at chips and light beverages for the season premiere of "The Biggest Loser" -- arguably the biggest thing to hit reality TV. Hailed as "the first reality series where everybody loses," The Biggest Loser will begin its fourth season with a double helping two-hour special that brings together 18 "severely overweight participants" competing to drop the most pounds and pick up a fat purse of US$250,000 (185,000 euros). Contestants will be put through their paces, tongue-lashed, kicked and humiliated by a personal trainer over 15 episodes in front of a TV audience that could exceed last season's U.S. viewer average of 8.267 million per show.
"Some will cry, some will wanna quit. But no one said it would be easy," The Biggest Loser says on its website. In fact, the crying started before participants had begun their gruelling weight-loss and fitness routines.
In video clips posted on the show's website, contestants tearfully told the rolling cameras and fellow competitors why they have stepped up to the plate for a chance to lose weight under the watchful gaze of viewers in 35 territories and 15 countries.
Jez Luckett, a 24-year-old from Kansas, revealed the psychological fragility that accompanies many people who have fought a life-long battle with their weight.
"I still have people who love me and care about me. I just need to start caring about myself," he said in floods of tears as he explained why he signed up for a chance to be kicked and pummeled to fitness by martial arts expert Jillian Marshall, one of three trainers on the show.
Thirty-four-year-old Julie Hadden's voice trembled with emotion as she said: "I want to be there when my child gets married. I want to sit in a rocking chair with my husband when we're old and I'm not going to do that if I continue on the path I'm on now."
Others, including the oldest contestant in the history of the show, 62-year-old retired fireman Jerry Lisenby from Illinois, told of the unintentionally humiliating comments overweight people have to put up with.
"I'm always told: 'You are the fastest fat guy on a tennis court'. I just want to be the fastest," Lisenby said.
David Griffin of Tennessee recalled how "growing up was always tough because you were 'the fat kid'", and former American football player Phil Hawk, 27, said he "hates it when someone says 'you don't look like you weigh that much'."
The Biggest Loser -- hailed by its producers as the show that "attacked the fat that has taken over America" -- has shifted thousands of pounds on contestants' frames in the past three years, and has also shifted its scope to capture a global audiences.
Versions of the show are now aired in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Israel, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The Biggest Loser has also spawned an eponymous best-selling book and cookbook, and an online lifestyle club, www.biggestloserclub.com.
Members of the club can share tales of their successful battles of the bulge, without necessarily having to do 20 jumping jacks with a sandbag above their head in the desert heat -- one exercise this year's contestants were put through.
A report published last month showed that two-thirds of U.S. adults and some 25 million children are obese or overweight.
