Executive producer of the Telefonica-owned television company ENDEMOL, John de Mol gestures during a.., 2001...

Executive producer of the Telefonica-owned television company ENDEMOL, John de Mol gestures during a press conference at the Chateau l\'Hermitage which is the location of the new Dutch reallife program " Big Diet " in the Dutch southern town of Houtem March 15, 2001. De mol also produced the hugely succesful Big Brother show and expects Big Diet will be a worldwide hit too. Twelve slimmers will compete to win their loss weight in gold in a new Big Brother-style reality tv show to hit Dutch screens last Saturday for the first time. Big Diet, brought to you by the producers of Big Brother, locks away six rotund men and six women in a castle, near the southern Dutch city of Maastricht. They will compete to slim down as 37 cameras monitor every move they make. The contestants will be fed low-calorie diets prepared by a celebrity chef, do physical workouts three times a day and sleep communally. The men and women compete in same-sex teams against each other and as individuals within the teams for the chance to win as much as a million guilders ( $ 406,300 US ).