Kirstie Alley is partnering with A&E to star in her own 2010 reality TV series documenting her "fight to lose weight while raising two teenagers." This is hardly innovative, note commentators: Alley headlined Showtime’s Fat Actress, a 2005 semiautobiographical series based on her life in thinness-obsessed Hollywood—and later became a Jenny Craig spokes-dieter. Haven’t we seen this all before? (Watch Kirstie Alley in a scene from "Fat Actress")
Who cares? Americans crave weight-loss TV: "In case you didn’t get the memo," says Lisa de Moraes at The Washington Post, fat is the new American Idol. It doesn’t matter that this formula is tired: "Old hands" like serial loser Alley know what they’re doing.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Why ghost guns are so easy to make — and so dangerousThe Explainer Untraceable, DIY firearms are a growing public health and safety hazard
-
The Week contest: Swift stimulusPuzzles and Quizzes
-
'It's hard to resist a sweet deal on a good car'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
