Despite being a key member of The Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels did not take part in a recent documentary series exploring the influence of the reality show.
Michael refused to be a part of Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser, which was released on Netflix on Friday, August 15, according to the title card.
For seasons 1, 2, 4, 11, 14, and 15, Michaels served as a trainer on The Biggest Loser. She frequently used insults and yelling to encourage competitors. Michaels encourages a lady to continue working out on a treadmill after she throws up in one of the clips from Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser.
Despite not appearing in the documentary, Michaels was mentioned in all three sections, and material from the archives was utilized all along. For the documentary series, she spoke with Bob Harper, another Biggest Loser trainer. He said that after suffering a severe heart attack in 2017, Michaels failed to get in touch with him.
“We were partners on a television show for a very long time, but we weren’t besties,” Harper stated, adding that Michael’s purported silence following his health problem meant a lot to him. I don’t think Jillian Michaels will do anything besides what she desires.
Michaels has been contacted by NJ.com for comment.
The Biggest Loser followed overweight competitors as they tried to lose as many pounds as they could in order to win money. The show ran on NBC from 2004 until 2016 and USA Network in 2020.
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From the torturous training sessions to the humiliating temptation challenges, the documentary series delves into the show’s more contentious elements. In one such task, competitors had to use just their teeth to construct a tower of calorie-dense dishes.
For me, the most difficult aspect of the show was the temptation difficulties. In the documentary, Alison Sweeney, host of The Biggest Loser from seasons 4–16, acknowledged that it was awful.
The notion was refuted by Aubrey Gordon, a fat activist and cohost of the Maintenance Phase podcast, despite producers Dave Broome and J.D. Roth defending the difficulties as references to actual temptations people encounter when attempting to reduce their weight.
I have been overweight for a long time. Gordon told cameras, “I don’t often enter rooms with unguarded daises full of good.” The premise is that overweight persons should not be trusted with food. It’s intended to elicit inferences about the candidates’ personalities from the food they consume during a five-minute segment on camera.
Although Michaels did not contribute her viewpoint to Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser, her contentious appearance on CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip garnered media attention this week.
“You cannot tie imperialism, racism, and slavery to just one race, which is pretty much what every single exhibit does,” Michaels stated in reference to the Trump administration’s effort to remove inappropriate ideaology from Smithsonian institutions. Slaves were owned by less than 2 percent of white Americans. Oh, no, no, no, everything is like, “This is all because white people are bad.” Simply said, that is untrue.
Michaels’ remarks have drawn criticism.
One X user said, “This is what happens when you elevate a regular gym trainer to political pundit.”
Netflix offers Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser for streaming.
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