The Biggest Loser axed from Sunday night television
Ten’s The Biggest Loser: Transformed has been pulled from Sunday night television after its abysmal ratings this season.
The Biggest Loser: Transformer trainers Shannan Ponton and Libby Babet
The body transformation show will instead air Monday through to Thursday in the competitive 7.30pm timeslot, while season eight of US mockumentary comedy Modern Family is set to replace The Biggest Loser in the Sunday night 7pm timeslot.
The Biggest Loser announced a revamp in 2016 which saw trainers Michelle Bridges and Steve “Commando” Willis booted off the show. This year’s trainers consist of Sydney personal trainer Libby Babet and long-standing trainer Shannan Ponton.
The Biggest Loser did not air a season last year, returning to television on March 14 this year, pulling a measly 450,000 viewers for the premiere.
Speaking on the debut of this year’s The Biggest Loser Transformed, Network Ten chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, said: “The Biggest Loser: Transformed is a strong, positive and entertaining show and we are confident Australians will embrace it. Judging it on the basis of one night’s overnight TV ratings is premature. The feedback from critics and on social media has been extremely positive. The transformations of the contestants over the next eight weeks are amazing.”
The ratings have continued to fall for the program in 2017 seeing 387,000 metro viewers last Wednesday night, 305,000 on Sunday night and 335,000 last night.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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I do not claim to be a guru or a legend, I simply understand the nature of theatre, and I did warn (regularly) more than a year ago that ten was in strife, and would slip further if it didn’t alter its trajectory. So called reality television, caters to the lowest plateau, the “mindless majority” as it used to be called.
Not only do they consume voraciously, but it is a very difficult group about which to make logical predictions.
They are largely without discernment and will follow the trends, as moths follow candle light, the difference being that moths are looking for light, most of the low level viewing plateau are searching for nothing, preferring to be spoon fed by networks at the flat screen feeding trough, usually until, stuffed with gruel, they fall asleep.
Good television is not lead by dollar grabbers or bean counters, it is run with an element of risk and an occasional dash of reckless abandon, but the mainstay is a good programming dept, with selective ideas people, with entertainment, news and current affairs, and sports people, who actually know what they are doing and what they are talking about, not just washed up players, and other participants, selected because they were once popular or household names. Selective and tightly controlled programming entertains, educates, stimulates minds, promotes family interests, and develops a viewing audience for now and for the future.
Variety is the spice not only of life, but also of good entertainment; not the mindless isomorphic projections of cheap ideas, moving images and cackling common voices, known as reality television.
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