One of my dirty little secrets is I sometimes watch reality television. Not obsessively or full-time, but there are a few shows I catch now and then (i.e. fanatically). It has always been something I knew was at best a diversion and at worst a complete waste of time and deterioration of brain matter.
Until I watched The Biggest Loser for the first time.
My Dad had mentioned the show about a week before. He had seen it while channel surfing and thought it was pretty good. My interest was piqued, knowing that my Dad usually has no use (smart man) for reality television.
Of course I had heard of The Biggest Loser. It is a televised challenge to see who can lose the most weight. My impression (having never seen the show) was that it must be a humiliating exercise for the contestants and that the producers would probably profit from the embarrassment.
I was wrong.
My Dad told me about how the contestants work hard to lose the weight and they set a good example for those watching who also need to lose weight. They are Everyman and Everywoman and it is inspiring to watch them achieve their goals in a healthy manner through good nutrition and exercise.
One challenge: a foot race where contestants had to carry several bags over their shoulders packing weights the equivalent to what they lost week-by-week. At the first marker they dropped the first week's weight bag, then the second week's at the second stop, etc.
Hmmm, I thought, sounds interesting. But I still wasn't convinced that it could be anything but degrading to these people they must be exploiting for television profits.
So Wednesday night came around and I noticed that the show was on. Two hours, two installments. I hemmed and hawed but ultimately decided to watch.
The first hour had the two fitness coaches from the show going home to their old high schools to help kids lose weight. What they showed was a shocking display of how much unhealthy food these kids were supplied. The coaches themselves could not find anything they would eat and when one asked what's today's vegetable was they were told, tater tots.
I'm not sure how much the kids in the show would stick to the good habits that were instilled in them during the coach's time there but it was an interesting study of what today's overweight kids are thinking.
Then there was another hour-long installment of the show. Okay, I sat back in my chair with my herbal tea and gave it a shot...my harsh judgmental stance abated by the previous hour's health-conscious attitude.
The second hour was even more moving because it showed these “losers” as real heroes. How sad is it that in our society today taking personal responsibility for your health and welfare would make you a hero! It should be the basic human condition.
But these men and women were on my television screen conducting a very personal journey in front of millions of people.
And the producers were NOT embarrassing them. These weight losers worked hard. The episodes I saw were at the very end of the season and even though one person was sent home as the climax of the episode they are all winners.
They showed one of the losers at the beginning of the series and he could barely get up a hill by foot. He was sitting on the ground taking a break. The trainer came up to him and said, I know it hurts but I am saving your life. He was!
In this day and age of making a quick buck at other people's expense it was refreshing, heartening and inspiring to see a show that put forth such a positive message. Sure, people are making money from the show but nobody ever thought network television was a charity. Did they?
And, in reality (pun intended), how hard is it to choose to do a show that really helps people while you are making money?
A good example on many levels.
