more am I the glamorous, sucessful TV host, but instead I am back to being the washed up, overweight nobody.”

I am not sure I believe the bit about not being able to get a job because she is recognised in the US. Who would know who she was?

It appears former The Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester’s dream of making it big in the US may come true. TV Tonight reports she has been shortlisted for a reality show called PTA Moms. I am presuming this is a show about soccer mums.

The show will be produced by the masters in reality shows Bravo.

It would indeed be a big break for Ajay if she managed to score the role.

Former The Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester is pitching for the latest big game in town – to be host of Your Own Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star, Winfrey’s new cable network reality show.

When she moved to the US, her dream was to make it onto Oprah’s couch, but this won’t be occurring due to the show finishing. However being a talk show host would be a role that Ajay would think she would perfect at. In fact I am surprised she has not pitched herself as the the Australia Chelsea Lately.

In yesterday’s Daily Telegraph it says she is looking for people to vote for her.

It states:

With her votes currently wallowing at four figures, into Confidential‘s email basket at the weekend lobbed an appeal from Rochester.

“I have till the 3rd of July to get a few million votes in order to be a finalist … easy for some … eeeek … who knows, maybe I still have some loyal followers in Oz?” she confided.

The former host of The Biggest Loser has called her concept show Been There Done Fat.

“Hi, my name is Ajay Rochester,” the pitch starts.

“I want to do a show where I inspire others to step up and keep fighting the battle. They say you have to walk a mile in someone’s shoes to know how they feel, well let me tell you I have walked a thousand miles in those shoes.”

Rochester’s main rivals yesterday were disabled Texan Zach with 8,816,576 votes, a wheelchair-bound man with plans for a travel show, and black teacher Dr Phyllis with 6,795,538.

This leaves Rochester, with 1105 votes, way off the pace.

Click here to vote for her.

Her chances of winning are looking slim at this stage. However if this turns pear shaped she can always pitch to Channel Nine for a spot on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Funnily enough commenters have been on the money for people who may be in the running to be on the rumour reality show. Sophie Monk and Rob Mills have also been mentioned as people who may be try and improve their media profiles by going into the jungles of South America and allowing all sorts of indignities to happen to them.

Thanks Paul and Culinary Boner for sending me the article.

Dancing With The Stars premieres on Sunday 27 June at 6.30pm (Source TV Tonight). New Idea this week were already talking up a romance between Jo-Beth Taylor and her dance partner.

Hell’s Kitchen winners never get their prizes according to Reality Blurred, he also says a lot of other shows prize does not live up to the hype. Gordon Ramsay says it is better if they are mentored.

Dina Manzo might be leaving The Housewives of New Jersey (Source: Popeater). She has also had a breast reduction, something which I thought was illegal in New Jersey considering 50% of the female population look like they have breast enhancements.

Bravo’s executive producer Andy Cohen talks about the new Real Housewives franchise, which is set in Washington DC, and he addresses the Salahis gatecrashing the State Dinner as an audition for the show. They had actually been cast. His blog is on the Huffington Post.

Apparently Justin Beiber fans are having meltdowns over him cavorting with reality queen Kim Kardashian. (Source: the Daily Telegraph)

Drama for Natalie Imbruglia as she is guest judging on The X Factor in the UK, when some contestant’s asked who she was. She also got taunted by the audience as a one hit wonder. Hopefully she will have an easier time on the Australian version of the show. (Source: The Sun)

The Amazing Race third placegetters Caite and Brent have broken up. Apparently he is not really happy about it. (Source: TV Week)

If you want to know more on how the challenges are made in Survivor read this article on NPR. It is interesting that they get half an hour or so to go over the course with host Jeff Probst and ask any questions.

Former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester may finally have found her reality TV show, with Oprah and reality TV guru  Mark Burnett producing a show where the winner will get their own talk show. Ajay is currently living in the US with a goal of getting to sit on Oprah’s couch. (Source: Reality Blurred)

New Idea ran a story this week about how former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester was having a hard time in Los Angeles following her dream of US stardom.

The article which extensively quotes a friend, who I hope is giving her a cut of any money they may have received, states she is putting on weight because she cannot afford to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Apparently she missed out on host role on a fitness program last year because of visa issues.

But even the Daily Telegraph reveals that she is not letting it destroy her dream of making it in the US, as she has cut ties with her Australian agent Max Markson, and she plans her own road trip to Chicago to pitch a show to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.

Got her give her ten points for gumption, but if she is so broke why doesn’t she try and get some freelance writing or waitressing work.

Former The Biggest Loser continues to get paid women’s magazines articles, which I find amazing considering  last year’s debacle of her sending already photoshopped photos to New Idea.

However OK Magazine has paid for the story behind her plastic surgery where she got a boob job, and a tummy tuck.

The article in the Daily Telegraph also states she is back in the US with her son Kai. It also suggested a sponsor had to pay for her airline ticket back. Considering she tweeted she was flying Fiji airlines she must have been doing the milk run.

Anyway I do admire that she is continuing to be able to make money in this way.