The first season of “The Biggest Loser” launched in 2004 and quickly became a hit NBC show. The reality series followed a group of obese people as they competed to lose weight with the help of celebrity trainers, including Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, for a $250,000 cash prize.
A new Netflix three-part docuseries, “Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser” takes an inside look at the making of the competition show that ran for 18 seasons. The doc, directed by Skye Borgman, features interviews with former contestants, trainers, producers and health professionals.
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Borgman chronicles how the show focused on entertainment over health and how contestants were belittled and encouraged to follow unhealthy weight loss methods, including consuming caffeine pills. In the series, former “Biggest Loser“ trainer Bob Harper admits that producers wanted contestants to puke on camera. Harper and Jillian Michaels were encouraged to get in people’s faces. “To see us in a gym yelling, screaming — that’s good TV,” Harper says.
The show, which became a cash cow for NBC, was a “movement,” according to co-creator and executive producer JD Roth. In the docuseries, he adds, “We were not looking for people who were overweight and happy. We were looking for people who were overweight and unhappy.”
Variety spoke to Borgman (“Abducted in Plain Sight”) about “Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser” ahead of the series’ Netflix debut on Friday.
Why did you decide to make this docuseries?
I went back and started watching episodes again, and I was like, “Oh. This is really different watching it now compared to watching it 20 years ago.” All of the problems and all of the things that were there, or that I thought were there, were sort of magnified. It is not really a show about the biggest loser. This is a show about our personal relationships with our bodies because every single person on the planet has a relationship with their bodies. And I think everybody has tried to change the shape or the look or the feel of their bodies in some way or another. I certainly have. So, that’s what was immediately interesting to me, just really looking at our relationship with our bodies.
On the show, contestants essentially starved themselves and exercised for eight hours a day while trainers screamed at them. The “Temptations” challenges involved contestants being sent into rooms full of food to see who had the most willpower. It’s hard to watch. Do you think that “The Biggest Loser” would be accepted in today’s culture?
I think that the easy answer would be to say absolutely not. It wouldn’t be acceptable now. But when you look at some of the shows that are out there, and when you think about how far maybe we haven’t come, there’s a part of me that thinks a version of this show, not too different from the original, might be acceptable now. I think we want to believe that we have come a long way in our way of thinking about our bodies and our self-love and all of that kind of stuff. But I actually don’t know that we have come as far as we think we have.
“The Biggest Loser” trainer Bob Harper, co-creators and executive producers David Broome and JD Roth all participated in the series. Some decisions that they made while making the show were questionable at best. Was it hard to convince them to talk to you candidly?
What I love about Bob is the truth that he brings out. I love him for how unapologetic he is. So, I really do respect Bob for sitting down and talking to us, and I think he enjoyed it. The producers are similar. They definitely feel like they made a show that they are very proud of and have the ability to look back through this 2025 lens and see what some of the problems are. But they absolutely made the show for television. So, they knew what they were doing, and they felt good about some things. Now, I think, they may feel not quite so good about other things.
You also interviewed a handful of the show’s contestants, including Danny Cahill, the winner of Season 8, and Suzanne Mendonca, a contestant from Season 2. Did any of the contestants that you interviewed for the series worry about showing the weight that they have gained back?
The only person that mentioned something like that was Danny. He hesitated about coming on the series because he didn’t know if he wanted to open himself up to more scrutiny. But then also recognized that his story could mean something really important to other people.
The series also touches on the controversial, dramatic weight loss of Rachel Frederickson, the winner of season 15, who dropped down to 105 pounds from 260 pounds. Frederickson was not interviewed. Was it hard to convince contestants to participate in the doc?
There were almost 400 contestants on “The Biggest Loser” over the scope of the whole series, and every single one of them has a story to tell. I feel like we got the people that we wanted to get. Maybe it would’ve been good to hear from other people, but we could still tell Rachel Frederickson’s story of losing so much weight without having Rachel be interviewed, which is something she didn’t want to do.
“Biggest Loser” trainer Jillian Michaels is featured prominently throughout the series. I’m assuming you asked her for an interview?
We did, and she chose not to participate.
In the series, Bob Harper reveals that Jillian Michaels, whom he considered a friend, never called him after he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 2017. Did you ever find out why she didn’t call him? They seemed so close on the show.
He was pretty tight-lipped about it, as you see in the documentary. I never got it out of Bob about why she didn’t call him.
The series captured how much reality television has changed since the premiere of “The Biggest Loser” in 2014. Was it always your intention to touch on that?
The rules of reality TV have changed a lot. One of the more fascinating elements of doing the series was looking back at some of the original reality shows and how “The Biggest Loser” fit into it. Because the show came on at a time when it was the wild west of reality television. For all of its good parts and all of its bad parts, you can look back at the show and you can say that “The Biggest Loser” definitely made its mark.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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