Living Large

Dr Charles Procter talks about Making Too Large, learning from Dr Now and memorable moments with his patients.

- GENEVIEVE TERBLANCHE

We’ve seen Dr Charles Procter treat morbidly obese sisters Tammy and Amy Slaton in the TV series 1,000lb Sisters. Now in the new TLC (*135) series Too Large, Mondays at 21:00 and as a Box Set, he’s taking on more patients to support them through weight loss before he can perform bariatric surgery. He has one more job though: making reality TV.

What did you think when you first saw Dr Now and his reality show My 600-lb Life?

It’s funny, I’d never watched that show until I signed on to do reality show Family By The Ton in 2016. And it scared the heck out of me! I saw a patient who left the hospital after (gastric bypass) surgery, and went directly to a fast-food restaurant and ordered a bunch of food (Zsalynn Whitworth in season 2, episode 1) and I said, “My gosh, are my patients actually doing this?”

The audience have that in mind when they turn on another bariatric surgery show. I know that just through following social media that the audience was taken aback when they first started watching our show because my personality is very different from Dr Now. But Dr Now has been doing this for a long time, and there’s a lot to be learnt from that. I try glean as much as I can medically from him and about how he manages different problems that come with the patients.

You’ve tackled reality TV before. What’s different about Too Large?