This is not one of the shows which we typically cover but I caught the episode last night and saw something which I found very disappointing. Now as I’ve said I’m not a huge fan of this show but I do think that it does a lot to help people Unlike most reality shows the goal of this show really seems to be to help people. Sure they exploit them a little in the process but over all I think these folks walk away from the show better people than when they walked in both physically and mentally. That’s why I was really disappointed by what I saw last night.

Here’s the setup for what happened: usually there are two teams (three this season) who compete for the highest percentage of weight lose and the losing team has to vote out one of their members. Last night the teams were reorganized into four teams of three. One of the competitors Neil told his former team mates that he was going to throw the competition to ensure that one of the members of his new team would be voted out. Specifically he told them to vote for Jez because is one of the largest threats left on the show. He threw the competition by drinking a coupe of gallons of water right before the weigh-in. Each gallon of water adds approximately 9 lb. of weight. Since it is all water weight, Neil would shed it again quickly without really working to remove the weight like he would if they were fat pounds instead of water pounds. During the weigh-in Neil gained 17 lbs! This is unheard of in Biggest Loser history. His team lost obviously and Jez was voted off the show. When the other players figured out what Neil had done many of them were outraged, including some of his former team mates, and rightly so. This was basically just a dirty trick.

Yes it is a competition and the people losing the most weight have often been voted off for being the biggest threat. This was just two much for me though. It really goes against the basic premise of the show. What’s next, slipping your competitors some cupcakes? Sabotaging their workout equipment? While I’m sure what he did was technically within the rules, I really believe that it completely goes against the spirit of the competition. I hope that the rest of the folks on the show vote his ass off next week no matter what. Hopefully the producers will institute new rules for next season which will prevent this type of dirty play. The normal audience for this show watches it to be inspired not to see the players stab each other in the backs like on other reality shows. The producers of The Biggest Loser better realize this or I think they’ll suffer in the ratings.

Sir Linksalot: The Biggest Loser