Following in the footsteps of the ever so popular ‘The Biggest Looser’ and ‘The Bachelor’ television networks have announced plans for a plus size dating show.  Instead of enlisting a cast of beautifully skinny contestants ‘More To Love’ will follow the search for love of a single eligible bachelor with a big waistline and even bigger heart. Shows producers will be calling for voluptuous ladies to join the race for the affections of this large husky hunk.  The creators of this idea believe the new programme will appeal to a wider audience of viewers promoting a more realistic reflection of the dating scene.

This style of programming is a breath of fresh air.  For so long women and men who are in the bigger weight bracket have barely been represented on television, not in reality TV anyway, except for the biggest looser where the shows contestants battle to be everything but big. Other reality TV examples such as Search For A Supermodel’ and ‘Are You Hot’ are sinful dribble, and the hollow contestants are not worthy of the airtime. ‘Idol’ and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ at least illustrate the journey of young people working towards actually becoming good at something. The announcement of ‘Miss World’ the large version is also a wonderful initiative.

‘More to love’ will hopefully focus on what it really means to be in a relationship, despite physical appearances. You don’t have to be a size 1 to be loved, easy to say but very hard inhabit when society tells us otherwise.  Many people are genetically big, these are the people who can struggle their whole lives to accept and love their bodies the way they are. Others who are unhealthily over weight and know they shouldn’t be, are more prone to unhappiness, but are also the ones in need of motivation and a confidence boost.

I don’t see producers pitching the idea of ‘Ugly Love’ but I suppose they are not thick either. It is funny though to think of all these larger contestants herded together with one bulky common factor between them, all so that we can observe the fireworks, but what if there aren’t any?

Opposites do attract, how often do you see fat and skinny couples…. I do!.. all the time.  Those larger couples you see with their chubby kids ordering a family bucket at KFC to gorge on together seem happy,  I assume they are comfortable together in their greasy haven.  I feel that classifying people as fat and thin is the separation that causes sadness in the first place. Why not have a dating show where anything goes, people in wheel chairs, fat, skinny, stupid, beautiful, rich. Love is in the eye of the beholder.  It just seems a pity to herd all the so-called good-looking people together, why? So they can live together in their vain misery eternally.

 I can already see a whole lot of single skinny girls sitting at home on a lonely Wednesday night eating their lean cuisine, clawing at their television sets whishing they too were given the chance to get a bit of Mr Bigs’ big fat love pie.