New ‘Survivor’ Show Poses a Fitness Challenge

Maybe it’s the cameras, or the stress, or all that foraging for food and attention, but those televised survivor programs leave contestants looking pretty tanned and toned. But what if those contestants had free access to drive-thru fast food; if they had as much beer as they wanted?

What would you get if you took away the remote island and dropped them someplace like, say, the Valley?

Another survivor-like TV show, that’s what. Starting Thursday, the Discovery Health Channel will air the first episode of “Discovery Health Body Challenge,” in which three men and three women compete to see who can make the “most positive lifestyle change,” i.e., who can drop the most weight and look the most fabulous (without having cosmetic surgery). The suspense will mount as viewers wait for each episode’s “moment of truth,” when waistlines are measured, and body fat calculated, according to the network.

The contestants are not supposed to all look like daytime TV actors: They include a pastry chef, a mother of triplets, a dock worker and a police detective.

And they’ll be sucking in their guts.

The winner, picked by a panel of judges, gets a spa vacation for two in British Columbia.

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Benedict Carey