This won’t win me big brownie points with the show, but I hate to see this happen on a show I really enjoyed.
On 2/25/2009, The Biggest Loser: Couples voted off Dane Patterson. He was later shown in the “see them now” section of the episode to have completed a marathon (The Arizona Desert Classic) with his wife at a time of 3:53. It turns out that this was all staged. About halfway through the race, he was transported in a van to the finish line. He was disqualified by the race officials and does not appear in the actual results of the race.
NBC knowingly lied about his accomplishment (a half marathon would still have been a huge deal for him) and it’s tarnished my opinion of the show. Below is a link to another participant of the race who also notes this cheating as well as a link to the results clearly excluding Dane Patterson from the list:
http://melancholysmile.blogspot.com/2009/02/we-did-it.html
http://www.arizonaroadracers.com/Results/desert-classic-races/dc-marathon2009.htm
Update (2/26/2009 – 9:55am)
Apparently there was further info from Dane’s wife posted in the comments on the “Melancholy Smile” blog listed above. The television critic for the Kansas City Star has taken up the banner to get to the bottom of this:
http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/the-biggest-los.html
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Yet another reason to eschew reality television. Interesting that FB actually had a promotional tie-in with Biggest Loser a couple of summers ago. If I had to make that decision again, I probably wouldn’t.
I’ve been amazed at the negative responses I’ve seen on some of the blogs to this criticism of the show. Many people are actually downplaying this whole deal as a minor thing. My concern is that this actually brings the entire show into question. How many other ways have the producers “cheated” on this show to get the outcome they want? Are the scales real? Are they only eating healthy or are they taking dietary supplements on the side? I’m sure the Pattersons couldn’t speak out against this as they would most likely lose their chance to win. They care more about the money than the truth. It’s sad, but there it is. Everything about this show is now questionable at best and it saddens me. All to get ratings. All to get the almighty dollar in the form of branded products to sell. Then again, that has always been the point of the show.
That is so sleazy! I watch those shows for inspiration. I want to see them have real victories!
Just as a follow-up, there was an official statement from NBC… I apologize for posting this so late, but I’ve been pretty busy lately.
http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/biggest-loser-p.html