Posts Tagged ‘season 4’

Another year, another cadre of fatties looking to become less fat for a couple of months and then go on to pimping diet shakes to make ends meet. Won’t somebody think of the children?

Eep! Michelle is talking to me through the television!
Shannan and Michelle start the show by berating us all for being fat smokers who won’t walk up stairs or something.
Then Mr Voiceover Man tells us previous contestants have lost over 2,500kg.

Cue the new fatty montage!

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The official website has put up the episode schedule for season 4 of The Biggest Loser Australia… and it looks exactly the same as last year’s schedule.

For those who have yet to see it:

• Sunday: Weigh-in
• Monday: Elimination
• Tuesday: The Warehouse
• Wednesday: Temptation
• Thursday: The Walk
• Friday: Major Challenge

For the uninitiated, each contestant weighs in on Sunday. In previous seasons the team which lost the least weight, based on percentage of their total weight, would face Elimination on Monday night. Expect something similar this year, with a Couples-y twist!

The Warehouse was a new addition last season and one which was widely regarded as pointless and a waste of the timeslot. Will they have taken the criticisms on board? Last year The Warehouse involved one team getting their choice of food for the week from two available options. They may have had to choose between red meat and white meat, for instance. The idea being that the teams would have to discuss the pros and cons of each choice, helping to inform the general public. In reality it lead to more bickering between the teams and many of the “choices” were no-brainers like canned goods versus fresh produce.

Temptation is where the contestants are tempted with some unhealthy foods in exchange for a prize, or a chance at a prize. Prizes have ranged from televisions to personal chefs and massages and even the much-prized immunity from elimination. It’s dramatic virtually every week and those who succumb to Temptation give great TV when their trainers put them through punishing exercise routines in response.

The Walk is another unique part of the Australian version of the series and is even more widely reviled than The Warehouse, yet it is apparently returning this year. The Walk lets one contestant pick up a random stone which has a hidden message written on it. Sometimes these messages can be fairly benign – one team gets a catered dinner. More often they completely circumvent the general course of the game by offering the power of instant elimination to the rock chooser or the ability to add 5 or even 10 kilograms to a team’s weight. The only instance of The Walk not being a cynical manipulation has been its use to select which reserve contestants would be put into the main game after a couple of contestants were forced to drop out due to health issues.

Friday night brings us the “major challenge” of the week. Past challenges have included tugging airplanes across the tarmac in a race between the teams, scaling all the stairs in a very tall office building, climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a variety of slugfests at the house such as lugging lumber or running on the treadmills for hours on end. Always a great way to end the week!

And just a note to go out on – the Season 4 Contestant pages are up here on the Recap. You can access the very sparse profiles from the menu above. There’s very little information available on the official site as yet but once more becomes available I’ll get them updated.

Two more sleeps!

For all the googlers arriving at this post, the new season has started! Go to the front page of The Biggest Loser Recap and start reading!

Many of you have probably already seen the ads on Channel 10 for this, but for those who have not it has been announced that The Biggest Loser 2009 will be a “Couples” version of the show.

So that they don’t have a procession of annoying husband and wife teams of fatties, they’ve opened it up to a fairly loose interpretation of the word. Brother and sister teams are okay (though I’d imagine they’d frown on brother-sister husband and wife teams) as well Mums and sons, even work mate teams are permitted… As are grandparent/grandchild teams.

I’m a little horrified at the thought of the last one, I don’t mind telling you.

Applications are now being accepted via the website, so if you know two fat people, suggest they roll over that way? I’m sure that will make them love you all the more!

I believe if you go to the official site you can also see the ad with Shannan and Michelle touting the new season applications, but you should really try to catch it on TV for yourself so that you too can experience the hilarity of Shannan mouthing Michelle’s lines.

He still has a ways to go when it comes to presenting for the televisions.