I watched Shedding for the Wedding last night just because I had to check it out. It's a new weight-loss reality show on the CW by the makers of the Biggest Loser. The premise is that nine couples are trying to lose weight before their wedding and the winning team will win their dream wedding.

What I liked:
The show was only an hour. I think BL is way too long at two hours each week, and I thought Shedding did a great job of fitting in the important stuff into an hour.

The combination of weight loss and wedding planning. I'm a sucker for shows like Say Yes To The Dress and the Biggest Loser, so I'm thinking a hybrid of the two has some potential.

The male trainer was smoking hot (he's a former soccer player from London, doesn't that say it all), but the female trainer was just so-so. In the first episode she didn't prove herself to be anything like a Jillian or a Cara, but I saw elements of Bob in the male trainer. He was motivating and friendly, but still kicked people's butts.

Some of the couples were really cute, and it was hilarious hearing their different wedding themes. Seriously, one couple wants a beer pong table at their wedding because their theme is "Greek Week" and another couple wants to somehow incorporate their characters from some video game they play.

The way couples are eliminated. Based on percentage of weight loss, the two couples at the bottom compete in an elimination challenge. The couple that loses gets eliminated. I almost like that a little bit more than the BL version of voting people off. It was a nice twist, plus it eliminated the sappy drama of people crying over who their voting off and saying what a great person the eliminated player really is and blah, blah, blah. Shedding definitely gets the elimination portion right. I actually think it was the strongest part of the show.


What I didn't like:
The host of the show could use some work. At times I felt like she was trying to be Ali Sweeney, but just wasn't succeeding. During the weigh-ins when she would say, "Your combine total weight is..." I was just waiting for Ali to pop out from somewhere and handle a weigh-in properly. The Shedding host was a little lackluster. Even during the challenge, she didn't get excited.

The weigh-in set was just a little too similar to BL for my liking. Big scales, a board where contestants are separated by red and green to show who is up for elimination. It just didn't seem very original.

Overall though, I thought the show was kind of cute, and I liked the wedding twist. Some of the couples were very endearing, and I'm tempted to keep watching just to see how they do. The first episode spent a lot of time introducing the audience to the couples, so now that we have some of that background, I'm interested to see how the producers use the extra time. Will they focus more on wedding planning or weight loss? I can't say that I will tune in religiously, but I might catch an episode here or there if I have time.

Did anyone else watch Shedding for the Wedding? What did you think of it?