I feel bad for Kim Lyons. I'm currently watching Season 4 of the US' The Biggest Loser. Aside from the product placement - which is frikking hilarious - there is very little else to smile about. The show is addictive, fun, inspirational and I'm sure has saved lives - more than Big Brother anyway - but the emphasis on conflict this series is making it a slight trial to watch. For those who haven't experienced the brilliance that is the show, I shall outline:
A group of overweight people try to lose weight. The person who loses the most at the end wins.
And that is pretty much it. NBC, however, are very clever, and have realised that people like conflict, drama, and... well, conflict and drama. So, the group of overweight people gets split into 2 teams, moved to a location in California, where they don't get to speak to their families, and each team is given a personal trainer. At the end of every week they "weigh in" on a set of scales one of the contestants claimed were so big you could "see them from space." All of the weight lost is added up, and the team who's lost the most amount of weight "wins." The team that loses have to vote out one person from that team. The logical mind would say that it's a team game, you vote out the person who helps the team total the least. Am I right? Yes? Good. To stop this from happening - there would be no point in showing a highly charged, emotional elimination because the outcome would be obvious - at the end of the series (or "season" if you're American) the person who remains in the game (ie, hasn't been voted out) and loses the most weight wins more than $200,000. They also all live in the same house, eat together, train together, socialise with each other, so it becomes a little less about the numbers and more about personality.
This scenario worked for a couple of years, the format was sold and now airs in more than 20 different countries and has made stars of the personal trainers who coach the teams, most obviously the original US trainers, Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper. The fairytale came to a slightly rough ending when Jillian left after 2 years because the show had become more about the game and less about the health of those involved. Good for her. She was duly replaced and Kim Lyons became the new head of the Red Team. I did not think I would like Kim Lyons when she showed up in Season 3, which I watched last week, but I do. I think she is a nice person, a good trainer and someone I would very much like to have a chat with. So, all well and good. After 1 season of this harmonious set up, Jillian returned. And this is where I begin to feel sorry for Kim Lyons. In a surprise reveal to the Red Team (Kim's team) and the Blue Team (Bob's team) Jillian returned two weeks into the series, debuting her Black team, to the obvious delight of Bob and the seeming frustration of everyone else. The Black Team creamed the other teams for several weeks and cracks begin to appear.
The teams all get flown to Jamaica, with no gym and the temptations of the outside world. This is the point at which things start to go bad for Kim and I feel awful for her. In this series, she can't catch a break and my girl crush, Jillian Michaels, doesn't seem to like her. Both in front of her, and in the interview sections of the show, Jillian has totally undermined her, first criticising her for not forbidding her team to drink whilst in Jamaica (incidentally, one of them did and posted a massive weight loss, whilst Jillian's team - some of whom she screamed at - didn't drink and lost the similar amounts of weight, if memory serves), then offering to coach one of Kim's team and proceeding to criticise Kim for not pushing said team member (Amy) hard enough. Perhaps it is cosmic justice that Amy proceeded to lose no weight whatsoever in her first week with Jillian.
Amy requested the switch because, after Kim's Red Team lost yet another weigh-in, and Kim said publicly before an elimination that there were stronger players on the team than Amy. This is true. Amy doesn't like this. Fine. Amy does something nasty, mean and unnecessary. As I mentioned above, she switches teams and publicly calls out Kim for being a bitch. Very uncool.
I have not finished the series, nor have I even finished the episode with the drama about the team switch up (I'm watching as I type) but I already know that Kim does not get any of her team into the finals. Whether or not it's because Bob and Jillian trained their teams better, or if they had better team members, who knows. I'm not qualified to comment, and wouldn't want to speculate. Maybe because I haven't finished the series, I should keep my mouth shut (or my fingers still).
However, Amy is a contestant who clashed with someone who was forcing her to beat the crap out of her own body day after day. Something was going to snap. No, it is Jillian's reaction to Kim that has pissed me off. The "battle" between the two women was picked up on by The Catfight Report (google it, it seems rather sexist so I won't be linking to it) and Jillian was deemed the "winner" of the Catfight. Whatever that means. Feelings get hurt and I can't see that it helped anyone, so I guessing "winning" is relative.
I think contestant Amy's over-reaction was exactly that - an over-reaction - and I think that Jillian asking Amy if she wanted to switch teams in front of all of the contestants, fellow trainer Bob and Kim herself (not to mention the rest of the world who were watching) was unnecessary. Not cool, Jillian, not cool. Yet despite this, if I were to be on the show or in any other way be offered a training session with any of the 8 coaches on the various versions of the show that I watch (US, UK, Aus), I would want Jillian as a trainer, because she's brilliant. She engages with her contestants, helps them, counsels them (as one article put it, until you want to throw up) and her teams clearly worship the ground she walks on. In short, I think she's fab, which is why I think the treatment of Kim Lyons from her is so ridiculous. Ramped up editing seems to be the culprit, zooming in on Jillian looking satisfied when Kim's team aren't doing so well, and placing her comments in her interviews directly after Kim's said something of the complete opposite. Whether on the campus, chatting to the contestants or the other trainers Kim always seems to come off the worst. I'd like to think predominantly this is the editing team providing the drama that NBC wants to market the show, and not anything else.
I find it rather interesting that Kim did not return past the series that I'm currently watching (4) and I'm rather fascinated to see what happens next. This series, for me, will always be overshadowed by my interest in the trainers rather than the contestants, none of whom I have really developed an emotional attachment to. No, Bob Harper is as hot as hell, Jillian Michaels is my girl and Kim Lyons is one very cool lady, with a fitness level I would kill for, and they make for brilliant (if difficult to watch) TV.
Hell, I don't even know what I'm blogging about anymore. I just wanted to put it out there: I feel sorry for Kim Lyons. She got the rough end of the stick we call Reality TV.
*Edit*
I finished the episode. One of the guys purposely gained 17lbs (that bastard) and sent home a very deserving guy. Jillian called him out in the kitchen. YES, THANK YOU.
*Edit 2*
Apparently Amy threw the weigh in and lost 0 on purpose because Neil asked her to. For what it's worth, I'm totally sceptical. I see no benefit to anyone in Amy doing this, apart from Amy herself. This season, and number 6, are wrecking my faith in humanity, watching blatant cheating to get ahead and cheat others out of an amazing opportunity for their own monetary gain.
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