CBI AUGUST 01 Cover A 1/TOC.QK - Ihrsa

News&KnowHow
The Biggest Loser
A Growing Business
Can reality TV have a real impact
on epidemic obesity?
> Obesity may be one of
the nation’s most serious
health problems, but losing
weight is quickly becoming
one of its most popular—
and profitable—pastimes.
A lot of the credit goes to
reality TV.
The Biggest Loser, the
NBC series that pioneered
the pounds-off-in-public
genre, recently returned to
the air for its second season
with an extended 90-minute
episode. The series, which
attempts to whip ordinary
overweight folk into shape
via exercise, dieting, and notalways-friendly
competition
“celebrates hard work and
rewards discipline,” Ben
Silverman, its executive
producer, assured Reality
TV World. “Hopefully, it
will inspire an overweight
America to get fit.”
That, too, is the professed
goal of The Biggest Loser:
The Workout—a new video
based on the program that’s
just been released by Lions
Gate Home Entertainment
(LGHE). “The Biggest Loser
was one of the most-talkedabout
shows of the year,
drawing huge ratings and
a large and loyal fan base,”
points out Steve Beeks, the
president of LGHE. “The
workout video takes the
issue of being overweight
and gives people real
solutions to accomplish
their weight-loss goals.”
LGHE, which also produces
videos showcasing
yoga, Pilates, and fitness
guru Denise Austin, will
release a second installment
of The Biggest Loser
next year.
The TV incarnation has
also prompted some creativity
on the part of club companies.
Flex Fitness, in Holland,
Michigan, celebrated its 20th
anniversary by producing
its own version of The
Biggest Loser—a threemonth,
weight-loss competition.
“Every person who
signs up for the program
receives a dollar back for
every pound they lose,” club
operator Bob Lamb told the
Grand Rapids Press. And,
earlier, Bally Total Fitness
(NYSE: BFT) conducted a
similar, national campaign.
Among the other reality
TV offerings that are anxious
to have an impact on obesity—
or, at least, perform well in the
sweeps—are VH1’s Celebrity
Fit Club and Flab to Fab;
ABC’s Extreme Makeover;
TLC’s 10 Years Younger;
and Fox’s The Swan.
While networks herald
these programs, many
fitness professionals remain
skeptical. The intense
exercise and extreme dieting
the shows often employ,
they suggest, may create
unrealistic impressions and
expectations and actually
set people up for failure. �
Biggest winner Makeover TV shows have made weight loss a fad
Does WiFi Represent the
Next Generation of Cardio?
New wireless technology allows club
members to exercise virtually anywhere
> In the beginning, there
were wires everywhere,
snaking all over a health
club’s floors. One piece of
cardiovascular equipment
could have as many as five
electrical cords trailing out of
it, producing a tangled mess
and potential safety hazard.
Next came cordless, selfpowered
machines, which
made clubs much neater and
more efficient. But then,
with the advent of exercise
entertainment—e.g., personal
monitors and audio/video
systems—the cords returned.
Today, however, a brandnew
line of wireless, self-powered,
cardio units has done
away with all of the cords
again—conceivably forever.
The machines, introduced in
Europe two years ago by �
www.ihrsa.org � OCTOBER 2005 � Club Business International 21
Photo courtesy of NBC