Jessie Pavelka and Jennifer Widerstrom will be joining The Biggest Loser's upcoming sixteenth season as trainers and they apparently had to earn respect.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
NBC announced in June -- one week after confirming Jillian Michaels' latest stint on the show was over -- Pavelka and Widerstrom will be serving as new trainers on The Biggest Loser when it premieres September 11 at 8PM ET/PT. They will work with returning trainer Dolvett Quince and veteran trainer Bob Harper, who is moving to a new role.
"It's actually pretty amazing because, you know, you train one-on-one and then you get to do it on The Biggest Loser. It's a totally different beast, but it's a surreal experience for sure," Pavelka said.
"Totally. It's exciting, it's emotional, it's fun. We play a lot of games but we work really hard. And I think we're there step by step with every one of our contestants," explained Widerstrom.
Each week, when a contestant gets eliminated and believes he or she is going home, that person will instead be whisked away to a secret location called "Comeback Canyon," where Harper will serve as the sole trainer. The contestants will be given a second chance to re-enter the original Biggest Loser competition and vie for the $250,000 grand prize by competing at a separate secret weekly weigh-in.
All the contestants this season have one major thing in common.
"They're all athletes," Pavelka told Today.
"Glory days!" Widerstrom interjected. "These are the people that were at the top of their game, and not just in real life, but in world-class athletics. And it's our job to help them, kind of, reconnect with that."
"We have Damien Woody, a two-time Super Bowler [and] Lori Harrigan-Mack, a three-time gold medalist. We've got some amazing athletes. The funny thing is, their game quit and then they quit. Now, they're trying to play the game of life," Pavelka said of the cast's weight-loss journeys.
With former professional athletes on the ranch, one could only assume it's going to be a very competitive season.
"There's some healthy competition if you want to put it that way," Pavelka noted. "There's a lot of banter this season. These guys talk trash to each other, but at the end of the day, they all come back together and they are there for the same reason -- to change their lives."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
