Fat March

So we started watching this show because nothing else is on Monday nights right now (okay, there are repeats of Heroes...but why watch all of them again when I've already watched them the first time, and then there was the time I watched them online, and then after that I'd watch them with the cast commentary, so...unless you're showing me something new, forget it.).

Anyhoo...Fat March. Right. The whole premise is that they take people that are overweight and literally march them 500+ miles. Every time someone drops out by choice (or gets kicked out by vote) each person that finishes the march gets $10,000 less in prize money. Ergo, it's generally thought to be better to try to keep people in than it is to kick them out (because you get more money in the end, duh.)

However, I've decided that ABC needs to stir up some unnecessary drama by making these people walk insane distances on 'vote out' days. For example, tonight, the episode had the people walk 18 miles in 5 hours (average of 3 miles an hour...keep in mind the average walking speed is 2.5 mph). It's 95 degrees outside, humidity is probably at about 80%, and these people are overweight. Just today 2 of the girls got within spitting distance of 200 lbs. But they're also only like 5'4". Yes, this just sounds like a death waiting to happen. And they've apparently got some rule about an ambulance appearance for each episode (what is this? let's prove how nice paramedics are?). On top of the insane pace they set, they also have a rule that at the end of the vote out legs, the entire team has to make up the amount to distance the loser lost by, i.e. if the person that is the furthest back still has 5 miles to go to the finish line when time is called, the entire team has to walk the 5 miles the next day, unless the vote the person out...So, seems to me that ABC is trying to get away with not paying any prize money...