caroline rhea-related stories
Posted Feb 20th 2007 7:33PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, Celebrities
Days of Our Lives star Alison Sweeney just landed a hosting gig with NBC. The network has placed her in Caroline Rhea's old spot as host of
The Biggest Loser. Sweeney has played 'Sami Brady' on
Days since 1993, but she has also been seen a lot elsewhere on NBC including guest appearances on
Las Vegas and
Friends, and a legendary freak-out when she was on
Fear Factor (I would freak out too if I were placed in a coffin with cockroaches, nightcrawlers, and snakes). According to her biography,
All the Days of My Life (So Far), the 30-year old actress has struggled with her weight for years.
Caroline Rhea hosted the reality contest for three seasons but has moved on to other projects, so I'm assuming her departure was amicable. The next season of
The Biggest Loser begins this fall. And
Days fans shouldn't worry, Sami isn't going anywhere.
I know Caroline Rhea is a comedian and can be pretty funny. I haven't seen much of Alison's personality but I know she has a large fan following... will she make a good host?
Posted Nov 16th 2006 10:08AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E09) Teams are gone and individual game play begins. The two remaining (former) Blue Team members still hang out with their trainer Bob though. Bob redeclares his eternal commitment to his "boys," while Kim readily shed's her team colors and is initially shown giving individual training time to newbies Jaron and Adrian.
Adrian seems to be having trouble, still trying to adjust to the ranch. Though Jaron appears more acclimated now. Both of them came in doing great, in my opinion, considering they were greeted and treated like pariahs last week. Now Adrian has to go and have a meltdown before the race.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Individuals
Posted Nov 9th 2006 9:06AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E08) My hatred of two-hour episodes is on record in previous reviews, and as NBC used some of that time extra time this week for an extended Jello-cooking segment, I'll just move on before I get even more agitated. Anyway, there's much more to hate here tonight than running time.
We meet some new players, most of whom will be gone by the end of the second segment. As that's the case, pardon me for not caring. Since the producers, of course, know who weighs what, and that only the top two newbies will be staying, bringing the other four to the show for a "cup of coffee," so to speak, seems petty, even by reality television standards.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: They're Back
Posted Oct 26th 2006 7:43AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E06) For some reason, they don't even show (as they have in past weeks) the aftermath of last week's elimination. I would have loved to have seen the look on Bob's face as the Blue team tried to explain voting off Amy
last week. However, the players have lots a total of 550 lbs, and it is really starting to show.
This week the sadists who produce reality shows decide that whoever wins the
calorie-calculation challenge will have the ability to make half players on the opposing team work out the first three days of the
without their trainer -- and force the rest to eat meals outside the ranch and face the dangers of restaurant choices and vs. willpower.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Tough Choices
Posted Oct 25th 2006 4:03PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Cable, Celebrities
Kaley Cuoco of 8 Simple Rules will be climbing into a fat suit for an original Lifetime movie called Fat Like Me, based on real-life teen Ali Schmidt, a thin, pretty New Yorker who did the same thing for an undercover network news special on obesity that aired in 2003. Now, I obviously haven't seen this new movie, since it doesn't hit Lifetime until January, nor did I see the original news special it was based upon. I can assume, though, that this pretty girl will realize how difficult life can be for someone who is overweight, and she'll walk away from the experience with a more mature outlook on the world and blah blah blah.
Continue reading Hot chick dons fat suit for Lifetime movie
Posted Oct 19th 2006 8:09AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E05) The episode title says it all, when the producers take the players' gym equipment away, in another "surprise" twist. Since they've already spent other weeks working out with driftwood and sand buckets at a beach, and using alternate gym facilities on a cruise ship, this is really more of the same.
So far, the teams have lost 496 lbs going into this challenge. Players are starting to feel and notice changes for the better in their bodies. Kim, the Red Team trainer, echoes that observation, and the Red's begin tonight still buddy-buddy after last week's emotional encounters.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Gym Gone
Posted Oct 12th 2006 9:17AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E04) Going in, Red has lost 198 lbs, and Blue has lost 240 lbs. Red had to say goodbye to Nelson after screwing themselves with a tie vote last time. Ties get broken by the rival team -- which means rule number one for
Biggest Loser should be
: make sure your team's votes don't end in a tie.
Red reacts to having lost Nelson by revolting against their trainer, Kim. Kai wants to work out alone. Kim acknowledges (in voice-over) she's losing control of the team, and the others just mope through a run, until Ken collapses in tears. They manage to get Kim crying too. It's nearly unbearable.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Free Pass
Posted Oct 5th 2006 7:27AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E03) The teams don't spend much time at the ranch. Last week the beach, and now a cruise, where they can learn to balance health and fitness goals in real -- well, semi-real circumstances. Unfortunately, they can already smell the decadent cruise-line food as soon as the board the ship. At the start of this week, so far the contestants have lost a total of 356 lbs.
It's the Red Team's turn to feel good about themselves for change, and maybe they are over the biggest hump of their mopiness now that they've made a good showing and avoided an elimination last time. Both team's have had a chance to adjust better to lifestyle changes -- so there's a lot less crying overall this week. I'm not crying so much either, as events move along at a livelier pace after two weeks of miserable marathon-length episodes.
The Workout: Veteran trainer Bob steps it up for his team again. Since this is supposed to simulate a vacation, he shows The Blues how to work out hard and fast -- a compressed time period leaving more time for fun -- in theory. And when they hit the buffet, Bob's proud that his team is aware of, and makes, the right food choices.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Cruise Week
Posted Sep 28th 2006 10:33AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E02) NBC, what're you trying to do to me?
Another two hour episode this week?!?! You're testing my patience and the patience of the flood of fans who dropped by here at
TVS last week to leave comments. Okay, there were exactly
two comments last week, both from viewers who stated their intention to watch
America's Next Top Model instead anyway. No doubt a double-sized
Loser is just what is needed to reel viewers in. Here is my plea to reality show producers: if you're going to run two hours a night, make it two episodes -- that is,
two challenges,
two eliminations,
don't just pad out an extra hour.
Anyway, here goes ...
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Beach Week
Posted Sep 21st 2006 6:57AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd
(S03E01) I don't watch that much reality television, but I like this one because it seems to work for the contestants. And maybe for viewers too: last season I watched and got inspired, losing fifty pounds myself. So I've been looking forward to this.
But wait a minute: Jillian Michaels -- the tougher of the two trainers in earlier seasons is gone, much to my disappointment. Had I paid attention when she announced her
departure months ago, maybe I wouldn't have tuned in tonight. I really like how she drove the men's team last year, and they seemed to love her too. That, and this time there are
fifty contestants to wade through. One from each state in the union. The obese nation theme gets a lot a play early on. But fairly quickly they're whittled down to a manageable group of 14: seven men and seven women. Unlike last year, they are
not divvied up into teams based on gender. The other 36 will continue the challenge on their own at home. However, the parade of fifty hopeful contestants marching down the hill to the Biggest Loser Ranch is an impressive sight.
(Spoilers after the jump.)
Continue reading The Biggest Loser (season premiere)
Posted Aug 1st 2006 11:20PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E09) We are now in super-filler territory here, folks. A 44-minute broadcast with only 15 minutes of real material (the three five minute sets from the remaining comics) dictates that we see things like: the last four comics introduced one-at-a-time... twice; longer bios of the remaining three comics; a commercial-interrupted elimination "ceremony"; a set by
LCS alum Jay London; and a really unfunny set by Caroline Rhea, a synergistic move that NBC used to promote the upcoming season of
The Biggest Loser.
Oh, and there were two Mel Gibson jokes. One good, one not so good.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: The final three perform
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