I watched the Today show and the nutritionist on there had nothing nice to say about the biggest loser. I rarely watch it. Ya know, its kinda like cheating at Ironman. You may not get caught, but you'll always know.

I like the part in the article where his wife said, "In this industry you are always on a time frame and sometimes it is out of your control."

30-40 extra minutes is out of your control? Was the photog on their last battery or tape? It's not a live event and the race was going to be edited in post-production, so.......WTF?

I thought it seemed a bit off yesterday b/c I swore I saw 5:53 on the clock when they crossed. Then I figured they just had to film it after the fact for the show. That is really crappy for everyone to lie about it!

Weird. I didn't hear about this. Why would someone want to lie about something like this! That is a huge accomplishment and not everyone does it!

The has been so fun to read about all the outrage on this. Totally warrented! I think the finish time of 5:53 is probably more accurate since they were trying to get them in before the 6 hour time limit. Makes more sense than 3:53. That's a BIG difference!

I had no idea there was this controversy!! Omg, that does annoy me. Do they think finishing a marathon is some sort of badge of honor?? Well, actually, it is for me. Haha. Anyway, thank you for visiting my blog and commenting. I really appreciate that. I added you to my list of blogs. :-)

i'm hoping all the mess came from the show's editing, and that this guy/couple is only claiming the 23-mile run. still impressive, but let's not lie about it!

I don't watch that and didn't hear about it but sounds like a bunch of crap!

not a biggest loser fan, so i really don't know what was/wasn't said and therefore don't have an opinion...

To explain the 3:53/5:53, I saw someone post somewhere that in the first camera shot of the clock, you can't tell whether it's a 3 or a 5 - it's only in subsequent shots that it's clear. Their hypothesis was that whoever was doing the captioning didn't know much about marathons and just assumed it was a 3. Gives them the benefit of the doubt, but I think it's a reasonable explanation for that.

You already know how pissed I am about them saying they finished though :)

that really pisses me off. we do watch the biggest loser every week, and i was shocked that they could actually finish a marathon at all, much less in under 4 hours. i thought the clock said 5:53, as kelley just finished her marathon in 5:54 after losing blane style weight. i could believe that. i could also believe 3:53 if they got a van to drive them part of the way. still, it makes me mad at the show.

there's a lot of things i don't like about the show. they spend 15 minutes of airtime showing workout and nutrition, and 45 minutes of weigh in and drama crap. don't get me started. but it is fun to watch people realize how nice it is to be healthy.

Wow - I didn't realize that. Well, I guess he'll have to feel like a loser about not completing it, because it looks like the word's out now! Crazy how filming stuff on time is more important than letting someone just run their marathon!

I fell off the wagon of watching TBL so I hadn't heard. That is BS if it was edited to seem like they finished if they did not. Why lie? Just show their accomplishment for what it is. So misleading to the public, especially for people who may watch the show for some motivation.

Well now the Biggest Loser's producers have admitted they fabricated this marathon finish. The full story can be found at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/02/danes-marathon.html

Highlights include this statement from the producers:

After seeing on various online blogs that this information may be inaccurate we investigated the claim and found that Dane had not indeed completed the marathon unaided. From our internal investigation we learned that Dane ran the first 17 miles before receiving a ride from the field producer for 3 miles before rejoining the race at the 20 mile mark whereupon he completed the race. (come on producers, how could you not know this...its YOUR show YOU SCRIPT ALL THIS STUFF!!!)

Here is what Dane supposedly said:

The source also said Dane was so upset that he accepted the ride and didn't run the full distance that he went back later in the day — with his cousin Blaine, who was also with him on the show — and ran the missing miles so that he could say he did indeed run 26.2 miles.

Here is what I say:

Dane and Reville Producers: Once you make the decision to get in the car and ride, your race is OVER. You can't rest up a few hours, go back later in the day, run the missing segment and say you ran 26.2. YOU RAN A 17MILE, 6 MILE AND THEN 3 MILE SPLIT TRAINING SESSION.....NOT 26.2!!!!!! I hope one day you train for a marathon for real, take the 6+ hours you need to finish it without riding in a car or taking the afternoon off. When you do this, you will discover why so many people are so mad (and disappointed) at you and understand why this issue is such a big deal.

This is the first I've heard of this. I'm so out of the loop!

I've heard all the nonsense and think it's a bunch of POOP POOP POOP!

I didn't start watching TBL untill this past season. I do like it, although the product placement is a bit over the top. I did hear about it, but haven't taken the time to really investigate it. It all seems a little ridiculous to me. Why not just say his goal is to run a marathon or something.

For some reason I cannot post a comment to your latest post. Anyways.. I guess the whole east coast got dumped with snow. We got about 4 inches here in Ga. Good idea doing the yoga. I heard about the biggest lose farce.. what a cheat. And to think the producers made them to do it and still aired the whole thing.

Isn't the whole thing nuts? I really thought that they would respond in some way on the show, but when they didn't I was even more disappointed. I love the show, but have been a little disappointed too with how much about the GAME that they've shown Bob to be this season. Maybe he's always like that and we've just never known, but it's kind of broken my heart.