As many of you know, Steve and I don't have cable or bunny ears. When we turn on our TV, we have two options - Videotapes or DVDs. When I moved into my townhouse in 2002, I didn't like where the cable jack was located in the living room and just never ended up getting cable. When Steve and I got married, Steve was laid off from Pemstar two weeks later, so we held off from getting cable because of the expense. Now that we're in our house, we're both working - albeit part-time, we've still made the decision not to get cable, but for different reasons.
Last night, my parents invited me over and we've started watching the Biggest Loser. My mother-in-law Ruth Ann and sister-in-law Debbie both watch the show and I've heard so much hype about it, so we started watching a few weeks ago. I can see how quickly these reality TV shows become "Must See TV." You begin to care about these people and wish for their success. However, we had to change the channel several times because there was so much arguing between a team. Do I really need to see that? My other complaint is about the trainers. I realize that their job is to motivate, encourage, and challenge the teams, but is it really necessary to yell at them and use a string of obscenities to get them to go five more minutes on the treadmill? And why do they have to eliminate team members? Isn't one of the main components of weight loss a support system? Your best friend, mother, spouse, cousin, is eliminated and now you're working out with strangers and trainers are yelling at you and tempting you with food? Bring on the pizza and chocolate! (I'm a stress and emotional eater, so I wouldn't do very well on this show.)
Anyway, if I were the producer of The Biggest Loser, when the team wins a challenge, instead of being granted immunity, I would offer them a trip together of their choice, give them a day or week at a local spa, give them a gift certificate to their favorite clothing store etc. No one would be voted off or eliminated. Only healthy choices would be offered and there would be classes on how to manage temptation and the behaviors that precede binging. The trainers would be the most highly skilled and wouldn't use yelling as a motivator. I suppose if this were the case, it wouldn't be considered "Must See TV."
If there was a way that Steve and I could pick and choose only those channels that we enjoy watching - Fox News, HGTV, TLC, the History Channel, ESPN, etc., we may decide to get cable. Steve misses watching football and I miss watching home improvement shows, but for now we're content with renting movies or television series at the library. It's free and if we don't like the content, we can just turn it off. As for the Biggest Loser, I have to find out who ends up winning! :-) Stay tuned for next week...