'The Biggest Loser' Season 13: Where are the Female Trainers?

The thirteenth season of 'The Biggest Loser' aired last night, and I was disappointed.

The game has a new twist (players entered as 'pairs', only to be told they would all be split into different teams), but that wasn't what bothered me.

What bothered me was that there are only two trainers this season, and both of them are men.

Anna Kournikova clearly wasn't a home run (or a match point) last season; the contestants didn't seem to take to her as quickly as they did with Bob and Dolvett, and she occasionally insulted them without even trying (remember her conversation with Jen and Ramon last season?). 

While I think that Bob is a veteran of the show, and absolutely needs to stick around, I don't care quite as much about Dolvett. At the same time, the fact that he's still around doesn't bother me. 

I was initially going to say that it seems bizarre to have only two trainers, but when you think about 'The Biggest Loser' in its infancy, it started out with just two: Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper.

Jillian disappeared for a little while (I don't remember this absence, but Wikipedia claims this is the case), and was replaced by Kim Lyons. By Season 4 Jillian was back, as were Kim and Bob.

We then entered 7 seasons of just Bob and Jillian, but in Season 11 they were joined by Brett Hoebel and Cara Castronuova. My reaction to Brett and Cara is identical to my reaction to Dolvett...I didn't much care either way.

Jillian had something special which Bob also has; she pushed players hard, she didn't take excuses, but she took the time to get to know them. Even when she was angry and yelling, and even being a little bit mean, she wasn't strongly disliked. In fact, I think Anna's main problem was that she didn't yell enough.

This is the first season with only male trainers.

I think the female (and male!) players shouldn't just have men encouraging them, they should have women leading by example as well. I know that 'The Biggest Loser' is the only reality show which has always had a woman as a host, and that's certainly nice. But just because they have one woman in the main cast doesn't negate the need for a female trainer.

Kim, Bob, Alison, and Jillian