Viewers can’t believe Fat Families was allowed on TV after watching resurfaced clip

A surfaced clip of the Sky One show Fat Families has left people wondering how the reality TV show ever saw the light of day.

There are a lot of TV shows out there that have not aged well over time, and people clearly think Fat Families is one of them.

The series starred weight loss expert, Steve Miller, as he attempted to help overweight families improve their lifestyles and eating habits.

It's been more than a decade since the short-lived series first aired on TV, but the power of the internet means there's still some clips from the show floating around, waiting to be watched and broken down from a modern-day viewpoint.

That's exactly what happened when a TikTok account shared a clip from Fat Families, in which Miller, a self-described 'former fatty turned fat-buster', met a family who had asked for his 'straight-talking style of help' to lose weight.

In a voice-over alongside clips of the family chowing down on various food items, Miller said: "Step one is to spend a whole day with this chubby tribe... Too much time sat on their fat bums, that's their problem, plain and simple.

"If they don't pull out their chubby fingers they'll be on their way to an early grave."

When he met the family, Miller learned that mum Tarnya Cuff 'loved being fat', but that she knew you could be 'too fat to live'.

With that in mind, Tanya expressed hopes to be 'under 30 stone' in time for an upcoming trip to Florida, so she could enjoy walking around the theme parks there.

The clip of the show shared on TikTok was flooded with comments from viewers struggling to believe it real, let alone broadcast on TV.

"UK tv was wild," one shocked TikTok user commented, while another questioned: "how was this allowed."

Years after appearing on the show, Cuff told Vice going on the show felt like her 'only choice' at the time, though she 'didn't expect it to go the way that it did'.

Cuff said she didn't have any complaints about the crew, and that she'd undergone psychological assessments to ensure she were stable enough to appear on the show, but she felt she'd been misrepresented by the episode.

“They hammed it up an awful lot,” Cuff claimed. “They made us go round the supermarket and throw things into the trolley that we wouldn’t put in the trolley."

Last year, a spokesperson for Outline Productions, the company who created the show, said: “We take pride in the care with which our programmes are made. In the case of Fat Families, which was produced in 2010, we built close relationships with the contributors over many months – they understood the context and nature of their involvement.

“They were happy with the final shows, in which they were given detailed medical insight into their health and bespoke healthy eating and exercise regimes which led to significant health and wellbeing benefits. We are not aware of any complaints made in the 12 years since the series was first transmitted.”

Fat Families finished in 2010, but continued to air through reruns until 2018.

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article and would like to speak with someone in confidence, call the BEAT Eating Disorders helpline on 0808 801 0677. Helplines are open 365 days a year from 9am–8pm during the week, and 4pm–8pm on weekends and bank holidays. Alternatively, you can try the one-to-one webchat

Featured Image Credit: Sky One

Topics: UK News, TV and Film, Health, TikTok

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.