TLC has debuted the first of a nine-episode reality series “My Big Fat Fabulous Life,” featuring Whitney Way Thore, a young woman who became a YouTube sensation last year with her video, “Fat Girl Dancing.” Besides using the “my big fat” cliche AGAIN (does Nia Vardalos get royalties for these?), the show relies on stereotypes …
I was recently contacted by a former Biggest Loser contestant about helping him to write a book about his experiences with the show. The project didn’t move forward but while we were discussing things, he’d talk quite freely about what went on behind the scenes. There are plenty of Biggest Loser secrets alright. A lot …
Shocking but true. The website for ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition proudly announces the show will now, “FOR THE FIRST TIME,” have DOCTORS—yes, actual medical professionals—check out the seriously obese people that trainer reality show celebrity Chris Powell will humiliate into dropping hundreds of pounds! Assuming we’ll believe it’s about providing some measure of …
The last Biggest Loser winner, Rachel Frederickson, stunned everyone at the live finale when she stepped out on the stage and weighed in at 105 lbs, a shocking 60% loss of her starting bodyweight. Her arms were twig thin and her face had that drawn anorexic look. But Biggest Loser trainer and self-appointed psychologist Jillian …
A year after she did a “90-Day Challenge” for weight loss products company ViSalus, Ruby Gettinger’s weight is still stalled at just above 300 pounds and her affiliation with the multi-level marketer seems to have ended. The one-time reality star and her two best friends have now turned up on YouTube, trying to get enough …
NBC’s Today Show is doing a week-long “Love Your Selfie” with the extremely attractive personalities admitting their self-image insecurities and appearing without makeup. The men look pretty much like themselves and the women just look plain around their eyes. Everyone is still their media-quality good-looking selves. We’ve been treated to the team’s dorkiest teenage photos …
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you probably know that the media was a-buzz this week when humiliation reality show Biggest Loser crowned its Season 15 grand prize winner, a 24-year old woman who lost a staggering 60% of her body weight. During the live broadcast, trainers Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper were caught on camera …
Several months after completing a “90-Day Challenge” for a supplements company, Ruby Gettinger spoke to Oprah in an episode of the OWN series, “Where Are They Now.” Ruby says she weighs 316 which is down 13lbs from the weight she recorded at the end of the “challenge” in April. The interview was interesting because she’s …
I wouldn’t have thought there could be a weight loss reality TV show more offensive and exploitative than Biggest Loser but “My Big Fat Revenge” on the Oxygen network is beyond comprehension. Overweight women tearfully recount stories of humiliation then plot revenge against their tormentors. The two women in the episode I watched seem to have …