If the demographics represented by contestants in reality TV are a reliable cross-section of the American population, then “The Biggest Loser” would dictate that the nation is now more than 30% LDS. That's right, until Tuesday night, of the 14 remaining contestants working to lose the most weight on the massively popular reality television show, four of the finalists were LDS.
Unfortunately if this were a reliable cross-section, that would also mean that there is no longer anyone under 18 or over 60 in the population, so I suppose the technical accuracy is questionable.
The finalists have been Dane Patterson and Blaine Cotter, the black team, and Sione Fa and Filipe Fa, the blue team. All four of them are from Arizona where Blaine is a college counselor, Dane is a real estate appraiser, Sione owns a landscaping company and Filipe is a lube technician.
Then Tuesday night, though Dane and Blaine had been big losers all along, in a fluke, their combined total of weight loss for the week was nine pounds, which put their team at the bottom, and one was sent home by vote of the other contestants. In a gesture of magnanimity, Blaine asked the other contestants to vote him off, so that Dane could continue. Amid tears and hugs, they voted Blaine off.
Each week “The Biggest Loser” brings contestants a challenge and a corresponding reward and the object is to see who can lose—and not just a little weight—but a boatload of pounds. What's amazing is that the contestants do. Not only are they on special diets, but what we see on television are the grueling workouts. These are workouts that push our pudgy contestants to a new place. They say the trainers are trying to “kill” them.
Viewers watch because they become attached to the contestants who become like family, whose lives and struggles really matter to the viewing audience. It is fun to think that in this show, the biggest loser (of weight, that is) is the biggest winner.
Of course, American is notorious for its obsession with obesity and its eradication. And if there is one thing that America loves more than weight loss; it's reality TV and the ability to watch other people struggle to gain that motivation and find that success that the viewers at home have probably found and lost countless times.
The week that contestants had to paddle across a lake and get to the top of a mountain. The first girl to the top of the mountain, Tara, a member of the green team, won immunity for the coming elimination as well as a phone call home. The players are completely isolated from friends and family on the ranch, so this was quite the prize, but Tara gave the call to Filipe, an enthusiastic Tongan teammate with a wife and four kids at home.
With the call came a picture of Filipe and his wife, and on the wall behind them was a picture of the temple. I'm sure every LDS person must have screamed when they saw it, and half probably rolled back the show on their television sets to be sure. Filipe came on the show with his cousin Sione; both are very family oriented, but want to prove to their Tongan community that it is ok to be healthy and fit.
Only two episodes after the epic phone call home, the show gave Blaine the chance to go home to surprise his wife and be there for the birth of his fourth baby. If the four kids and Arizona residence weren't big enough clues, the light in his wife's face put us over the edge in our assurance that this guy too is LDS.
I got a little teary watching the couple reunite as she got to see her husband again right when she needed him most, and the doctors set in his arms one more reason for him to work so hard to become healthy again. Blaine came with his cousin Dane who also has a family of five and both cite their families' futures as the most important motivation behind the weight and not just because “they both also have smoking-hot wives who need to be humbled by no longer being the better-looking person in the relationship.”
What makes this show unique in the field of reality TV is that, though it has the inevitable competition element; the feeling that all of them are working together to ultimately be healthier and be the best people they can be garners a support system unlike any other. When the challenge was to paddle across a lake and then race to the top of a mountain, many of the contestants went back to help the last man do what seemed impossible to him and finish the challenge.
Tv.com calls it a “compelling new weight loss reality drama” which is a label I was pretty skeptical of, but as I was searching through clips and episodes, I was immediately drawn in and holding my breath for the weigh-ins of people of whom I didn't even know the names.
Though the blue team (Filipe and Sione) and the black team (Blaine and Dane) are on opposite trainer's teams; rooting for each is easy because it ultimately comes down to which individual couple loses the most weight. So we've got a few weeks before we, the happy LDS viewing public, will have to knuckle down and choose sides for the final winner..
Their online bios and video clips vouch for their enthusiasm, and blog after blog vouches for their characters and intellect. I guess the thing we're all wondering is how is their drive? We'll have to wait and watch the results as they come in and $250,000 and one terrifying weigh-in later we'll have our winner.
