Extreme Makeover: Biggest Loser, I mean Weight Loss Edition

In contrast to my esteemed colleague, Mike, I find that there is very little that I am interested in watching this summer. I am waiting patiently for Royal Pains to start at the end of the month (which I hope to blog about) and trying to prolong the season of Friday Night Lights, which I know is nearing its end and fuming at the prospect of no Mad Men this summer. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I kind of enjoyed EM:WLE last night. As a fan (I'm not really sure that's the right word) of the Biggest Loser, I thought this was just going to be a knock-off show for a different network and while there were some things that were the same, like the fact that after the commercial break (yes, I watched live, GASP!), the show picked up 45 seconds earlier than where it left off, which I find extremely annoying and that everytime there was about to be a reveal of some sort, the show cut to commercial, I actually found this to be much more realistic. First of all, losing a significant amount of weight over the course of a full year, is far more doable then 12 weeks. Second, these people featured on the show are living in their own houses with their temptations and family lives. Third, they only get to see the Bob Harper-like Chris Powell every three month after the initial three month phase. I have to imagine, that these people do a much better job of keeping the weight off then their BL counterparts do.

Also, I did like the fact that the show addresses that there are other complicating factors for these incredibly overweight people, by making the whole skin removal surgery part of the show. It seems that technically, the "contestants" are supposed to lose a certain percentage in order to be eligible for the surgery, but in the very first episode (I watched the last half an hour randomly last weekend), Rebecca didn't lose the correct percentage, but still got the surgery.

I can't say with certitude (a little shoutout to my disgraced Congressman and the ridculousness of "Weinergate") that I will watch every week and when I do I will blog more about the content of the individual show, rather than the general aspects of the show overall, but I was happy to have something to watch as the long summer of reality TV stretches out before me and I am happy to watch something from the Extreme Makeover franchise without Ty Pennington running around like a chicken with his head cut off.

Have a great summer and keep checking back for more!