Can people be fat and happy?
"Whoah!" says Fiona Faulkner, host of Channel Ten's reality series The Biggest Loser: Transformed. "Yes. I've been fat and happy. Yeah, of course."
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Trailer: The Biggest Loser: Transformed
Network Ten is relaunching the weightloss reality TV program with a more body-positive message at its core.
It's not a random question. Last year former Loser trainer Michelle Bridges told Australian Story: "I'm yet to meet someone who is morbidly obese and happy." But obviously, content fat people don't apply for TV weight loss shows. Claiming she'd been misrepresented, Bridges said: "If you're happy [and fat], more power to you."
When Falkiner appeared as a contestant on Australia's first season of Loser, in 2006, she shed 30 kilograms. Afterwards, she regained the lot. "I blamed everything on my weight," Falkiner recalls. "I thought, 'If I got skinny, my life would be perfect'."
![Contestant Matt, from the 2014 season of <i>The Biggest Loser</i>, next to the giant screen used in studio weigh-ins.](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/w/1/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
Instead, she became depressed and sought counselling. "My body image issues, low self-esteem, the negativity I had towards myself: it had nothing to do with my weight. It was my mindset ... it made me realise it had nothing to do with the numbers on the scales."
Yet numbers on scales are essential to the Loser franchise, adapted to more than 30 countries since its 2004 US debut. Each week contestants strip down for the spectacle of studio weigh-ins. Giant screens flash the results, revealing who's dropped the greatest percentage of weight – and who's "done poorly".
"The whole f---ing show is a fat-shaming disaster," former American contestant Kai Hibbard told The New York Post. Artie Rocke, from Australia's debut season, says doctors blamed his post-series collapse on his rapid weight loss. Two years later John Jeffrey quit in protest, claiming another contestant was hospitalised "because he was starving himself". Even Ajay Rochester, who presented the program at its peak, has written of "starving to keep my job and make my TV bosses happy".
To better understand these criticisms, it's useful to watch the start of Ten's 2012 season. Focused on singles, it opens with the trainers warning of obesity's hidden costs: "For some ... a life without happiness, without companionship, without love." A shirtless contestant, on the verge of tears, jiggles his belly in the mirror: "What girl's going to want this?" A woman in a bra berates herself: "I couldn't love someone my size."
![Fiona Falkiner, host of <i>The Biggest Loser: Transformed</i>, competed in the 2006 launch season.](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/v/0/u/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
Contestants are screamed at as they crawl through sand and mud. In a later episode each is left in a room called Food Heaven, stuffed with their favourite sweets, pies and soft drinks. The person who eats the most is rewarded with a literal bar of gold – then punished for "giving in".
![A 2012 contestant, with a rope around her stomach, tries to pull her coach in a training exercise.](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/u/r/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
"The trainers used to hate it," says Ten Network executive producer Paul Leadon. "That was television. That was us creating 'moments'. But we were working outside the brief of weight loss.
"It messed with their heads ... it was wrong."
You always felt slightly embarrassed about watching it.
Paul Leadon, Ten Network executive producer
Leadon's comments are no accident. In 2006 Loser averaged 1.33 million city viewers, sinking to 643,000 by 2015. (It was "rested" last year.) Now Ten wants to draw a line under those old seasons. Indeed, local producer EndemolShine Australia hopes to breathe new life into the global franchise. "Everyone is looking at how we go," Leadon says. "If it works, [overseas producers will] all do it."
Ten says The Biggest Loser: Transformed will be noticeably more inspiring, useful and kind. It features lots of practical advice, for instance. The first promo has uplifting music in lieu of screeching trainers. (Only Shannan Ponton remains, joined by new coach Libby Babet.) Rather than being teased with chocolate eclairs, contestants get weekly "mind health" sessions with psychologist Glenn Mackintosh. And they're slimmer to begin with: the foster mum who wants to prioritise her health, the pilot who'll fail his medical if he gets any bigger. Judged by their body mass index – a controversial measure – most are overweight, not obese (making them more "relatable" to us, Ten hopes).
!['I've learned never to judge': Trainer Shannan Ponton, right, with new coach Libby Babet, left, and host Fiona Falkiner.](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/w/y/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
"For a lot of people, Biggest Loser was a guilty pleasure," Leadon says. "You always felt slightly embarrassed about watching it."
Why did previous seasons feature bigger contestants?
![Steph, a contestant on the 2017 season, says she's "not worthy" of wearing a beautiful wedding dress until she hits her ...](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/x/c/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
"It was to use more extreme examples. Almost an element of, 'If you don't get it together, you may end up like this.' If [slimming] is all you're looking at, then a search for very big people makes sense because the weight loss will be greater.
"But with the new way we're approaching the show, in a more holistic sense, it's about transforming yourself. Not just losing weight but transforming your mind, body and attitude."
![Contestant Mary, from the 2014 season, strips down for her first weigh-in.](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/u/d/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
There are two prizes up for grabs: $50,000 for the person who sheds the highest percentage of weight, and $100,000 for the "best transformation" winner. The latter will be picked by viewers in Loser's first live grand finale.
It's a sticky summer's day on set: an old submarine base with stunning views of Sydney Harbour. "We're going to look at the power of your mind and apply it to exercise," Mackintosh says, filming the introduction to a mental workout. He has a TED talk-esque delivery; upbeat and encouraging. The contestants love it.
!['I thought if I got skinny, my life would be perfect': Falkiner reflects on competing in the debut Australian season of ...](/web/20170316131623im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/w/m/6/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gunpv2.png/1489444888037.jpg)
Those who are evicted get access to gyms, and Ponton and Babet provide ongoing nutrition and fitness advice. Ponton, who joined the series a decade ago, says he's grown more empathetic: "I've realised that people can have weight issues that relate to trauma ... I've learned never to judge."
We tour the facilities. Babet's gym is all pastel lights and soothing pot plants, while Ponton's has a boxing ring and the words COMMIT and SPEED in large lettering. There's a new set, dominated by wood panelling. And the "lounge" in which Mackintosh coaches his subjects resembles the lobby of an upscale resort.
But is it enough to win back old viewers – and lure new ones?
Since the show's debut, Facebook and Twitter have exploded. The backlash against the diet industry has grown, along with the fat acceptance movement and a new wave of feminism. (How will audiences feel about Steph, the contestant who won't get married until she hits her "goal weight"?) And we know economic inequality is linked to poor health for those doing it tough. Might it be better to tackle the widening gap between rich and poor, instead of promoting individualised solutions?
Falkiner believes Australians will identify with these contestants. "They're people whose everyday life has gotten in the way, and they've fallen off-track a bit. They just ready to make a healthy mind, body and soul change."
To break with the past, producers pretended to cast for a show called New You. When they revealed the ruse, some applicants insisted they were too slim for Loser. Leadon reassured them: "'This isn't like the old Biggest Loser; we're dealing with body mind and soul – the whole nine yards.' And without fail, they said, 'I'm in! That's The Biggest Loser I've always wanted to see.'"
The network is careful, however, not to oversell its makeover. After all, Loser devotees have stuck by 10 seasons of sweat, tears and meltdowns. "It's not a weight loss documentary," Leadon says. "It's still a soap opera, in essence."
WHAT The Biggest Loser: Transformed
WHEN Channel Ten, premieres Tuesday, March 14, at 7.30pm
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