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NBC's 'Loser' Has Hopes of Second Winning Season

Posted on: Saturday, 3 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Can you feel the burn?

The second season of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" might not keep you on the edge of your seat quite like "Survivor," but it will hook you with the emotional and physical roller coaster that its 14 contestants must go through as they fight the battle of the bulge.

The best part: The prize money that so often appears to be the motivation to reality TV contests doesn't seem to mean as much to this cast.

"The money's nice, but it's not going to change your life nearly as much as being here is," Matt, a 28-year-old former college athlete, says in the first episode.

Once on the brink of becoming an Olympic wrestler, Matt admits that at 339 pounds, he let himself go. Like his former castmates, Matt's looking to change his life not with money, but by altering his lifestyle.

While "The Biggest Loser" in the end walks away with $250,000, what the contestants desire most is to be happier, healthier and not quite so hefty.

In today's society when obesity is at the heart of America's battle to be healthy, this show provides not only motivation to its contestants, but also to those of us viewers who could afford to shed a few pounds.

Although they're provided with all the tools to meet their goal, such as state-of-the-art exercise equipment and tough fitness trainers, the tools might not prove to be enough.

For some the exercise is too intense - Matt vomited three times during the first workout round with the men's trainer, Jillian Michaels.

For others, it's too emotional and the team competitions present challenges too great to overcome.

The most intimidating part, however, are the scales the size of my bathroom used for the weekly weigh-in. When unveiling the scales, host Caroline Rhea told contestants the scales are like the friend you love and hate "because it always tells you the truth."

To see who sheds the pounds and who's the first to get booted from the house, watch the 90-minute premiere of "The Biggest Loser" at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13.

Source: Bangor Daily News

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