I’ve been noticing little things like this in “reality” TV, and am beginning to think most of it is fixed, right from the get-go.  Not all of it, but situations like this definitely suggest the producers tend to stack odds against certain players.

It’s really made me less interested in reality shows, just because the system appears to be broken.

Dude, you know that wrestling is fake, right?

I thought that everyone knew that reality shows are totally set up, too.

Poor Coleen… she really should have known this is the way things would go.  It was hard to see Jerry sitting out of the entire show because of injuries every week.  And Jerry looks FANTASTIC now, so going home wasn’t a horrible thing for him.

I still don’t approve of the way they got rid of him, though.

One of the reasons that my favorite reality show is The Amazing Race is that I think that one is the hardest to “fix”, per se.  You finish last, you get freaking eliminated.

Even so I’ve seen certain episodes where I question why that particular one was a non-elimination leg or something else occurred that led me to believe that it was fixed.

As for The Biggest Loser...I have no clue.  I tried watching it in the first season and I hated it.  I know the message is positive and all, but the show just bothers me.  I’m a big dude with a weight problem and the last thing I would ever do would be to put my weight loss quest on national tv.  I dunno. My hope would be that they are all doing it for the right reason and not for the money.

So I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet (don’t care that I know who was eliminated cause I truly care more about how much weight was lost rather than the elimination part).

That being said, I have often felt like The Biggest Loser was fixed at times.  But just like BE Earl said, I think that way about the non-elimination rounds in TAR.

The worst thing about Biggest Loser to me though?  It is one never-ending commercial!  I just fast forward through a lot of crap though.

The part that bugs me about TBL is that they devote 30 seconds to follow-up of the person/people after they’ve been home 4 months.  I just would rather they took away the segment before of recapping their time on the ranch and devoted it to their progress after the show—the “see what I learned?  You can do this too!” part is much more important to me.

A lot of reality shows are fixed, they want the person who provides drama to stay on longer.

I really only like the ones that involve a talent, like Top Chef or Top Design, those kind of shows. But I’m sure some people on those shows are picked purely for the drama factor, too.

I totally agree - I had the exact same thought last night! Because I’m sure they don’t actually weigh them live right there - I think they all get weighed in prior, so that they can put the teams in the right order for most dramatic effect.

So basically they already knew who was going to be below the yellow line before they announced the clever twist.

Totally fixed. But I still mostly like the show.

I always felt these things were fixed which is why I never watch these types of shows. Well, unless I am at my mom’s house or something.

Yes dear, going to get your ice cream for you now. 

Ahem.  Only 6 minutes to the circumcision show.  It takes TIME to create the perfect cup of ice cream!

I think they are fixed.  and agree with you - Jerry was too much of a risk, so they had to get rid of him.  Now, are they going to go to single elimination from this point out?  How are they going to keep it even if Coleen doesn’t have a team member?

I don’t watch that show, but that sounds utterly ridiculous!
Oh - and glad the ice cream was good!

I watch this show all the time but never thought about a “fix”.  Hmmmmm.  But did you see how far he’s come?  He looked good at the end.