Entertainment
Where Are the Hosts of The Biggest Loser Now? All About Their Lives Today, 5 Years After the Show Ended
NEED TO KNOW
- The Biggest Loser aired from 2004 to 2020, first on NBC and later on USA Network
- The weight loss competition was hosted by Caroline Rhea, Alison Sweeney and Bob Harper throughout the years
- The show is the subject of the Netflix docuseries Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser, for which Harper and Sweeney were interviewed
The Biggest Loser — hosted over the years by Caroline Rhea, Alison Sweeney and Bob Harper — was once one of NBC’s biggest winners.
The series — which featured people competing to lose weight for a prize of $250,000 — launched in 2004 and quickly began picking up steam. At its peak in 2009, 13.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the finale, according to The New York Times.
Comedian and Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Rhea was the show’s original host, leading the series for seasons 1 through 3 before Days of Our Lives actress Sweeney took over. For the final two seasons, longtime Biggest Loser trainer Harper took the helm before the series ended in 2020.
The rise and fall of The Biggest Loser was documented in a 2025 Netflix docuseries called Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, which features the unfiltered thoughts and experiences of its creators, producers, the show’s physician Dr. Robert Huizenga, contestants, winners and two of its hosts — Harper and Sweeney. Fit for TV questions if the show — which encouraged contestants to lose weight quickly through extreme dieting and exercise — was beneficial or harmful for participants.
Here’s where the former Biggest Loser hosts Caroline Rhea, Alison Sweeney and Bob Harper are now.
Caroline Rhea
Rhea was the original host of The Biggest Loser when it premiered in 2004. She only hosted the first three seasons before leaving “to pursue other interests,” per Variety.
Shortly after leaving The Biggest Loser, Rhea welcomed a daughter named Ava Economopoulos with husband Costaki Economopoulos in October 2008.
“She’s like my little miracle baby,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “All the bad stuff, and all the good stuff, it all leads you to the place that you’re meant to be.”
Though Rhea took a break from acting and comedy to raise her little girl, she eventually returned to Hollywood.
“I thought I have to be an interesting person for my child,” she said. “I have in no way sacrificed anything because she’s given me everything in raising her and being with her, but I want her to have a passion in her life that she loves and a purpose.”
Since then, she’s appeared in several TV holiday movies, made a guest appearance on Sabrina the Teenage Witch spinoff The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and starred in Disney series Sydney to the Max from 2019 to 2021. She’s also voiced Linda Flynn-Fletcher in beloved children’s show Phineas and Ferb since 2007.
Rhea still performs stand-up at comedy clubs and festivals around the world.
Alison Sweeney
Sweeney replaced Rhea as The Biggest Loser host in 2007 during the show’s fourth season.
“I am so proud to be part of the show,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in January 2013. “I feel so good about the show — it’s uplifting and inspiring and entertaining at the same time.”
In fact, working on the series inspired her to start doing marathons and triathlons. “The more I saw the Biggest Loser contestants do it … I found that competitive spirit in myself and wanted to do it too,” she said.
However, in August 2015, she walked away from the show after eight years. “It’s been an amazing run. I’m so proud,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “[But] times change and situations change … We talked and it wasn’t an easy decision. It was just the right time for me to do something different.”
Sweeney has kept busy with acting since leaving The Biggest Loser. She’s continued her role as Sami Brady in Days of Our Lives, helmed the Hannah Swensen series of movie mysteries on the Hallmark Channel and has appeared in all of the Lacey Chabert-led The Wedding Veil films.
Her kids, son Benjamin Sanov and daughter Megan Sanov, with husband David Sanov, are all grown up — and her son even worked with her on her the 2023 film A Zest for Death: A Hannah Swensen Mystery.
“As a parent, I always strive to teach my kids new life skills,” she told PEOPLE in October 2023. “From being on set, he’s developed a new understanding and appreciation of camera operations, which has been fun to watch him explore.”
Sweeney opened up more about her experience on The Biggest Loser in Netflix’s 2025 docuseries, Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser. “When people talk about the show negatively or have critiques of the show, I totally understand,” she said. “I’m not naive or have rose-colored glasses. I see.”
Still, she stands behind it after seeing some of the contestants change their lives. “My goal was to have that conversation about health and wellness and giving people that idea that it’s possible,” she added.
Bob Harper
Harper appeared in all 18 seasons of The Biggest Loser, training contestants in the first 16 seasons and hosting the final two.
In 2025’s Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, Harper shared that he thought the show was “going to be huge” before it even aired. Subsequently, he and fellow trainer Jillian Michaels played to the cameras.
“Always remember we were trying to make an entertaining show,” he said. “What’s more important for weight loss? We all know it’s diet, but that becomes boring television. You know what’s not boring television? To see us in a gym yelling, screaming … and producers loved that s—. They were like, ‘We want them to puke! We want the madness of it all!’ ”
However, Harper shared that there were times that he wasn’t proud of, like when he yelled at season 7’s Joelle Gwynn. He also said he was “in horror” when he saw one contestant, Rachel Frederickson, come back for the finale weighing only 105 lbs.
Still, he says he “will stand behind everything that I’ve ever done on that show.” Harper added that he “would never put anyone in harm’s way.”
In February 2017 — while the show was on hiatus — Harper suffered a heart attack that left him unconscious for two days. The experience gave him a new sense of camaraderie with the Biggest Loser contestants.
“I couldn’t walk around the block. I know that it’s like to have to look at everything that I eat and have to change how I live and what I do,” he said on Fit for TV. “I understand more than I ever knew before.”
These days, Harper is still a fitness trainer who focuses on “all things health and wellness,” according to his Instagram. In June 2019, he got married to husband Anton Gutierrez. The couple share three dogs named Karl, Vivienne and Ralph.
In January 2025, he appeared on another NBC show, The Traitors season 3, where he placed 15th.
Harper and Michaels are no longer friends, he shared on Fit for TV.
“We were really close on television,” he said. “After I had my heart attack, she’s the one person I never heard from. That, to me, spoke volumes.”
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