It's a Good Show. Why Does It Have to Insult My Intelligence?

This season I've watched The Biggest Loser since the first episode. It's a good show. It appears to be genuine, and the method for culling the participants every week seems a little more fair than most reality shows (i.e. there are fewer opportunities for producers to intervene). It can be really inspiring at times, and I don't doubt that it has helped a lot of people make good lifestyle decisions.

However, there are three things that really bug me about that show. Since nobody asked me, I thought I'd share:

1. The advertisements during the show. When the paid promotion scenes start, it couldn't be more obvious that it's a setup for an ad. For example, here's a quick paraphrase of a recent one. Bob the trainer walks into the kitchen and says, "Hey guys! What are you having for breakfast? Boring old oatmeal?" He opens the cupboard, and takes out a box of cereal. Positioning it carefully to make sure the camera gets the full product front, he continues, "You should try Fiber One Whole Grain Cereal. It's got 312 grams of fiber in every bowl. Make sure you make Fiber One Whole Grain Cereal part of your breakfast routine. Only 90 calories and 1 gram of fat in Fiber One Original Whole Grain Cereal." What? We wouldn't understand if he just said "Fiber One." You know – the way normal people talk?
   
   
2. The advertisements for the next episode. Today they're describing that kid from the brown team as the 18-year-old who "captured the heart of America." I don't even know the kid's name! I don't think anybody else does, either! Stop trying to tell us how we feel! (This is why I like Jeopardy, especially when contrasted against a show like Deal or No Deal – but that's a subject for another post.)
   
   
3. The way they can spend a whole hour just weighing people. It's fascinating and everything, but each episode represents a whole week of dieting and exercising. Between the weekly "challenge" and the trainers' yelling, they don't really show much of what goes on 99% of the time. Aren't there other aspects of the contestants' weight loss that are worth depicting? I for one would love to find out how their diet routine works at the ranch. For many of the contestants, I'm assuming that portion control is a big part of the reason they're fat. How do they handle that on the ranch? Do any of them struggle? Most of them seem to work hard during the week, is diet one reason they have such differing results at the weigh-in? Is the food catered (surely they aren't cooking for themselves)? Do they get to decide what to eat and how much to eat? It seems like the only time they focus on actual food consumption is for the "temptation" where they have to sit in a room with fatty foods for five minutes. Well, what are they eating (or not eating) the rest of the time that makes that temptation so hard?