The Biggest Loser: Final Analysis

When analyzing The Biggest Loser I think that three popular culture theories really related to the show.  The three theories are myths, icons, and stereotypes.  One of the biggest myths that the show highlights is that it’s not true that weight loss can’t be maintained.  There are several success stories from the show of people who have proven that myth wrong.  Contestants learn how to live a healthy lifestyle.  The show has created training icons.  Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper, and Dolvett Quince are some of the most well known trainers in America.  These trainers truly love what they do and are very good at it.  They know how to motivate the contestants in order to get the results that they want.  Trainers are often stereotyped as people who love to inflict pain and yell at people to motivate them.  While watching the show, you can see that isn’t what being a trainer is about.  Trainers really want to help people change their lives for the better.  In the case of The Biggest Loser, America gets to watch while the transformation happens.

 

I found it very interesting to learn the difference between a hero and a celebrity.  I hadn’t really thought about it before analyzing the show.  I learned that the heroes of the show are trainers like Bob Harper, winners of the competition, and contestants who are now trainers themselves.  All of these people continue to improve themselves while helping others.  Giving to others is a great attribute of a hero.  On the other hand, celebrities are popular people who have been on the show.  This includes people like Anna Kournikova, Alison Sweeney, NFL players, and Olympic athletes.  All of these people may have helped motivate contestants during the show but it was mainly based off of their popularity.

I was also interested by the rituals that occur during the show.  On a weekly basis the contestants partake in a “Last Chance Workout”, weigh-in, and hope to not fall below the yellow or red line.  The last chance workout is the contestants’ last chance to work any extra weight off before the weigh-in.  The weigh-in is where the contestants find out if their hard work has paid off for the week or if they’re in danger of going home.  If the contestant falls below the yellow line, than they can be voted out by their peers.  Even worse than that is if they fall below the red line because then they’ll be automatically eliminated from the game.

I used to agree with the popular belief that losing weight is difficult.  Now that I’ve watched several seasons of The Biggest Loser, I’ve learned that isn’t really true.  Yes, it does take a lot of hard work to get into good physical shape but it’s not impossible.  When people want to change and are willing to put in the work, they can achieve anything.

 

I knew that there were formulas for reality television shows but I hadn’t really broken The Biggest Loser down to understand what its’ formula was.  During this class, I was able to identify five steps in the show’s formula.  They start the contestants in group training, the contestants go through about a month of giving excuses as to why they can’t change, the contestants participate in reward challenges, a weekly elimination challenge is held, and finally a winner is crowned “Biggest Loser” at the finale.  Even knowing what the formula is, I’ll continue to watch the show because each season is different and the contestants all bring something different to the show.