Ten will stick with its planned live season final of troubled weight loss show The Biggest Loser: Transformed despite the show being shifted to a lunchtime schedule after a poor ratings performance.
The return of The Biggest Loser came after a 12-month hiatus during which the show underwent a a transformation which saw the departure of trainers Michelle Bridges and Steve ‘Commando’ Willis.
The Biggest Loser: Transformed was hosted by Fiona Falkiner with trainers Shannan Ponton and Libby Babet seeing a group of Australians tackling “relatable weight issues and undergoing transformations of their bodies and minds”.
However, the show soon came under fire for the contestants not being particularly overweight, with the show struggling to pull decent audience figures.
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At the start of the month, Ten dropped The Biggest Loser from primetime after a fortnight of dismal ratings with the rest of the show airing at lunchtimes instead.
The low ratings for The Biggest Loser – which at times dipped below metro audiences of 300,000 and was even beaten into fifth place in its timeslot by overseas railway journey documentaries on SBS – forced Ten to make the move.
Earlier this month, Ten’s chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, told Mumbrella: “It is true that The Biggest Loser: Transformed did not resonate with viewers as we had hoped and we will fix that part of the schedule for 2018.
“The Biggest Loser: Transformed team did a great job but very occasionally these things don’t work. A variety of factors may have led to its performance, including the timing of the show, the strength of the competition and possibly a bit of brand fatigue.”
The live season final of The Biggest Loser: Transformed will air at 11am on Monday May 1.