Tuesday Jan. 3rd:

Again a night with only one show. But before we get started a quick word to networks doing political news.  I'm tempted to say with all the 24 hour news networks covering everything to death there is no need for special reports, but I understand some people find it important and it does serve a place.  That being said DON'T interrupt network programing every hour to tell me "with 7% reporting, its too close to call." 0.o ???  That's tantamount to breaking into a show to say "this just in, we don't know if it's going to snow tomorrow." or "Breaking News, we still don't know who killed Kennedy."  Anyway on to the show.

I enjoy the biggest loser, it falls into this interesting place within reality shows. The show is almost never edited so that anyone looks like the villain and when it comes to voting people off the other contestants seem to struggle with taking away the opportunity from anyone else, while most reality shows the sentiment is more along the lines of "your keeping me from my million dollars, I cant wait to write your name down jerk-ass." Also most of the people on it are getting some true help with a problem that they have not been able to fix on there own and just being there means they have all ready won. This leads to the show being inspirational, but not always entertaining TV.

I find the show lives and dies on  my ability to connect and form an attachment to a player.  Unlike most reality shows where I end up rooting for some one because they either amuse me or I loathe someone else and therefore the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend.  On the biggest loser it needs to be more than that, I need to identify and see some part of myself within them before I truly become hooked into a season.  On that note I found last season to be one of the worst, no one was interesting or compelling.  The closest thing I can relate it too is on Big Brother when someone thinks they must be well liked by the public, because they are a good person in real life, like those girls that sat around crying after Jesse was voted out complaining that now one of the "bad" people was going to win all the while they were portrayed like nasty evil jerks and Jeff and Jordan were shown to do no wrong.  That's what last season was like, a bunch of people who were sure they were the "America's Darling" of the season while in reality they were boring and vapid at best. So I have high hopes for this season because there is no way it can be as bad as the last one.

I'm not a fan of couples seasons.  It always gives an unfair advantage to the child of parent children teams because the parent always volunteers to go home first, it's basically like bringing a 300 pound immunity idol into the game with you, so you know your safe the first time you are up for elimination.

I'm also not a fan of the fight to get on the ranch challenges.  They don't work for two reasons.
1. The audience has no idea who anyone is so there is no emotional investment.  It was just last night that I watched it and I have no clue the names of either player who went home or anything about them outside of they were brother and sister, black, and wearing light blue shirts. 
2. Anyone who has ever watched the show knows that they are given a challenge to do something at home and try and earn their spot on the ranch half way through the season.  Now that won't stop all the other contestants from being shocked and amazed when they return even though they do the same thing every single year.
It also seems mean, to let people, who are in true need of the help they are about to be given, get so close only to snatch it away from them.  All this does is make the producers seem like exploitative jerks. I do however like the 50 pound goal, it has the right amount of weight loss to show they are working and deserve to go back, but not so much that they have figured out how to succeed and don't need the ranch.

As for the competition itself. I laughed out loud when the grey guy fell while running, I then felt bad about laughing when I found out he hurt himself (not so bad that I didn't rewind it and watch him fall again). And really NBC? The show makes up 13% of your current line up, you cant spring for a better way to ring in than the peel and stick lights from the infomercial?

I loved the splitting of the teams.  It takes away all the advantage I talked about earlier and adds some new wrinkles that if they play out could make this a very entertaining season.  The way the green-red team member has open hatred for the blue-red team member while at the same time her brother is on a team with his brother is the first example such wrinkle, but I hope its not the last.

Other random thoughts:

If I ever live in a house the has a giant gate blocking the driveway, I'm going to make huge cursive letters of my initials to hang on it.

Who names their son "Chism", bet the school yard bullies were never able to come up with any way to tease him about his name.  In fact from here on out I shall refer to him as Mulva.

The shows two hours long, how can they not have time to show the initial weigh-ins?  Its one of my favorite parts.  How are we supposed to enjoy these peoples highs if we don't first see them at their lows?

Why come on the show if your just going to quit after one week? I get you think your doing the noble thing and falling on your sword to spare a team mate and I understand you miss your family, but there is no way you could have learned enough to fix yourself and you come across as a quitter who took the spot on the ranch from someone who would really want it, like that black guy in the blue shirt whose name I cant remember.