by Brian Phelps
Honestly, it's not hard for me to see why she didn't return for another season. She was a flop, and I'll tell you why. She had absolutely NO charisma! She had absolutely NO intensity, and that was the difference between Anna Kournikova versus Bob and Dolvett. You can see the fire in Dolvett's eyes when he is training the contestants, but with Anna Kournikova she just had no intensity. There is a huge difference between an intense work out, and an intense trainer. Bob and Dolvett are hard on the contestants, but they aren't just insulting them. They begin reshaping the contestant's confidence, and that's what I failed to see Anna Kournikova do. I felt like she was being insulting, but didn't back it up by getting to really know the contestants. The other thing is that her personality was just dry. I thought she didn't have much personality to be honest, and that's not meant as an insult. That's just how she came off to me.
The biggest thing of all that contributed to Anna being a flop is the elephant in the room that no one wants to see. She is NOT qualified to be a fitness trainer. I mean c'mon! She's a tennis player! How does being a tennis player qualify you to be a personal trainer? Dolvett is a top level trainer who has trained some of the top entertainers in the world including Janet Jackson and Justin Bieber. Dolvett has also helped a person lose over 300 pounds, and he runs his own training company in Atlanta. Dolvett's qualifications are secure. Bob Harper's credentials have been in place for years. On the other hand, Anna has no personal training credentials. How does being a tennis player qualify you to help average people who are obese lose weight? It's ridiculous.
I'll tell you where NBC went wrong. NBC thought to themselves that all they needed to get was a pretty celebrity/athlete to shore up ratings when Jillian Michaels left, and they brought in Anna Kournikova who had absolutely no business being a personal trainer for the show. Anna Kournikova is a pretty petite blonde tennis player. She is one of the most searched athletes on the internet every year simply because she's a pretty face. That's just the facts. She was a world class athlete, but she was never the best. She never won a singles title, and she only reached as high as number 8 in the world. NBC pulled an American Idol when they chose Anna Kournikova because she's the Ellen Degeneres of The Biggest Loser. Ellen Degeneres had no business being an American Idol judge and was simply chosen for ratings. NBC did the same thing with The Biggest Loser and Anna.
The single biggest issue with her besides the fact that she isn't qualified to be a trainer is that she can't relate to the contestants at all. Many of the contestants on the Biggest Loser have had life long struggles with weight loss, and emotional struggles and eating disorders. Anna Kournikova hasn't had to struggle a day in her life compared to the average person. Her father is a professor, wrestling champion, and part-time martial arts instructor. By the time she was 6 years old, she was already a part of a tennis club which has trained several world class tennis players. She signed a management deal at age 10. She never had to struggle a day in her life compared to the average person. She was competing in world championships as a teenager. She's a millionaire several times over. She was named one of the hottest women of all-time by Men's Health magazine. In other words, she's never had to live in the real world that these contestants have because she's been rich her whole life and what she can't get by on her tennis skills she gets by on her looks. That's why she came off as unsympathetic and unrelatable. She's had a VERY easy life. This isn't meant as a diss to Anna Kournikova, but it's obvious that she had no business being on the show. I'm not sad that she didn't return for season 13. I'm just fine with Bob and Dolvett.
I don't understand why it is difficult for people who have never struggled with their weight to comprehend how hard it is for people to get the pounds off. I would challenge Anna to put on a 200 pound body suit and work an eight hour a day job on her feet 6 days days a week to make ends meet and spend two hours at the gym, with all that extra weight, meanwhile doing all of her your own cooking,cleaning laundry, childcare at the same time. Anna has no idea how that is done or how it feels. I highly doubt that she has ever seen a real person make those incredible changes under those circumstances. Being unsympathetic to real Americans is simply unacceptable in an American inspirational television show. Furthermore, it just isn't good tv for me. Lastly, my husband is incredible.
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