Archive for the ‘Discussion’ Category

In what I can only assume is a display of disinterest in the “looking for lurve” angle the show has taken this year, the ratings for the debut episode of The Biggest Loser Australia are well down on last year.

Last year the show opened with an audience of 1.42 million. This year a mere 897,000 tuned in.

For those aged 16 to 39 the show lost almost half its audience, going from 646,000 viewers in 2011 to 334,000 last night. Among those aged 25 to 54 it went from 879,000 in 2011 to 485,000.

(Source: News.com.au )

Not great news for the show, though not disastrous enough to justify canning it just yet. Channel 10 will be hoping the prospect of some in-house romance and a proven formula is enough to keep folks in the Biggest Loser camp, rather than swapping over to Channel 9′s Excess Baggage next week.

Time will tell.

One of the young guns in Shannan’s team this year will set a new record for the heaviest contestant ever to appear on the show.

For those who’d rather wait to find out the magnitude during the show, you should stop reading here.

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Those who were around two years ago might remember the announcement before the show aired that one contestant would be effectively erased from existence due to criminal charges being laid in relation to child pornography offences.

Nothing quite so salacious this year, but in the news today is a story regarding one contestant’s eviction from the show due to an overindulgence in alcohol.

News.com.au aren’t saying who, but do reveal it will be one of the male contestants, presumably meaning it will be one of Shannan or The Commando’s charges, barring any team swapping shenanigans.

So, get your bets in now – will it be one of Shannan’s young guns or one of Commando’s old bull brigade? My money’s on one of Shannan’s team!

(Thanks to @wittle_puppy on the Twitters. Send me tips on Twitter – @mythor )

Time to get familiar with another set of names and faces – Season 7′s Contestant pages are now up.

Some quick highlights:

Another “world’s heaviest contestant” this year in the form of Ryan, who looks to be smuggling his own tire into Camp, though he’s not even on Commando Steve’s team.

A first, at least for Australian Biggest Loser, is the inclusion of someone with a disability – Selena is deaf! It’s not clear whether she is profoundly (completely) deaf or whether it’s a partial hearing loss, but being on the “I AM A WARRIOR” team could be interesting. She’s overcome some diversity in her life but she may not be able to hear Tiffiny’s motivational shouting!

“Token Homosexual” will this year be played by Margie, who has played three kinds of football, representing her state in two of them. She also looks just like you’d imagine a mid-30s morbidly obese lesbian footballer would look. Which surely played no part in her selection as a contestant!

Cheesiest quote: “I’m single and ready to mingle” – Lisa. You don’t need to lose weight to get a date, you just have to stop using lines like that!

Elder Statesman: Alex at a (relatively) sprightly 50. In a shocking turn of events he’s most inspired by previous contestant Bob. Though he’s far from alone in citing Bob as a big motivator.

Contestant most likely to be the stupidest: Lydia. Who puts Chris down as their inspirational role model person? Stupid people. That’s who.

And of course my tips on who’ll be the hottest for finale!

For the menfolk: A close race between the budding musician James and the chubbybubby Hamish. It’s hard to tell what’s under the flab with Hamish but he’s young and a bit of weightloss might move him from flabby to just cutely chubby. And James is already not too awful to look at and has the added appeal of being a muso, something the ladies seem to like.

For the ladies: Rebekah. Not even a fair race, she’s already looking pretty fine. Though she’ll need to give up the cigarettes if she hopes to find love with anything but another ashtray.

And who’s going to win? You know what, I’m going bold this year.

Margie will win The Biggest Loser Australia 2012. You heard it here first!

The 2012 season of The Biggest Loser Australia is due to kick off on the 23rd of January. This year we’re back to single contestants, rather than families or couples. They’re also single in the sense of not having a significant other in their life, which will presumably be attributed to their weight even if their singledom is actually related more to them being jerkfaces.

In another twist to the formula this year they’re not just having a battle of the sexes but a battle of the age groups. Tiffiny’s returning to lead the white team and this year it’ll be a group of 4 women all under the age of 30. Michelle’s back too, of course, and her red team will also be all women except over the age of 30. Shannan’s getting a group of under 30 men in blue and The Commando will be taking on the group of over 30s men in black.

This puts Shannan and Commando in the early lead since the men always tend towards losing a lot more weight at the start of the show. But when those initial easy kilograms have fallen off will the men be able to keep ahead of the women?

Another teaser trailer has also appeared on the official site, you can check it out by clicking here. This one has the under-30 James, the over-30 Brenda and the over-30 Alex. It may have been up for a while. If it has, shut up. :)

James looks a little bit like Season 3 Loser Sam – Or is that just me? In any event he doesn’t really look all that big, which doesn’t bode well for his chances, but should mean he’ll come out the other end a lot healthier and happier, which is always nice.

Brenda looks like somebody’s Mum. But that would mean she’d found love at some point. So she couldn’t be on the show. RIGHT?

And Alex is huge! Like, properly rounded. But is 50 too old to handle the rigours of Commando-style training? It worked for Bob, so Alex could be one to watch.

We’re down to four nights a week this year. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 7pm and 8pm.

Are we excited yet?