Whether "The Biggest Loser" contestants were given drugs is at the heart of an NBC internal investigation and a defamation lawsuit the show's doctor has brought against the New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter said Wednesday.
"The Biggest Loser," which ran on NBC for 17 seasons, has not aired any new episodes since 2016, even though it has never been officially canceled by the network, the celebrity publication pointed out.
Dr. Robert Huizenga, a sports doctor who worked with the show, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter said.
The suit disputes a series of articles in which Huizenga was accused of giving contestants "questionable medical exams" and supplying them with Adderall and pills with Ephedra, which is banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the celebrity publication wrote.
The court filing charged that the Post stories are false and cost him his business relationships with not only NBC, but ABC, Bravo, MTV, Oxygen, Spike TV, Fox, The CW, Discovery, Univision, National Geographic, Netflix, among others, The Hollywood Reporter said.
In its defense, the Post has subpoenaed NBC for emails and other documents connected to a referenced "internal investigation" the network did on the show, along with other recorded complaints, The Hollywood Reporter said.
NBC has pushed back in court, claiming much of that information is shielded under attorney-client privilege, trade secrets, and privacy concerns, the celebrity publication said. On June 29, the network turned over a privilege log describing why various emails, some dating back to 2008, sent to and from its executives were being classified as confidential.
Former "The Biggest Loser" contestants Lezley Donahue, Suzanne Mendonca, Jenn Watts, and Joelle Gwynn were quoted in a 2016 New York Post story that slammed the reality show. The women told stories about mysterious drugs they were given, fellow contestants passing out during the finale weigh-ins and in one instant being told to lie about how much they have eaten.
"That show is an atrocity," Dr. Yoni Freedhoff at the University of Ottawa, who specializes in obesity, told the Post for the 2016 article. "This approach is not endorsed by anyone in the medical community. NBC [has] made an awful lot of money off of damaging these individuals."
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