The Biggest Loser (British TV series)

Format

The basic format of the show is that overweight contestants compete to win a cash prize by losing the highest percentage of their starting body weight.

In its first two series, it was an individual competition, although the contestants trained together in teams, and immunity from elimination was initially based on team competitions. The "red team" was trained by Angie Dowds, who adopted a hard no-nonsense approach. The "blue team" was trained by Mark Bailey, who trained with a more nurturing approach.

The third series switched to a new "couples" format, where eight pairs of friends, relatives or colleagues started together for the first 5 weeks, before splitting into a "black team", trained by Dowds, and a "blue team", trained by Richard Callender, and started competing against each other, as in the first two series.

In the first two series, the winner received £25,000 in cash. In the third series the prize was reduced to £10,000, but reverted to £25,000 for the fourth series.

Series overview

Locations

The first few weeks of the competition were recorded at Stanford Hall, Leicestershire (known as "The Biggest Loser House"). For one week, all the contestants travelled to the USA. The final was pre-recorded at The London Studios in 2011 and The Maidstone Studios in 2012.

References

References

1. Sheldrick, Giles. (22 June 2012). "TV guru leapt to her death after split with girlfriend". [[Daily Express]].
2. (14 September 2012). "Fat's yer lot: ITV shed the Biggest Loser after seven years for being massive loser in ratings battle".
3. (2 February 2011). "Richard Callender chats 'Biggest Loser'".
4. (4 January 2011). "In Pictures: ITV1's 'Biggest Loser' cast".
5. (4 January 2011). "'Biggest Loser' UK offers £25K prize".
6. (14 March 2012). "Biggest Loser champ 'was waiting to die'".