It doesn't matter WHAT legal agreement they come up with. If someone has a heart attack on their set, they'll get sued big time. Gross negligence is never covered, by any contract.

I'll grant all of you all of your critiques of the Biggest Loser--all excellent points, observations and concerns. But, I watched the first season of the Biggest Loser and it inspired me to haul my @ss off the sofa, put down the cookies, start counting calories, start exercising and to change my life. I watched it and thought, ****, if they can do it, so can I. I haven't watched another season after the first, but I have fond feelings for the program.

That said, I'm not an idiot so I did my own research and developed my own plan and came up with my own exercise program. But the show really did provide the impetus for me to DECIDE to lose weight. And I think the decision is the hardest and most important part.

I should say that, while I realize it isn't real, I still do all of the following every season:

a. Watch
b. Get horribly attached to people on the show
c. Cry like a baby.

They might get sued, but in most states it would be extremely unlikely they would be successfully sued as long as the show made the risks clear, and stressed that participation was voluntary. In this country, adults do have a right to do idiotic things, and in many cases it is not illegal to capitalize on on someone else's stupidity. In most states I believe it's still legal to watch someone commit suicide (as long as you don't assist in any way) without being obligated to prevent it. You could videotape someone committing suicide (as long as they knew you were doing so), and you could then sell the video, and in many states doing so would be perfectly legal.

Reading Kai's blog, it does appear that there was not the supervision that the show implies. Maybe they are opening themselves up for a lawsuit, maybe they've already calculated in the cost of lawsuits (it's been known to happen). Maybe Kai is exaggerating for personal reasons, but if as she states in her blog that the nondisclosure agreement has ended, we may be hearing alot more "behind the scenes" stories.

From the quote Amanda posted, it still sounds to me like most of the weigh-ins are a week apart. The writer said it only happened occasionally that it went longer than 7 days ("...This only happened a few times during filming..."). In the end, it's still an average of 1 week per weigh-in (assuming they even cut the next weigh-in period short to make up for the extended one--maybe they just build in an extra week or so to allow for the periods that go longer?).

I agree a million and ten percent that it is unfair to compare men's and women's weight loss (or percentage of weight loss). A guy starting at over 400 pounds can easily be healthy at less than half of his starting weight, but a woman starting at, say, 250 would be hard-pressed to be healthy at only 125, especially with the amount of muscle they are building (unless she's about 4' 10 ). A man has won every season so far, and until they separate the men and women (or somehow kick off all the men so ONLY women are left in the finals), a man always will.

That diet is just like the Flat Belly Diet that I saw on the Today Show with Liz Vaccariello who is Editor-in-Chief of Prevention magazine. Both sound like good ways to eat.

http://www.prevention.com/cda/articl...lly.diet!.food

mandallin - glad to know that i'm not the only "crybaby" (and i don't mean this in a bad way)...i bawl all the time at emotional things...oh well there's always got to be some people who are emotional (and not in a bad way)...heck there's been some kodak commercials that make me tear up LOL

This show is definitely not perfect, but I think a lot of people are watching and more shows like this will be popping up. We are the fattest nation and if this brings publicity to that fact and people start waking up....I'm all for it. I know it motivates me! I do wonder at the fact that someone hasn't had a heart attack yet, during the beginning stages. It just seems so extreme.

Keep in mind that they probably also take "artistic license" with the exercise shots... In other words, they show the people at the height of a strenuous workout. For all we know they are being coached to grimace! I'm not saying they aren't working hard, but I do think that they are not constantly over the top as it is portrayed on the show.

Jay

I think the show is what it is -- entertainment and reality tv. I'm a bit tired of the constant Jillian shots ("make her CRY" "GET UP OFF THE FLOOR -- NOW" "FASTER") that are clearly there to add to the drama. It also seems that the amount of weight lost weekly is getting bigger and bigger and BIGGER each season. I remember in season 1, it was 3-5 lbs/week. Now it seems that anything less than double digits is considered as "failure". I am also getting a bit tired of the product placement segments -- "diet jello!" "sugar-free gum!" and my FAVORITE "Brita water filters give you cleaner TASTING water" whilst filling up their nalgene bottles (just removed from the market in one of our major Canadian sports retailers due to health concerns re: plastic leeching into the water).
BUT, it IS entertaining, so really, at the end of the day, what the heck do I know????
Maya

Unfortunately, that constant product placement is commonplace in almost all television & movies today!

The reasons Mandalinn lists are why I prefer VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. It's more "realistic" in that the contestants go back to their everyday life in between weigh ins. Though some have resorted to unhealthy behavior to lose weight. Also, I like the fact that they don't vote anyone off the show (but they have each team pick a member to switch with the other team). So you can see everyone's progress week to week. They have a psychologist as well as a nutritionist and trainer to address the psychological reasons people overeat. What's interesting about these shows is they don't address (or at least when I've watched) the monthly fluctuations in women's weight. I think that should be addressed. And they should include inches lost, bp/cholesterol for all contestants, not just the most obese.

I'm more OK with the Brita product placement than the 100 cal packs. You know that Bob and Jillian don't really encourage people to eat what is essentially portion controlled junk food.

I get the idea of product placement, and that it is everywheres. But what drives me NUTS is the almost PLANNED commericial within the show. You know, where they round everyone up and a trainer says something like "OK, we're going to learn how to eat properly. Here is a 100 calorie snack pack of X. Eat them." IF the products were prominently displayed it would irk me less. But the actual ad drives me nuts. (I know American Idol does this too, with fake "talk sessions" based around junk food products -- drives me nutso, too!).
And I know that Brita water filters are basically carbon filters that mount onto your taps. In studies, the actual amount of impurities removed by Brita in real-life situations is overestimated by the company by around 50% (i.e. half as effective as claimed), for a variety of reasons (length of time in contact with the water, short lifespan of the filter, etc...).
http://www.mikexstudios.com/archives...water-filters/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/co...led-water.html
Which is why they say "cleaner TASTING water" and not "cleaner, purer water". Marketing. Drives me nuts!!!!
Maya

ps. be sure to check the source of your bottled water, too: Dasani is filtered municipal tap water from Brampton and Calgary city sources here in Canada: Aquafina is also filtered municipal tap water.