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Jillian Michaels spent two seasons away from NBC’s The Biggest Loser, but she felt she owed it to the fans to return.
Asked why she returned to for the show’s upcoming season on Sunday at TCA, the trainer referenced a Madonna concert she recently attended with fellow Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper.
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“When are you going to play ‘Holiday’?” she recalls thinking. “Biggest Loser is sort of my ‘Holiday.'”
She added that she missed working with the cast and crew, including Harper, and was “inspired by how excited the public gets about the show.”
As for how long she will stick around this time, Michaels replied: “As long as you’ll have me.”
This season also features a twist wherein three kid participants will take part for the first time as NBC’s reality show tackles the childhood obesity epidemic. Three teens (ages 13-17) will work with the trainers and contribute to their respective teams from both the ranch and their home, but they will not be eligible for elimination.
Executive producer Dave Broome called this go-round the “biggest relaunch since season one,” while Michaels said the trio brings “a whole new life to this show.”
While the trainers are notoriously hard on the adult competitors, Harper said they take a different approach with the kids.
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“We do exactly the opposite of what we do with the adults,” he said. “With adults, we get raw, rough, yelling, screaming up and down. But working with children, it’s extremely sensitive. We make sure we are not breaking them down but lifting them up.”
Broome added that viewers might be shocked to see in Sunday night’s premiere how unaware kids and their parents are about healthy eating habits.
“They are not educated enough to understand the problem as it relates to food,” he said. “It’s surprising and shocking.”
Watch a preview below.
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