TV sends fat UK teens to Aussie outback

SYDNEY: Obese British teenagers will be dropped into Australia's harsh outback, where they will have to hunt with Aborigines for food in a new reality television show, a report said on Tuesday.   

The makers of "Fat Teens Can't Hunt" are talking to Aboriginal groups who will teach the youngsters how to trap, kill, gather and cook "bush tucker" for the BBC show, the Australian Associated Press reported.   

Common Aboriginal food includes kangaroos and emus, witchetty grubs, lizards, snakes and moths.   

The series will feature five boys and five girls aged 16-19 in six one-hour episodes and is based on an earlier series, "Fat Men Can't Hunt", which sent a group of eight obese adults to live with the bushmen of Namibia.   

Sara Ramsden, the creative director of Cheetah Television, told the news agency the four men and four women collectively lost about 76 kilogrammes. 

"One of the biggest problems in Britain is teen obesity so we thought why not try it with teens," Ramsden said.   

"The biggest revelation of the last series was that people are addicted to tastes and they don't eat for survival anymore." For them to realise where the meat actually comes from and to actually trap a small game bird and eat it is really, really special. It helps them reconnect with where food came from."   

Ramsden rejected suggestions from critics that the show was voyeuristic.   

"It's absolutely valid to make an entertaining program like this that will get watched that will genuinely help these teenagers," she said.   

"We're going to be really open about what they're going to be letting themselves in for.   

"It's going to be hard for them. Some are going to be away from home for the first time -- they're going to be hungry."

Filming is due to take place in August.