(no subject)

So I watch The Biggest Loser because I get addicted. Hopelessly addicted. Also because I like to watch Jillian go totally batshit crazy and emotionally damage the contestants. But last week my eyebrows had to raise. They lined up the contestants and told them they had a choice: they could cross the line and get a two pound advantage at the weigh in, BUT they would have to spend the week exercising without the trainers. And if nobody took it, the stakes were going to go up. And the lady who took it eventually took it at two pounds because she said that she didn't want another team to have it, or have it at four pounds, or six pounds, or eight. Which seems perfectly reasonable to me. It's risky but a smart way to play.

So then they meet with the trainers and of course they go CRAZY. So, wait. The trainers didn't know that the show was going to do this? They had no way of knowing that? Is this system so completely weird and corrupted that the contestants are going to be punished for playing a smart game? Choices is one thing, but putting them all in the high pressure situation and then having their choices be lose-lose like that and then having them looked down on for that choice.

Seriously. I get what they're trying to do but it doesn't seem like a good system.