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.