If Fat Bodies Are ‘Problems,’ Then We Need New Equations
‘The Biggest Loser’ was the worst vision of a fat future. Fat liberationists are done losing that fight.
In 2003, Hollywood producer David Broome was heading into the locker room after a workout. Outside the locker room door, he noticed a note on a bulletin board that read “Help needed. Please help save my life. Obese person seeking trainer.” Rather than seeing the note as a genuine request for aid, Broome imagined a different possibility. “That’s it,” he said to himself. “That’s the show.” As he recounts in the new Netflix documentary, Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser, that fateful moment sparked the creation of NBC’s long-running competition show, The Biggest Loser.
Amid a boom of reality competition and makeover shows such as Extreme Makeover, Survivor, and American Idol, NBC acquired the show, and Broome was tapped as one of the executive producers. From the moment the first episode aired on October 19, 2004, Americans were hooked. For 10 weeks, audiences measuring in the millions watched 12 fat contestants humiliate themselves in their quest to be crowned the “biggest loser” and awarded a hefty prize of $250,000. And they watched it again and again, for 18 seasons.