Watching The Biggest Loser

One of the shows my wife and I watch regularly each week is The Biggest Loser.  We have been DVR’ing the show for the past two seasons.  We feel like much of the show’s time is wasted on needless dramatics, product placements and commercials.  It feels to us like a 90-minute show that is drawn out over 2 hours.  It bothers us so much that we may not even watch the next season.  So I decided this week’s letter would be to The Biggest Loser to see if we can get them to make some changes.

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To The Producers of The Biggest Loser,

My wife and I are regular viewers of your TV Series, The Biggest Loser.  We find the concept and spirit of the show to be very inspirational.  The consistency of the positive results amongst contestants is a tribute to the motivational power of the show and the trainers, along with the willpower and persistence of the contestants themselves.

We had watched the show on occasion in the earliest seasons, but when Season 5 came along we found ourselves setting our personal schedules around Tuesday nights.  If we have missed any episodes through seasons 5, 6, and 7, it was very rare.  We are hooked.

As Season 7 comes to an end we have been contemplating whether or not we plan to invest so much time in the next season.  Unfortunately we have concluded that without a few changes in the show’s format, we will not.

Our main complaint lies in the amount of time the show, as it is presented, is completely wasted to the viewer.  The first hour of the show is generally wonderful.  We love watching the contestants work in the gym and compete in challenges.  Interviews over this time period generally put the contestants’ competitive spirit on display and are fun to watch.  The problem lies in the second half of the show.

The weigh-ins are entirely too long and the extended drama seems repetitive week after week.  All the chatting, beeping, “yellow-line” drama mixed amongst multiple commercial breaks seems long and drawn out.  You need to come up with a quicker way to get through the weigh-ins.  The same thing occurs in the voting procedures.  Almost every time someone votes, they give the same tear-laden “I’m sorry” speech as everyone else that has had to vote in the past 7 seasons.  Unless there is anything new and different being said, it’s time to limit these silly speeches and edit out any whiny, repetitive unnecessary drama.

Our next complaint in regards to the show’s format is that entirely too much time is wasted when you get back from commercial.  There is no need for a repeat of the previous 15 seconds of the show before it went to commercial.  This doesn’t happen in sitcoms; there is no need to rebuild the drama by showing us the same exact scene that we just saw a moment ago.  We’ve been watching the show all along and you not only punish us with the dramatic lead-in to a commercial, but then you waste our time by repeating the action.  Let’s just pick up where we left off!

We know that you have to pay the bills for the show.   The rent and upkeep on the ranch alone must be quite expensive.  But by far our biggest complaint is the over-commercialization of the show.  The show is laden with product placements.  Each season it is suggested to the contestants that they chew Extra Sugar Free gum (as if any other brand of sugarless gum wouldn’t do).  We are shown how Brita water filtration systems are used.  You have shown me how to cook my dinner in a Ziploc Steamer bag multiple times.  And last week, when Bob Harper suggested he show a contestant how he could eat smarter, I said to my wife, “I bet he takes them to Subway.”  The next screen shot was the Subway logo outside the store as Bob led the contestant inside.

You would think that with all the product placements that you could afford to reward the viewer with less commercial time and more show.  That seems like a fair trade-off to me.  Yet the show’s commercial interruptions are long and frequent.  Though the show takes place over 2-hours, it seems like it is a 90-minute show that is over-extended at the viewer’s expense. 

It is the culmination of these items that have driven us to watch Season 7 only on DVR so that we can fast-forward through all the commercials and repeat segments.  It seems as if you have reached a point of diminishing returns if you force people like us to use the DVR.  If not for DVR, we probably would have ceased watching this season altogether because the over-commercialization is unbearable.

If we find no change in the Season 8 format, we will probably cease watching the show.  While we are fans, we are also not suckers.  It often feels that while being bombarded by commercials, the only Biggest Loser is us.  We thank you for your time and hope that you consider making some appropriate changes next season so that we can continue watching.

Sincerely,

Scott Riecke