The Sydney Morning Herald appears to be following up on the story in The Age about The Biggest Loser rigged weigh ins (See previous blog post here)

With more contestants spilling their guts on how the amazing weight loss stats were obtained.

The article in the SMH says:

Several former contestants told the Herald yesterday the show’s trainers had suggested they stop drinking for up to 36 hours before being weighed.

Others said they were also able to achieve greater losses because they were weighed every 10 to 14 days, not every seven days as the show purports.

Artie Rocke, who starred in the first series in 2006, said the trainers encouraged contestants not to drink water before a weigh-in.

”It’s about ratings but you have to ask do they want someone to drop dead? Is that a ratings winner? I hope not,” he said.

Doctors told Rocke his 40-kilogram weight loss over 12 weeks was to blame for his collapse two days after filming ended. He was rushed to hospital to have his gall bladder removed.

Fellow contestant Tracy Moores was also treated for dehydration.

John Jeffery, known as JJ, quit the show in 2008 because he did not agree with its philosophy and feared someone would die.

”One person I was in with was taken to hospital twice with a low pulse rate because he was starving himself.

”You choose foods from a shopping list but no one checks what you eat. Some people will eat even less than the 1000 calories they put you on and then exercise eight hours a day,” he said.

Kelly Donaghy lost 4.4 kilograms in her first week on the 2007 series but was left in tears after trainers and fellow contestants chastised her off camera for letting down the team.

”I thought that was quite a bit of weight for one week but they were all very critical of me,” she said. ”They said it wasn’t enough.”

A spokesman for Fremantle Media said it was aware the show’s contestants were dehydrating themselves.

”It’s a weight loss journey but it’s also a game.

”We are certainly not encouraging people to do it but everyone is made aware of how the game is played,” he said.

 

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Ok so we know that some reality TV is not real but even I was a bit shocked when I read that the weekly weigh in was not real (thank you to the reader who tipped me off to this The Age article).

The Age article stated that some of the weekly weigh ins were not held weekly that there could be a gap longer than that in between.

The article stated:

The concerns come amid allegations that the show’s producers are misleading viewers by claiming contestants have lost up to 17 kilograms in a week. There are fears viewers may try to emulate the results instead of aiming for healthy weight loss, considered to be between 0.5 and one kilogram per week.

Dr Leon Massage, who runs a private weight loss clinic, said he had treated a former Biggest Loser contestant who told him weigh-ins – presented on the show as weekly events – could actually take place several weeks apart.

”I think they’re trying to impress the audience with the degree of weight loss … They create unreal expectations for the people who are watching it who think that it [weight loss] is weekly … I can’t imagine that someone would lose 17 kilos in a week without doing damage to themselves,” Dr Massage said.

When asked by The Sunday Ageif weigh-ins were conducted weekly, the show’s executive producer Richard Campbell said: ”I don’t want to comment on that.”

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The question will again be raised whether The Biggest Loser is a safe way to lose weight with Geoff one of the older contestants having to leave because he was having medical problems, and had been in hospital during the show.

On the up side by the time he went home he had lost 22 kgs.

Wayne his partner got to stay, and this means one of the couple who is eliminated will get to stay and partner Wayne. Which could be to their advantage as his is losing big numbers.

The weigh in results are:

• Caitlin lost 5.1 kgs and Daina lost 3,7 kgs;
• Phil lost 6.0 kgs and David lost 7.5 kgs;
• Rick lost 6.7 kgs and Joe lost 6.7 kgs;
• Jarna lost 3.6 kgs and Lisa lost 4.1 kgs;
• Wayne lost 9.2 kgs;
• Elise lost 2.9 kgs and Teneale lost 3.5 kgs;
• Phoebe lost 3.4 kgs and Jenni 3.7 kgs; and
• Shannon lost 6.4 kgs and Chris lost 4.4 kgs.

Phoebe and Jenni, and Shannon and Chris are up for elimination.

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After watching the two latest episodes of The Biggest Loser I realised we are now back to its usual pace after the two weeks in two episodes.

Last night’s episode five minutes was spent watching the contestants  pull weights, and then another five minutes watching Daina eat a bowl of creme brulee.

Then tonight’s episode was all about trainer Michelle Bridges beating her up for eating them. “Four thousand calories? That’s almost a week’s worth of food!” screeched Michelle.  Mothers with teenage daughters were desperately trying to cover their kids ears at that point.

But hell since she won immunity she has an extra week to burn it off, and she is only 84 kgs which is positively anorexic in the loser house at this state of the competition.

Then Michelle showed she was embracing her inner Dr Phil (something Channel Ten appears to be encouraging this year in their reality shows) and went about psychoanalysing why anyone would eat that much, and after some boxing she found out that Daina had always protected her sister.  “This has got to stop,” she said.

Michelle was also rather chuffed she had elicited out of Caitlin that at age 16 she had been suicidal. This of course would not have been on her Biggest Loser application form. Yeah right.

Michelle did have a point about Caitlin standing there watching Daina exercise off her dessert booty. She could have hopped on a bike herself.

To leave the viewer with a feel good moment twenty year old Rick got a visit from his girlfriend who was pregnant as his reward for being this week’s biggest loser.

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I loved this episode’s elimination scene as it was so obvious Hayley Lewis had to reshoot it. Before Deryck Ward went off and got himself arrested for child porn, there would have been eight teams voting, therefore Hayley had to reshoot, and say “Allan and Romi you are currently on three votes if you get one more vote you will be eliminated”.

Previously five votes would have been necessary to be  booted out of the show.

I also chuckled that there were no shots of host Hayley Lewis with the contestants in the elimination room.

Anyway I felt sorry for married couple Romi and Allan on being eliminated considering they were wanting to get pregnant.

The Biggest Loser then turned into Survivor, with a challenge that involved digging, rowing, and getting a flag. And there was also a mini or should I say maxi type Russell character whose name was Wayne.

After  their recent four kilometre run, Shannon and Wayne were not able to do this week’s challenge, deemed as being too dangerous for them, and their team mates chose to do the challenge by themselves. The twin boys, Rick and Joe, won immunity.

Chris had a right to be pissed with Wayne, when he busted an oar when he rowed out to get his flag, and then did not help Chris work out a way to get his.

There next challenge was public speaking, where they revealed bits about themselves to the audience with people with weight issues. Some were very moving particularly Wayne’s story about being stuck in the flood and having difficulty getting out of the car window with his three year old in the vehicle.

Lisa had great difficulty, and appears to have major self esteem issues, and I thought it was sad there is no photos of her with her babies as she hated getting photograph taken. I actually think she is very attractive, weight and all, and will be really stunning when she loses it.

I think Hayley is taking a very different role than Ajay Rochester with a much more compassionate persona.

And again we are fasttracked to the second week’s weigh in, clearly it was more difficult to cut out Deryck/Jim Ward then they thought.

And this weigh in Hayley told them there would be no elimination. Did anyone else think she was doing her best to keep a straight face?

Also we found out Geoff was in hospital? Now normally this would be a major part of an episode, but now it was glossed over like this was just a usual event in The Biggest Loser household.

This week’s weight loss stats are:

• Joe this week lost 6.4 kgs, and Rick 8.2kgs;
• Shannon lost  6.8 kgs and Chris lost 3.9 kgs;
• Lisa lost 4.8 kgs and Jarna lost 3.4 kgs;
• Caitlin lost 5.6 kgs and Dana lost 3.7kgs;
• Elise lost 4.6kgs and Teneale lost 3.8 kgs;
• Jenni lost 5.4 kgs and Phoebe lost 4.3 kgs;
• Phil lost 5.8 kgs and David lost 7.5 kgs; and
• Wayne lost 7.6 kgs.

Rick won this week’s biggest loser.

Ok now that Deryck has been exorcised from the show, we might now  get some better camera shots. But the downside will be long drawn out weekly weigh ins and elimination episodes. I have quite enjoyed the speeded up version of the show.

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Ok I admit I spent a lot of time this episode pressing pause in the group shots to try and see if I could spot alleged child offender Deryck Ward or his sister on the show. Points go to Channel Ten as they certainly have exorcised the pair, but this has also meant that the first week of the show has now been squeezed into one episode.

Tomorrow night will be an elimination episode and I hope for Phobe and Jenni and Alan and Romi it was not a close vote and Deryck’s vote actually counted otherwise fear and loathing will be enamating from one of the couples. We will just have to wait and see how it all pans out.

On a positive note Hayley Lewis is a great choice as host of the show. She is genuine, warm and compassionate. Also very attractive. We saw more of trainer Michelle Bridges in the Burgen ads, but that was not a negative thing, as every newspaper and magazine I have picked up in the last month has had Michelle in it multiple times. She must be getting close to overexposure. The same cannot be said for Shannon Ponton, and I wonder if there is professional jealousy between them.

Anyway I did have all the teams and starting weights listed, but my blog crashed and I lost them so apologies. (Yes there was a lot of swearing and teeth gnashing when I realised that had occurred)

Therfore for the readers who need to know these things, Caitlin is the heaviest girl ever to be on the show, she is competing with her sister Dana. And Shannon is the heaviest contestant in the competition at over 204 kgs which is a lot of fat to carry for a 24 year old.

There first task was to run four kilometres, this was to get them thinking about The Biggest Loser wildcard challenge of running a 42 kilometre marathon, as a chance to get back in the competition.

The twin boys Joe and Rick crossed the finish line first in a respectable 37 minutes, with the 40 something old dads nipping at their heels.

Caitlin was the first contestant to hurl this season, and probably won’t be the last. But she did finish.

Shannon barely walked a few hundred metres before it all became to much for him and he lay down looking like he would not get up. Points to Shannon Ponton for getting him up to walk one kilometre. In fact they needed an extra pair of hands to get him off the ground.

Then it was time to check out The Biggest Loser headquarters and see who had been given the poison chalice of deciding who will get the double or nothing bracelets. Married couple Alan and Romi had to decide. They gave the nothing bracelet to Shannon. As they thought he needed to be here the most and wanted to protect him, and Alan decided to keep the double it bracelet himself as he did not want to give it to anyone to put a target on their back.

However he has done that to himself. It will be interesting to see if his nice guy strategy helps him in this week’s elimination.

I wonder when the producers/casting agents are going to decide when is a person going to be too big to do the rigorous exercise regime. As Shannon looks like he needs to be highly monitored. Lucky for Shannon he does have youth on his side.

Then it was straight through to the weekly weigh in. The two forty year old dad’s were this weeks biggest losers ie they lost the most percentage of body fat.

Jenni and Phobe who are aunty and niece, and Romi and Alan are the two couples that fell below the yellow line and therefore are up for elimination tomorrow night.

The interesting question will be how they will handle the second weigh in and elimination episode? This was when Deryck and his sister left the show. I know I will be watching to see what happens.

If you are reading this post through the feed at TV.com.au, please come and check out Reality Ravings, Australia’s Leading Independent Reality TV blog.

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Ok we can finally stop watching Serena Williams and Roger Federer whacking balls over the net or see Ponting try and make hundred, real TV is coming back on with the ratings starting next week and reality TV is going to be a huge part of the stations ratings strategy.

Channel Ten is firing off their salvos early with both The Biggest Loser, and So You Think You Can Dance Australia premiering tonight. The Biggest Loser is on at 6.30pm with new host Hayley Lewis, and I doubt the child porn scandal where they had to excise a fat busting couple will have a detrimental effect on ratings. (See previous blog post on Deryck Ward the contestant who is up on child porn charges.).

So You Think You Can Dance Australia’s third season kicks off at 7.30pm with the auditions. There is not changes to the line up with host Natalie Bassingthwaite returning as host, and Jason Coleman, Matt Lee, and Bonnie Lythgoe.

They say there is going to be some changes this season to the format, to try and avoid viewer fatigue with the series. However the preview of the series looks like there are going to be some seriously good dancers this year.

Channel Seven is the first of the stations to premier a brand spanking new reality TV series with My Kitchen Rules. They have been spending a bucket load on publicity so they will not be very happy if it does not deliver results. However my prediction is that Manu Feidel will be the Matt Preston of 2010.

My Kitchen Rules premiers Monday 1 February at 7.30pm.

I will be doing recaps on My Kitchen Rules,  and So You Think You Can Dance Australia, as well as regular updates on The Biggest Loser.

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Channel Ten and Fremantle Media have gone into damage control with The Biggest Loser with news one of this year’s contestants has been arrested on child porn charges.

News.com.au reports Deryck Ward 26, has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography.

Fremantle and Channel Ten have edited him and his sister out of the show so there will only be nine couples on the show. They were eliminated in week two.

So does that mean it will run for one less week? I presume this will depend where they are up to in filming, but there is a gap in between the fat camp episodes and the live finale.

The article news.com.au states:

“Given the seriousness of these charges and that this matter is to be resolved in the courts, the network decided it will not broadcast any episode in which Mr Ward would have appeared,” a Ten spokeswoman said yesterday.

“We believe this is in every party’s interest, including Mr Ward’s.”

The Courier Mail also says:

Ward, whose occupation is listed as communications specialist, weighed 189.6kg when he entered the Biggest Loser house with his goal weight being 100kg.

His biographical details for the show state he “started piling on the weight when he was at school” on a diet of junk food.

He was teased at school for being overweight and as a result gave up playing rugby, it said.

Ward cited the death of his father in 2008 – only three weeks after being diagnosed with bowel cancer – as one reason why he over-eats.

“He is now determined to lose weight especially as he’s never been in love and would like to start a family,” promotional material for the show said.

Ward has been charged with one count of possessing child exploitation material.

He also has been charged with one count of using the internet to access images of child exploitation. He is to appear in court on March 8.

Christ it is still January and this guy is already in the running for my reality TV douche of the year.

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With all the pre-ratings season build up Channel Ten are the first to announce when some of their high rating shows will commence. And the good news is we don’t have to wait very long.

The third season of So You Think You Can Dance Australia premieres on Sunday 31 January at 7.30pm with a 90 minute show, and then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. Once it gets to the top 20 I presume it will get back to the usual Sunday night/Monday night shows.

The Biggest Loser also premieres on the 31st January at 6.30pm, it will be on six nights a week. Hayley Lewis is the new host of the show this year, and should add a different dynamic. Again it will retain the couples format.

Channel Ten will be launching their new website for SYTYCD Au http://dance.ten.com.au/ and there is a sneak peak of The Biggest Loser at the official website http://www.thebiggestloser.com.au/. Channel Ten again proves it is ahead of the pack in using the web to enhance the viewers experience of their shows.

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After the mega success of the Friday night Masterclass on Masterchef Australia, The Biggest Loser will be having their own one. On Friday evenings they will have a 90 minute episode which will feature Masterchef judge Gary Mehigan and his Good Chef Bad Chef side kick Janella Purcell. Also Dr Norman Swan will discuss a medical condition each week, and Michelle Bridges and Shannon Ponton will be giving advice on training.

This year the fifth season, will be hosted by former swim champ Hayley Lewis, and reports from the set indicate she has been a great choice by Channel Ten and Fremantle Media.

News of The Biggest Loser Couples are slowly being released to create some pre -show interest. In the latest edition of TV Week it states there will be 20 year- old brothers, the first ever twins on the show.

Joe and Rick Medway from Queensland  both weigh in at 165 kg, but want to shed the weight for different reasons.

Rick wants to join the police force, whereas Joe won’t propose to his girlfriend, Lucy, until he has reached his goal weight of 100kg. There will be ten couples on the show.

The show will be premiering early this year on Channel Ten.

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