Hope it's OK to start an Alison topic!

I don't even know if we'll get to see this edition of BL Down Under, but I'm hoping so because I am dying of curiosity about how AS is going to go as host. Watched DOOL for several years until it got too ridiculous even for a daytime soap and have fond memories of the Carrie/Sami/Austin/Lucas love quadrangle.

I don't know why the writers of DOOL don't have all 4 get married.

OK I miss Caroline already! Didn't care for Alison.

Didn't like anything about her(sorry!)

Note to TBL hair people....Alison needs a hair intervention NOW! The color reminds me of The Girls Next Door...and it is so thin it's almost non-existant. Say it with me:" Volume and body are good things"

Yea, I miss Caroline too.

Alison did an okay job during the reunion, but I couldn't help but feel that she was a bit fake in many of her responses. Someone made mention (in the old thread) that Alison's seeming detachment from these former contestants was understandable considering this was likely the first time she had met them, and that may be right, but it still bothered me.

Hopefully, as she builds bonds with the new contestants, she can actually appear sincere in her reactions to them. I won't hold out too much hope though.

Alison makes better eye candy but let's only hope that certain phrases don't get stuck in her head and she feels the need to repeat them over and over.

I caught the reunion, and Alison bothered me. I missed Caroline, too. Honestly, I thought it would have been better to have the trainers host it. They're the ones who truly went through the process with the contestants. I can accept Alison taking over from now on, but I think it would have made more sense to introduce her along with the new season.

I think I'm the only one who loved Alison. However, it was awkward to have her do a reunion show when she wasn't around to bond with them.

But for the most part, I thought she was great. She and Jillian are why I'm watching from ep 1 for the first time.

What happened to Caroline anyway? Was she fired or did she leave?

I'm looking forward to seeing how Allison does since she claims she was such a huge fan of the show. I am really going to miss Caroline. I wasn't sure what to expect the first season b/c I've only known her as a comediane. However I thought she handled things with the correct balance of comedy and sincerity. Especially during the season 3 finale when she was teasing Marty and his infatuation with his biceps.

I loved Alison too, although I could tell she was nervous. It's funny, because she has to say the same stuff over and over on Days, and here she is, in a "reality show" forced to do the exact same thing.

I never really liked Caroline, and found her bland, so I am glad they found a new host.

And she dressed like a bag lady.

I'd be interesting in knowing the answer to this too.

Add me to the people who are wondering about what happened to Caroline. I liked her.

Alison seems OK...but not Caroline. We'll see.

I liked Alison a lot better than Caroline! She just seems to have a lot more energy. Maybe it is because she is fresh.

ONE of the reasons that I don't care for Alison being the host is she used to shill diet pills. This show is about losing weight through diet and exercise. Not popping pills!

I agree with that. I remember reading an article on her where she said she lost weight but cutting down on sugar and carbs. Then a few months later I saw her in the diet pill ad. She lost credibility to me.

What bugs me about her? She's NOT THAT FAT. She was never what you'd call fat or even more than chunky on Days as far as I can tell (though I'm not a frequent soap watcher, I did go to boarding school and an all-female college so I caught more than my fair share of soaps in the 90s). Was she ever much bigger than a size 10? Hell, a size 10 is the final GOAL for many of the female contestants. So I thought it was kind of ridiculously glib whenever she attempted to empathize with the contestants. Losing and gaining the same 15 pounds for ten years isn't quite the same thing as needing to drop a bunch.

I mean, I'm not sure who they could get in Hollywood who'd be a better host, given that most overweight actresses are either overwhelmingly size-positive (not a bad thing by any means, just not for this show!) or yo-yo miserably using ridiculous diets and surgeries, but all the showcasing of Allison's weight in this episode felt kind of uncomfortable. Sort of like if she'd gone up to Lezlye and said, "I totally know how you must have felt when you lost your house in Katrina. This one time, I stepped in a puddle and ruined my favorite pair of shoes." Okay, that's extreme, but I hope my point still makes sense.

I never liked Caroline, actually, but I didn't like Alison either. I, like the poster above, would have preferred if they hadn't acted like they were using her because of her weight struggles. Even in her "fat clip," she was heavy for an actress, but not for a real person!

It doesn't have to be someone famous. It can be someone who actually, you know, lost weight. I mean, Oprah fits the bill, but obviously is too popular. But there are plenty of people who could do it, and reality show hosts aren't always already known. I don't know why it had to be someone we already know. I think NBC is just trying to draw viewers to "Days."

Or draw "Days" viewers to TBL

Let it never be said that Alison Sweeney doesn't know the heartbreak of obesity! She got all the way up to a size 12 once -- horrifying! I had to lose 131 pounds to get DOWN to a size 12 and thought I look great, but now I realize, thanks to Alison, that I must still be hideously fat!

If you want to know more about her epic struggle against Demon Fat, she apparently talks long about it in her autobiography -- yes, at 27 she felt her life merited an autobiography.

Does that mean that no one who has only hit size 12 as an upper limit could be sympathetic? I would rather think that almost every woman who has to be held to the ridiculous standards of society could feel for these people trying to lose weight. I know I can, and my largest struggle against weight has only been 15-20 pounds or so. It doesn't mean I can't understand what someone goes through to lose that much weight.

Additionally, Caroline was criticized last season for being too heavy. Telling people to lose weight came off weird from someone who needed to lose some herself. I think that's why they got Alison, and of course now she is too skinny to understand.

I think the key here is that she can be "sympathetic" as you said, but not necessarily "empathetic." Sympathy is feeling for the other person, perhaps knowing they're struggling. Empathy is more "I know where you're coming from." I only had a problem when they specifically tried to correlate her struggle with theirs. Even if it had been more general, like "I work in an industry where appearance is analyzed......" I don't think there would have been as much objecting.

Well, I think one can certainly be SYMpathetic. I don't think one can be EMpathetic though, and to me when Allison was talking about her own weight struggles, that was what bugged. I really don't think you CAN understand it.

My own weight struggles are more in line with yours than with the show's - after college I dropped from a 16 to an 8 thanks to lots of working out, changing the way I ate, and a year of Weight Watchers to rid myself of the last 20 pounds. (I lost 40-50 all told, but I'm tall so you can't really tell.) I have certainly felt inferior and unattractive at times, and certainly watching movie after movie full of size-2 women who don't look like me doesn't help that. (Especially when I see in tabloids that an actress of my relative size and shape is "letting herself go" when I've worked damn hard to get here.) I like the show because it DOES inspire me, even when I only have a pound or two to take off (and even when I don't).

But I've never gotten kicked out of an amusement park ride because I can't fit in the seat, or felt discriminated against on the basis of my size, or told by a doctor that I won't live past 40 if I don't make some changes. Being overweight didn't keep me from living my life. I don't pretend to know what that's like. And it was the idea that Allison evidently thought she did because the producers of her soap opera once thought she was a little chunky that annoyed me.

Caroline, on the other hand, never brought her own weight problems to the table as far as I can recall, even though it was apparent she'd probably had them. She wasn't the perfect host by any means (and I think she appeared to have gained weight over the course of her tenure as host, which was doubtless problematic for the host of a weight-LOSS show), but I always thought she did a good job of being SYMpathetic without trying to be overly EMpathetic.

Alison Sweeney may not be heavy by a lot of standards, but she has been heavy by the standards SHE is judged by, and that's what she has to go on. She has struggled to keep her weight acceptable... even if the general public doesn't see it that way. (Granted, a soap actress's "acceptable" is nowhere near "acceptable" in the real world)

Maybe they would be better with a hostess who has lost at least as much as some of the contestants and has kept it off?

That being said, I haven't decided yet what I think of her has a hostess. Let's see if she can do the job... heavy by general public standards or not.

Have the trainers had to lose a bunch of weight? (I can't remember) Do they personally know the struggle their teams are facing?

I'm moving the response about Jillian's weight loss to her thread.

My bad, should have read those.

At any rate, I don't think being hostess requires that the person has lost large amounts of weight. She's there to host the show, not lend a sympathetic ear.

As ridiculous as it may seem in the real world, being a size 12 model or actress on a soap can make you seem almost unhireable and subject one to ridicule you wouldn't believe. You only have to reference the incredible Britney VMA bikini scorn or Tyra bathing suit debacle (both smaller than Sami used to be) as other examples or the entire concept of Kirstie Alley's Fat Actress tv show. While morbid obesity is in reality a whole nother can of worms, I can understand why a formerly size 12 actress might feel she can truly empathize with the embarassment and pain that the contestants feel.
And for my money, she's doing a pretty good job so far.

According to Wikipedia, Caroline left the show to "return to doing stand up comedy". I'd love to know if that's true. Stand up is such a thankless job (even when you're a "celeb") ..I can't imagine her giving up this easy pay check and the opportunity to continue to build her fan base ???

Allison seems like an odd choice, but I think it's an NBC thing ("who can we get that's pretty, pleasant, and will look slightly chunky once the camera is on her"?) She's not completely annoying, but she's awkward.

Alison got a LOT of flack about her weight for years. In every soap magazine, she'd be one of the main women featured in any article on heavy women in daytime or struggles with weight. Even years after she slimmed down (and grew out of her teenage years), that would be the main focus of every mention of her.

So I think she can definitely relate to struggles with weight.

I hope she does well! Although I liked Caroline, too.

I love Ali, and she brought me from "Days" to "Biggest Loser." I remember how viciously people attacked her when she weighed more. And she was just a kid then. I think she's the perfect host.

I do, too. I don't see the lack of empathy others see. In fact, it seems to me it's the opposite. Then again, I'm a fan of hers from Days so I could be biased.

When she was 15-16 years old, she was getting constant mail in which she was referred by
as Spami Brady. By normal standards, she was normal, but on that show and compared to 0
and 2 sized women she was being judged as too heavy in comparison.

Yes, I GET IT that people thought she was fat for someone on TV. And I appreciate that TPTB picked a hostess who'd actually had some weight troubles over a celebrity who clearly never had. Given the pool they had to work from, they could have done a lot worse. There really isn't anybody in Hollywood who's had the kinds of weight trouble that these people do. (Or, at least, anybody in Hollywood who doesn't either a) embrace their extra weight and settle for being typecast as "jolly" or b) get gastric bypass and pretend they dieted...Star Jones, I'm looking at you.)

I just feel like this one instance of Allison being all emo about her weight struggles in front of these people who would kill to be her size at her heaviest...THAT was a little insensitive, and predisposed me to not liking her.

Whereas I thought NBC probably made her do that spot where she talked about her weight troubles. She might have been thinking the same thing you did.

I remember very well when Allison was struggling with her weight as a teenager on Days. She did seem to be a bit chunky compared to the other waifs on the show. I understand why people think needing to lose only 20 lbs. is trivial, I used to feel that way as well, but I learned first-hand working in the weight loss industry that it can feel just as overwhelming to face losing 20 lbs. as it does to lose much more. At first I thought people who were so upset about needing to lose such a small amount were drama queens or nuts, but as time went by I truly understood just how painful being overweight is in general. No, Allison doesn't have experience of carrying around 100-plus extra lbs., but I think she does empathize with the sense of helplessness and shame that many overweight people feel.

Allison has grownup to be a very beautiful woman who clearly has her weight under control and I think she is great as host. I got the feeling she was a bit nervous during the first two episodes, but I think once she gets comfortable in the role she will be even better.

Great choice NBC!

I love Ali so much and think she's doing a great job.Even though i miss Caroline alittle,Ali is great i just love the woman.

Here's something completely in Allison's favor in the debate over her sincerity. In his Ivillage post-boot interview, re the one thing Jerry had to say about what happened behind the scenes that people wouldn't know was this:



Chaulk one up for sincerity.

Alison Sweeny is a great host and 150% better than Carolyn in my opinion. Alison seems more relaxed, focused and genuinely interested in the contestants, plus her clothes/hair are so much nicer. I felt like Carolyn was going to the prom every week with those crazy up-dos. I do not understand the backlash in regard to Alison's weight struggles. To me struggling with 10 pounds or 300 hundred is still a struggle. I have no idea what it means to be heavy in Hollywood or the soap world, but from my understanding from my sister who is in the business, anything over a size 6 is considered heavy. I would imagine that she felt that insecurity as we all do whether you have to lose 300, 50 or 10 pounds, it's a struggle, plus she was in public and got raked over the coals because of the weight she had to lose and she lost it, so that should give her some credibility. I prefer Alison's personality so much more, she makes the show enjoyable.

I am also liking Alison a lot. Ironically, I really don't care for her on Days of our Lives. (Well, she's fine, but I am no big fan of Sami Brady.) But she seems really genuine and like she really cares about the contestants. I think she's also loosening up a lot, which is good to see.

Caroline wasn't perfect, but at least she came across as real. Allison just seems so fake and scripted. She can't deliver a line with any true feeling. I'm no soap watcher, so I don't know how she does in her day job, but she really bugs me on TBL.

I like her a lot -- are her weight struggles the same as the contestants, no - but to me, that doesn't make them invalid. I think I was 10 when she started on Days (and just starting to get hardcore into soaps myself) and I very vividly recall all the remarks that were made about her weight in the soap press. I remember that she and Heather Tom were both totally, totally raked over the coals for being fat by soap standards - and the viewing audience certainly wasn't immune. It's fucked up, but I thought she was fat, and so did the people who got me into Days (my best friend, who was overweight for our age, and her mom, who was definitely overweight). Didn't then even do that whole "Sami is bulemic" storyline so that Sami could get Austin (or Lucas -- that quadrangle really just got insane, and I stopped watching more than a decade ago) to find her attractive? They wrote the fact that a 16 year old actress was "fat" into part of her character -- and not in a positive way (she ended up not being bulemic to get Austin, but for herself -- because that makes it better). It was either Days or that HBO Lifestories: Families in Crisis starring Calista Flockhart as the girl that almost kills herself by becoming bulemic and anorexic that I even learned what an eating disorder was. Is that the same as struggling with lifelong obesity or having health risks associated with your size -- hell no, but it doesn't mean she doesn't know what it is like to be ridiculed (and very publicly ridiculed) for her weight.

I think NBC/TBL producers made her share her story, not for the contestants, but so the viewers at home, unfamiliar with DOOL would know why this 30 year "thin" chick was the host. As others have said, finding an appropriate host is really difficult - because you either have the people who want to embrace their largeness or you have people that understandably, for their livilhood, don't really want to focus on the fact that they used to be overweight - even if it is only overweight by Hollywood standards. I mean, I suppose they could get that Susan Powter woman (the one with the shaved head from the STOP THE INSANITY infomercials from th early '90s), but that woman is straight up crazy and not in a Jillian, endearing way - in a, this woman is fucking nuts way.

I like her better than Caroline Rhea, if only because it always pissed me off that Caroline kept getting bigger and bigger while in a sense, "encouraging/judging" others to lose weight. She might have been more realistic, but I always got a sense of judgment out of her that seemed unwarranted, seeing as she was the only person to gain weight during the whole process. Plus, she seems to be sincere - and the show is really about the trainers and the contestants anyway. The hostesses' bad dye job isn't really the point.

I never watched an entire season of TBL until this one, but I always got that feeling from CR, also. That she was judging the contestants, yet obviously she wasn't keeping her weight steady (or dropping weight) herself. I would think someone like that would actually have more empathy.

Which is why I disagree with those who say AS isn't sincere or showing sympathy. I see it quite often from her. (Yes, I'm a biased DOOL fan who has loved AS for years.)

Plus, it just kicks ass that she did TBL while still working at DOOL full-time, AND raising a baby, AND taking on a SECOND character (with an accent no less) at DOOL.

She may not be the greatest actress in the world, but I so admire her as a person.

I think she's terrible as host. I don't sense any enthusiasm at all. It's kind of funny how varied our opinions are about her!

I'd say 300% better.


She doesn't come off as "rah rah". It's far more about sincerity with her. Personally, I think it shows.

The new hosts voice puts me to sleep. I can barely watch/listen to her, it's so annoying. She speaks just above a whisper constantly and it gets on my damn nerves. Soooooooooo monotone, argh!!! Bring back Caroline.

Granted I never watched the show much with Caroline, but I think Alison is doing a pretty good job so far. I think she shows genuine interest in the contestants, so I like that. I also don't find her voice annoying.

Alison is slowly growing on me. As others have said, I think her sincerity in caring about the contestants is starting to come through. Jerry, in his "after the show" blog said this about Alison:

7.) What is one thing that happened behind-the-scenes that no one would know from watching the show? I think the most touching thing I've seen in a long time was Alison Sweeney crying off camera when she heard sad stories from some of the people. I think she truly cared about us and I won't ever forget her kindness to me on the night I got voted off. She told the crew not to let me leave until we had our picture taken together. She had said two weeks before that she would take a picture of us together and she remembered and she did that because she is a sweet, sweet person. (from ...After BL...)

I think she has the personality of a stick. Very fake, very annoying passionless voice. Why can't they get an actor/actress who has actually gone through losing a substantial amount of weight (Kirstie Alley would be a hoot)? I'm sure that they can pay more than the $2 they much be paying this dull chick. I like Caroline Rhea and even thought she sounded like she was reading off a cue card, but in retrospect she had more personality.

I love the show, but I can't even look at the screen when Allison (or whatever her name is) speaks. I'm embarrassed for her.

This is the very smallest of nitpicks about Alison Sweeney, but that girl stands like a man. She has a very wide stance. It is kind of distracting to me because I can't figure out why her legs are so far apart.

Yeah, I think her posture/walking/sitting does tend to be manly at times. That would be the only criticism I have of her though.