Although details are still almost non-existent, TVSA can confirm that e.tv will be making a South African version of their popular US reality show
The Biggest Loser.
The channel will broadcast the second season the The Biggest Loser later this year and will be producing a South African version of the show which will be aired in the first quarter of 2008.
The first season of the show aired on e.tv from 11 September - 20 November 2006. A final episode - in which the nine losers competed for a further $100,000 - aired the following week.
The season finale drew 1,563,100 viewers on Monday 20 November at 20h00, making it the 2nd most-watched reality show in South Africa in Week 48 (20-26 November, 2006), a gain of more than 400,000 viewers from the week before.
We pressed e.tv to reveal more details but they told us there aren't any. The show is "still in the raw, planning process" according to our e.tv mole, although he assured us it has definitely been greenlighted.
The Biggest Loser show got its start in the United States on the NBC network and is currently entering a fourth season after three highly successful previous ones.
The show franchise has since been used in other countries, including Australia (2 seasons), UK (2 seasons), Netherlands (3 seasons) and Israel.
Internationally, there have been a combined total of about 200 Biggest Loser contestants ranging from 167 pounds (75.8kg) to 477 pounds (216.3kg).
News of the local version of the show comes hot off the news that e.tv recently won a 2007 Promax World Gold Award in the Radio Promotion category for a radio advertisement called Hey Fatty Boom Boom, promoting The Biggest Loser.
The ad was flighted on KFM, Highveld Stereo, Talk Radio 702, Cape Talk and YFM last year.
e.tv’s Vanessa Levenstein, in-house writer of the ad: “This was part of a bigger campaign for The Biggest Loser, in which both Ryan Jales and I wrote various radio spots. The aim was to hype this reality show as huge, a bit gross, and sensational and not to be missed,” she said.
The channel has promised to keep us posted on any new developments regarding The Biggest Loser SA.