'The Biggest Loser' Contestants Threaten To Quit

If this proves true, then "The Biggest Loser" producers deserve feeling shameful for playing games with people trying to change their lives for the better.

CBS News reports today by way of TMZ that that long-running NBC weight-loss reality show's Season 13 contestants may quit the show before season's end after walking completely off the competition.

NBC hasn't yet addressed this rumor, but producers allegedly planned luring back past competitors to compete against remaining contestants for this season's $250,000 cash prize. Current contestants reportedly balked and left midway through shooting a recent episode because they felt that producers essentially enticing ringers hurt their own chances at the big prize.

On the upcoming Feb. 28 episode, contestants will spend 18 days back at home and challenged to drop 5 percent of their body weight. In the meantime, production has been reportedly halted while the network and producers regroup.

If true, this is low even by reality-TV standards.

These aren't just people dead-set on degrading themselves with disgusting stunts and outrageous antics if it wins them a big cash sum. The people who set out to compete on "The Biggest Loser" are doing it with not only a $250,000 carrot at the end of a stick, but with the motivation of an understood need for drastic lifestyle change. When one is already self-conscious about their health and body image, any blow or setback can be a crippling one. Any frustration or obstacle could be the one that just makes somebody question "What's the point?"

These people have come so far with the end now in some contestants' sights. This is like moving the tape for the finish line back another 50 meters. It's one thing to pull a stunt like this with money-hungry people who are in it just for the prizes.

This is toying with people whose weight and health have already given them some emotional fragility.

It would be absolutely poetic for them to leave producers scrambling.

Oh, and TMZ? About that headline - "'Biggest Loser' Contestants Throw Weight Around, Threaten To Quit Show"? And that first sentence - "There's a big, fat problem on the set of 'The Biggest Loser'"? I know "dignity" is one of a lexicon of words not among your staff's vocabulary, but that's low even for you.