TheBiggestLoser-related stories
Posted May 13th 2009 1:07PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk
Now that the show is over, I'll finally admit it: I've been a closet fan of this season of
The Biggest Loser, at least since the early stages. I seem to take pleasure in the irony of watching it with my fiancee while we eat ice cream (low fat ice cream, but ice cream nevertheless). Anyway, the show is at once exploitative and inspiring, showing people losing cartloads of weight in order to give them back the fulfilling lives they lost as they packed on the fat. It also gives viewers a chance to decide which of the trainers -- Jillian or Bob -- is most manly.
(By the way, my money's on Jillian there. She's attractive, but she scares the living crap outta me.)
But what seems to happen between the last challenge and the live finale is that the finalists tend to go from healthily thin to scarily emaciated, all in the name of winning the grand prize. And, after taking a look at this year's winner, I have to ask: Is this healthy? And will it cause problems down the road?
Continue reading Random thought: Does The Biggest Loser finale cause eating disorders?
Posted Apr 25th 2009 9:00AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, American Idol, The Apprentice, Survivor, Celebreality
One of the best things about reality shows for me is watching people succeed or crash in a fiery abyss. While watching
Grey's Anatomy, I caught the commercial for all the summer shows and was excited to see the return of
I Survived a Japanese Game Show. Last year was heavily underrated. All the contestants were likable, everyone learned about Japanese culture, and the biggest thing everyone came off learning something.
While I wait for summer and hope for a new season, this week started off MTV's
The Phone. I was nervous about Justin Timberlake being the executive producer, but the show surprised me. Any fan of
The Mole,
The Amazing Race,
Cha$e, or
Treasure Hunters should probably consider. Now on to the weekly awards.
Continue reading Weekly Reality Awards
Posted Apr 18th 2009 10:04AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Celebreality
As the numbers continue to dwindle on the competitive reality shows, tension is starting to rise and I want a front seat. The one thing I appreciate about network reality programs compared to scripted shows is that there are new episodes every week (I'm looking at you,
Grey's Anatomy).
I'm going to make a prediction that next week Coach will say something stupid, Frenchie will say something that needs subtitles, the cast of
The Biggest Loser will sweat, and Adam will regret singing "Play That Funky Music" a few weeks too early. This week's awards after the jump.
Continue reading Weekly Reality Awards
Posted Apr 12th 2009 11:52AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, American Idol, Survivor, Dancing With The Stars, Celebreality
A week never starts off well without
The Amazing Race on Sundays. I hate when shows get delayed or moved to Wednesdays because of basketball.The shows were all a little off this week: there was only one vote on
The Biggest Loser, there was no vote on
Survivor, and
The Real World/Road Rules challenge ended with a cliffhanger.
Speaking of
Survivor, it has to suck to be Joe, who had to be evacuated to save his leg. Alas, his life is probably more important than a million dollars. More odd decisions after the jump.
Continue reading Weekly Reality Awards
Posted Apr 4th 2009 2:03PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Dancing With The Stars
This week, reality television maintained some normalcy. The outliers in
Survivor,
Dancing with the Stars, and
Hell's Kitchen went home. Although I'll lament the loss of Mel and Mike in
The Amazing Race, I believe that all the remaining teams deserve to be there.
Speaking of teams, the
Survivor Secret Alliance still has the numbers. With the merge inevitable, we'll see if one of the best alliances ever created will stick together. As long as Coach goes home, I'll be satisfied. More analysis after the jump.
Continue reading Weekly Reality Awards
Posted Mar 28th 2009 11:55AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, Commercials, Celebreality
This week in reality television was eclectic.
Dancing With the Stars was happily un-complicated with the absence of Denise Richards,
America's Next Top Model's most home-sick model mysteriously was on top, and no one should have watched
Survivor because it was a waste of time.
This is one of those weeks where you realize that the show casts people with little-to-no chance of winning just so that the people they want to win don't mess up. Although
American Idol's Michael Sarver is a great example, I'm looking mostly at Celia (right) from Top Model: she's too old. On a positive note, there was a lot of weird, memorable, and funny moments to compensate this week. More analysis after the jump.
Continue reading Weekly Reality Awards - VIDEO
Posted Mar 21st 2009 1:01PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Celebreality
I couldn't help but think that after last week's reality shows heated up, the flame went out and the episodes were a little boring.
It was probably because
The Amazing Race was a non-elimination,
Survivor was a clip show, and the photoshoot on
America's Next Top Model was horrible and uninspiring. I'm not even going to touch the fact that
Belinda Carlile was showing too much underwear for her age. More of the interesting highlights, and lowlights, after the jump.
Continue reading Weekly Reality Awards
Posted Feb 6th 2009 3:32PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
For five weeks now we've watched Joelle (left) at
The Biggest Loser ranch. She makes odd expressions, stands in silence a lot when asked a direct question, and when she does respond it seems like she's just trying to use ten-dollar words and catchphrases. But she just strings them together haphazardly, creating nonsense. She never really answers anything. I've seen a lot of different kinds of people in real life and on reality shows on television, and I just can't wrap my brain around this woman.
Clearly she has motivation problems, as evidenced by her continuing lack of effort (except for one week) on the show. Poor teammate Carla was reduced to screaming at her during what was supposed to be a beneficial reward for the both of them. Even Bob completely lost his cool and yelled at her; the first time he's ever lost it with a contestant. I suspect that Joelle's defense mechanism when she's attacked is to shut down, not unlike what a deer does when yon headlights shine into its eyes. It makes her come across very oddly on my television screen.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser's Joelle just confuses me
Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:28AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, The Office, Pickups and Renewals, 30 Rock, Reality-Free
Good news for fans of Thursday night comedy: NBC has renewed
both 30 Rock and The Office.
The Biggest Loser has also been renewed (and
Heroes is noted as 'very secure'), but the final verdict has not been reached for the low-rated
Lipstick Jungle,
Kath & Kim and
Knight Rider. In other news, the sky is blue.
Seriously, this should come as no surprise to anybody who watches either show, as they are both brilliant. NBC seems to be trying to make Thursday nights into "Must See TV" again. As someone who enjoys
The Office and is pretty much addicted to
30 Rock, I think they're succeeding.
At this stage, it is only known that the series is renewed, and not whether or not the shows will stay in their current time slots. I cover
Smallville on Thursday nights. If they move either series to the 8 PM hour on Thursday, then I have to make sure my video recorders are properly working.
Posted Dec 24th 2008 2:05PM by Brett Love
Filed under: OpEd, CSI, Festivus, Heroes, Ratings, NCIS, Reality-Free
I'm sure that many of us could go round and round over the quality of the episodes in this latest chapter of Heroes. If you're following along with the weekly reviews, you've no doubt seen it play out in the comments. The thing that is a little harder to argue is the ratings. Over these last few months, the one time flagship NBC drama has seen its numbers drop to drastic levels. Put another way, if Heroes was a space ship, and dropping ratings signified an increase in speed, the show has gone plaid.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: The decline of Heroes
Posted Oct 25th 2008 2:33PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, Law and Order, Reality-Free
Does
the return of Law and Order to the weekly NBC lineup strike a "welcome back" chord, or does it mean that the Peacock needs a boost in the ratings from a tried and true player? I think it's the latter, because just weeks into the new season, NBC is floundering in the Nielsens, prompting a change in the schedule.
First,
Law and Order is returning this week. On Wednesday, October 29, NBC presents what could be called their crime-time line up --
Knight Rider at 8,
Life at 9, and
Law and Order at 10.
Clearly, with
the pick up earlier this week for Knight Rider, NBC is committed to the show despite the weak ratings. Presenting this solid Wednesday block of cop shows will hopefully translate into better Nielsen numbers.
Continue reading Law and Order coming back...and other NBC news
Posted Sep 26th 2008 12:06AM by Jay Black
Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Episode Recaps
(S05E01) Is there a word that describes the feeling of "missing fictional characters?" If not, there ought to be one. Flurj, maybe, to take a word from last week's wonderful
SNL cold open. As in, "I don't know about you guys, but I flurjed the hell out of Jim and Pam and Michael and Dwight all summer long."
What about you guys? Did you flurj your friends at
The Office? Well, everything is a-okay now. Your fictional friends from Dunder-Mifflin are back, and your good buddy Jay (quite possibly fictional, we're working it out in therapy) is back reviewing every episode mere seconds after it's aired! So, sit back, relax, and sharpen your commenting fingers! On to the review!
Continue reading The Office: Weight Loss (season premiere)
Posted Aug 27th 2008 8:38AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Programming, OpEd, Daytime, Talk Show
In a media crossover,
People magazine is coming to TV screens.
ABC has scheduled an hour-long special called
Half Their Size: The People Magazine Weight Loss Challenge for Sept. 30 at 10 p.m.
The franchise began in
People in 2002, and focuses on folks who need to shed more than a few pounds -- preferably, half their size. Obviously, the magazine stories have been a big hit, since anything about losing weight is always a big hit.
The show will focus on eight residents of Mississippi -- the nation's "heaviest" state -- for a nine-month period to see how their lives change through diet and exercise.
Continue reading People magazine catches the reality TV wave
Posted Jul 10th 2008 9:28AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
Can a TV show centered around the $46 billion herbal weight loss industry be interesting? We'll soon find out, because
HBO has greenlit a pilot called
Fat Sells.
The story will center on the head of a weight loss company, and how his life starts to unravel when the FDA begins investigating the company's claims.
Forest Whitaker is attached to exec produce (and possibly direct the pilot), along with Dave Broome, who served as exec producer on
The Biggest Loser. Hmmm ... wonder if he has some insider info he'll bring to this project.
Continue reading Will HBO prove that Fat Sells?
Posted Apr 4th 2008 8:01AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Other Reality Shows
A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.
The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.
This time we have The Biggest Loser, America's Best Dance Crew and other new shows.
Continue reading Reality Show casting calls
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