According to TMZ and Fox News, the remaining cast members on the ranch walked off this past week mid-filming with the news that (like every season since mine) eliminated contestants would be returning to compete for the big prize. Rather than have the added competition, they hoped to prevent it from happening. According to the articles, filming has halted altogether for a week or so while producers try to figure out what to do next.

If it’s all true, personally I think it would be the biggest thing to hit reality TV if producers went ahead and let them go – since they broke their side of the deal/contract, and replaced them all with eliminated contestants. Biggest Loser and NBC would get more publicity mileage out of that than anything since Matt and Suzy’s wedding way back in season two!

I’ve seen things all over Facebook, my own blog comments and elsewhere that people are afraid this will finally kill the show.

It won’t.

Biggest Loser is too much of a cash cow for NBC to have it disappear after this season. It does seem like they will be switching back to one season a year. At this point casting hasn’t officially launched yet and there’s just no way they can be ready to film in April for a season to start airing in September. Personally, I think that’s better. It would build up anticipation, allow the cast to be inspirational longer before moving on to a new cast, and after a hiatus it would create renewed interest. Anyway, at this point with no casting news yet, I’m thinking the best bet is they hold off until closer to summer, start filming season 14 in August and have it premier in January, 2013. It just makes sense having a weight loss show launch at New Year’s when everyone is thinking about it anyway.

What are your theories?