NBC has announced a tweaking of its upcoming summer programming lineup, modifying the premiere schedule of five of its upcoming reality shows and bumping The Biggest Loser 2 fully into its Fall 2005 programming schedule.
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Rather than premiere on its previously announced date of August 9, NBC will now debut the sequel to last year's surprising The Biggest Loser hit on September 13. The move will keep The Biggest Loser 2 in its previously announced Tuesday 8-9PM time period, and as was originally planned, the show will still debut with a special 8:00-9:30PM ET/PT 90-minute premiere.
As in its first season, The Biggest Loser 2 will offer its severely overweight participants the opportunity to undergo a radical physical makeover without any kind of surgery, with host Caroline Rhea and professional trainers Jillian Michael and Bob Harper all returning for the new season.
Just as in the show's initial season, Loser 2's teams will compete in weekly challenges and weigh-ins, with weekly eliminations narrowing the fourteen contestant field until only one of them is named "the biggest loser" and wins the competition's $250,000 grand prize.
However, taking a page from the reality TV twist book successfully used by other shows like Survivor and The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser 2 will feature a "battle of the sexes" setup, with Jillian coaching the all-female red team and Bob coaching the all-male blue team. As a result of the gender-based division, rather than compare the weekly raw pounds lost by each team, Loser's second season will compare the total percentage weight lost by each team.
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"Let's say the men's team starts at 2000 lbs. collectively and the women start at 1500," executive producer Dave Broome told TV Guide. "For the men to lose 10 percent of their body weight, they'd have to lose 200 lbs. For the women to lose the same 10 percent, they only have to lose 150."
According to the Los Angeles area's Daily Breeze newspaper, The Biggest Loser 2 began filming at a secluded Simi Valley horse ranch in March, with production expected to run through June.
Ryan Benson, a 36-year-old from Spokane, Washington who works in DVD production, won The Biggest Loser's initial season with a total weight loss of 122 pounds.
Produced by Reveille, 25/7 Productions, 3 Ball Productions and NBC Universal Television Studio, The Biggest Loser 2 is executive produced by Ben Silverman, Dave Broome, J.D. Roth, John Foy, and Todd A. Nelson