'Losing It With Jillian' spins off 'Biggest Loser'

In her new NBC show, Jillian Michaels travels to eight families across the country to "help them transform their lives inside and out," as NBC puts it. This means lose weight, and a lot of it. She returns a few months later to see how they've done - or not done. Tonight's episode features the Mastropietros of Wilmington, Mass., just north of Boston. They're mostly plus-size, except for daughter Michelle, who had gastric bypass surgery but still harbors anxiety about a lifetime of being overweight.

This family can eat, and does. Per the show, they pretty much never stop. But they are also hiding personal tragedy. Jillian must help the family overcome long-standing emotional as well as gastric trauma. She gets them to the gym, and - in standard Jillian fashion - it gets loud and ugly real fast. Tears will flow, and around her, they usually do.

MY SAY: To understand how unique - and fearsome - a TV personality Jillian Michaels can be, imagine if she had been host of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution." Jamie actually had to return to Huntington, W.Va., for the finale when - surprise! - everyone he coached turned out to be a fast-food recidivist. He was good-humored about it - but Jillian would have burned the place to the ground. You could have heard the screaming up here. "You are all a bunch of pathetic LOSERS!"

Jillian's is an all-out-assault approach to weight management and, as "TBL" fans know, an effective one, too. She stokes the contestants' self-loathing, and before long, they realize it's easier to loathe her than themselves. They get off their butts and get to work.

BOTTOM LINE: "Losing It" also incorporates the host's soft side - Jillian as Dr. Phil - and that's where this show flops so badly. Watching her do her tough magic in the gym is one thing. Watching her salve psychic wounds with Age of Oprah psychobabble is another.

GRADE: C