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Biggest Loser targetted by Today Tonight

A Biggest Loser finalist required stitches after a wrap party, which was reason enough for Today Tonight to take a dim view on its merits.

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Today Tonight last night managed to piggyback on the ratings success of The Biggest Loser (Monday’s top rating show) by attacking the series in a story.

Ex-contestants, friends of ex-contestants, health experts and media commentators all raised questions about everything from its rapid weight-loss to the sudden lack of a TV spotlight for its participants.

TT accused finalist Leigh Westren of over-drinking at a wrap party and falling over and requiring stitches to his head.

Criticism of the show’s health regime isn’t new, and may even be valid. But without having a spokesperson from the show in the story it’s not so readily clear.

The Biggest Loser finale on Monday did however feature some former winners seated in the audience, which is usually a sign of good faith.

For the record, Nine premieres Big tonight, which may also give cause for controversy. In all likelihood it will be MasterChef that wil soon become 6:30 fodder.

Meanwhile, someone is probably nursing a sore head, but given it was exactly the same fate as Doctor Who‘s Matt Smith on the weekend, he’s probably in good company.

27 Responses

  1. i hate TT and ACA they should not be allowed on tv and another thing about theese shows is that both matt white and tracy grimshaw are talented people whos talents are very wasted fronting the sh*t shows like ACA an TT

  3. I saw this and was absolutely horrified as a fan of The Biggest Loser at their claims. Their advertisements allured to some kind of fight that ended in a ‘blood-bath’ involving my favourite contestant Leigh so I naturally tuned in.

    Turns out it was little more than a 23 year old guy having a little too much to drink (supposedly) and happening to fall down the stairs and lose some blood.

    For goodness sake, time and time again The Biggest Loser shows us countless contestants who lives are changed not harmed as TT suggested, and countless times former contestants return with continuing success stories and as key motivators to the new arrivals each year.

    Perhaps TT is more obsessed with ratings than fact, and not TBL with ratings over health/safety as suggested in this horrid report.

  5. TT haven’t dealt in credible journalism since… (I don’t know how to complete that sentence). The positives of The Biggest Loser experience FAR outweight the negatives. Same cannot be said of Today Tonight.

  6. TT and ACA would not have a new idea between em
    Just jump on coat tails of a ten success
    ACA ran masterchef catchup last night.
    very lazy indead.
    Long live George at 6.30 and give these trashy shows a miss

  7. Yeah, i agree this was quite an odd story. I’m not sure exactly what angle TT were taking with this. Were they criticising Leigh for drinking to excess, were they criticising the fleeting nature of reality show fame or were they blasting the rapid weight loss methods used on the show? It was a bit of a dog’s breakfast, and i’m not really sure what they were trying to say. I have never watched TBL, so i can’t comment one way or the other on their weight loss methods, but from what I have seen in articles it does appear to be extreme, so perhaps criticism is warranted on that front, but the rest of the story was nonsense.

  8. It doesn’t matter what the meat of the story is.. as long as a show from another network has mud flung at it, some will stick. And that’s why the promos are more important to seven than the story. A promo will be seen by more people than the story.. so as long as it’s barely legal, that’s all that seven cares about.

  9. i really didnt get what the angle of the story was. was it him hitting his head while drunk? was it about the health regime of the show? was it about drinking heavily after a long time of not drinking? or was it to just bash TBL? it was all over the place. very poor story from TT

  10. In regards to the training regime, people have to remember at the end of the day it’s a contest. If you want to win the money then you have to loose the most weight the quickest.

    If you’re not interested in doing that then don’t go on the show.

  11. Peter Meakin should be ashamed to let a crap story like this go to air. It was not what the promos claimed. The guy fell over. Gees, better keep the cameras out of Seven management meeting in Sydney.
    As for “Permanent weight loss requires permanent change to lifestyle” – well, hell, we all know that (I think). Go back to the pizza and coke and stop exercising and of course the kilos will roll back – and faster than they went.

  12. Wow.. if being drunk was all that was necessary to have a TT investigation.. they could have a field day breath testing their management and celebrities.

  13. Seven! The home of rubbish! The home of tabloid trash! The home of annoying tv personalities! The home of Kyle Sandilands! The home too many ads! The home of too many stuck up and unlikable executives!

    Today Tonight need to stop being so trashy. It has damaged the network’s reputation to the point that I can no longer watch any of their news and current affairs. It helped me get into Neighbours a few years back and I should have switched sooner.

    If people watched shows based on the shows themselves and not based on what network they are on, Seven would be last ! Thats right! Last! In the past three years I have stopped watching many of 7’s shows and found new favs on other channels. Last night I found Nine to have more watchable shows then Seven and yet Seven had a big win yet Winners and Losers only got 1.2 million.

  14. I don’t watch TT or TBL so can’t really comment, but it is worth repeating that this sort of weight loss is frowned on by actual health professionals – as opposed to TV “experts”. Permanent weight loss requires permanent change to lifestyle in your normal environment (not on an artificial TV show) and at a rate of 1-2kg per month. Otherwise “fat remembers” and all the lost weight is usually regained in a year or so. Sad but true.
    That said, congrats to all those contestants for enduring the ordeal.
    And it’s not surprising the boy got drunk & fell over – he weighs half what he used to and is going to be a ‘two pot screamer’ from now on, lucky fellow!!

  16. I seen the promos and they were making out like it was a big smash between the contestants. Couldn’t be bothered to watch as the show is aimed at low lifes

  17. what? over-drinking at a wrap party? omfg.. take that you ‘deal or no deal’ host! and give the guys a break.. they’ve tortured themselves for weeks, they deserve a litre of “more than water” 😉

  19. What an utterly pathetic show Today Tonight is. It’s not a current affairs show, it’s an easy opportunity to slag shows from other networks. It’s the sole reason why I want Negus to rate well, so maybe (just maybe) they’ll axe TT. I’m going to start hating them even more now as they usually tend to target Masterchef, which always annoys me.

  20. they attack any successful show that isn’t on their network. just look at the stupid stories they had about master chef last year

  21. That’s why I don’t watch TT and ACA, they are crap and have nothing to do with current affairs,. It’s so good to have another alternative at 6.30 now, George is doing a great job at providing us with a decent current affairs show.

  25. I think there are certain points to be raised of TBL training regime they’re thrown into intense workout regimes however these people need discipline and they need to be pushed; that is something they have lacked and hence they become morbidly obese.

    I used to weigh 120kgs myself and am now down at a healthy 87kgs. If I had the chance to go on The Biggest Loser I would have though being 6’3″ tall I doubt they would have taken me as I wasn’t as extreme as most contestants featured.

    Ex-Contestants are typically quite fond of the show; it changed their lives what do they not have to be grateful for? They’re thin, they fit into regular clothes, they are healthy and their lives have changed for the better.

    I wish TT would go away with all the rubbish that they serve up.

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