Big Brother gets big challenge

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A new fly-on-the wall show, dubbed Fat Brother, is to reveal a dozen overweight contestants battling their weight for gold.

The latest "reality television" programme, called Big Diet and coming from the makers of Big Brother, will monitor the activities of 12 people locked up in a castle in the Dutch city of Maastricht.

The contestants must compete against each other for 13 weeks, losing between 22 to 34 kilos for a chance to win a jackpot of almost half a million dollars.

John De Mol, the show's producer said: "I think that losing weight and being on a diet is a very recognisable thing. Only in Holland, 10 million people are struggling with their weight.

"I think the fact that these people are on a serious diet, and in serious training, makes them psychologically unstable and you can see all the stages people go through to overcome their weight problem on camera."

The volunteers will eat low-calorie food prepared by a celebrity chef, work out three times a day and try to avoid the "temptation fridge" containing all their favourite fattening snacks.

After a trial period of four weeks, the contestant that has lost the least amount of weight will be booted out of the castle.

The process will be repeated every week until only four, hopefully slender, contestants remain. The audience will select the winner from the last two contestants, who will walk away with the money.

But Big Diet has sparked controversy in the Dutch media and many diet and health organisations complain the show could lead to widespread pressure to be model-thin.

Karen Bos, of Weight Watchers Netherlands, said: "Being overweight is bad enough. I think that, for an organisation, you have to be discreet about it.

"You (the media) have to help people, but not put them in a picture, or make fun or amusement of them," she said.

Endemol, the makers of Big Diet, believes that the growing rate of obesity and obsession with weight will propel the show beyond the success of its predecessor Big Brother.

That show, which was exported around the world, locked up nine people in a suburban house and filmed their every move 24-hours-a day.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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