toni tonight on "nightline," diet wars from dueling celebrity spokes models claims our program is better than yours to injunctions and lawsuits. how this ad suddenly turned the $40 billion weight loss business very ugly. the secrets of "lost" as the final season begins, "nightline" goes behind the scenes in hawaii to see how the mind-bending sci-fi show became a pop culture f phenomenon. >> plus murder for williams. she wanted to write a book but tonight dedemoore is charged with accessory to murder.

the latest twist in the case. this is "nightline," february 2nd 2010. good evening,terry, moran, we're going to begin with an extreme factor on fat. weight loss industry is just massive. worth some $40 billion in annual sales. with the stakes that high, the companies selling the get-thin solutions are locked in a constant battled up stage one another offering celebrity spokes models but one competitor's advertising model may have crossed the line even in these bitter diet wars as juju chang reports. >> reporter: when valerie bertinelli traded in a bikini for this tv commercial.

the ad sparked a heavy duty weight loss war. valerie is a well-known spokesperson for jenny craig. and in this controversial ad, she said that clinical studies prove that jenny craig works better than the world's largest diet company. >> independent clinical trials jenny craig's clients averaged -- >> reporter: which turns out is weight watchers, this man is ceo and he was not happy. >> it was completely deceptive. >> in your opinion they fudged the numbers. >> they made a comparison they had no business making. it was completely unreliable and false. >> reporter: all part of a $40 billion competition where who wins is determined by who loses the most and which celebrity endorser is getting skinny on what. >> with help from my personal consultant, i lost the weight. >> i feel 20 year younger.

>> marie osmond with knute tri system. >> jenny mccarthy used weight watchers. >> jenny mccarthy came to us after she lost the weight. we had no idea she was doing the program. she came to us after she lost all her baby weight. 60, 70 pounds. >> reporter: bob garfield spent 25 years in the ad business. not that he's cynical. >> you take a "b" list celebrity. who is famously chubby and put them on a crash diet, photograph them before and after, voila, you have a marketing campaign. once again, results, not typical. >> i lost 40 pounds and i gained confidence. >> reporter: the dramatic reveals are turned into television spots that can mean a big bump in business for these companies. >> i think one of the reasons we're using celebrities for so many year, celebrities create interest. the magic, if you will, rotating

in celebrities, telling their story, is people like reality television. >> valerie bertinelli made a big splash of the "people" magazine. had to boost jenny craig's fortunes. >> reporter: valerie lost 50 pound on jenny craig. >> i love the program. love the food. >> i'm marine osmond and lost 45 pounds on knew tri stem. >> i wanted to chew food. i didn't want to have to measure anything. didn't want to go some place and be weighed in. >> reporter: all of these endorsers are unafraid to throw punches as they shaed a few pounds. >> do you feel the pressure of diet wars is it knew there system, versus jenny craig. >> have you tried their food? >> can i get in trouble for that? >> is it bad we're celebrating valerie bertinelli on the cover

of a "people" magazine. >> if valerie is happy, if that makes her happy. that wouldn't make me happy. i don't want to see a 49-year-old woman in a bikini, no. >> but seriously, it's known that jenny craig has the best tasting food. that's a fact. >> that's cute, though. that's a little smackdown trash talk. >> see treat over here. >> reporter: the companies had different weight loss models. >> salisbury. penne pasta. >> reporter: jenny craig sells prepackaged portion-controlled food as does knnutri system. >> we have to learn other ways to get bless our. >> reporter: weight watchers is lifetime based, using a point system to count calories. >> i ate, ate, ate and got physically sick. >> reporter: they also have weekly meetings to keep people motivated. >> we use points as a simply

fighted way to keep track of. it's not supposed to be a diet. >> reporter: at the start of the new year, these companies ramp up marketing efforts. jenny craig featured the new commercial right after christmas. >> one by serious lab geeks. i love science. >> dr. bertinelli. what's with the lab coat? usually advertisers are discouraged from putting anybody in any kind of medical costume that isn't an actual doctor. >> have you called jenny yet? >> so, in your view, it's not you who picked on them. it's jenny craig who picked a fight with you? >> oh, yes, front ool assault. it just was. they came out with this ludicrous claim. >> reporter: weight watchers upped the ante and took jenny craig to court. why file sought? one could argue if you let it go silently, people wouldn't notice, it would have been lost in the echo chamber.

>> not really, they bring out a very famous celebrity. have her wearing a lab coat on tv as if she were a scientist. put it in front of millions of americas and they do it in the first week of january, which all the cliches true, when everybody is doing new year's resolutions. >> that's your prime season. >> it is our prime season. so no. you can say our product is better than sliced bread. you can say it is better than sex. you can say it is better than the energy of the sun. but you can't say it's better than the competing product without a whole mess of really persuasive data. >> reporter: and the judge agreed. the man hat opinion federal court granted a temporary restraining order, the ad was pulled off the air. the fr jenny craig had no comment on the case. what do you want for jenny craig to do to make amends? >> get it off the air. keep it off the air. get it off the web.

get it out of the shop windows, keep it out of the shop windows. >> can you kiss and make up and get back to friendly competition? >> i love everyone. >> you're a lover. >> i never met valerie bertinelli, as far as i know she's the most awesome people in the world. >> with bikini on, lab coat off. i'm juju chang, "nightline" in new york. >> hard going tactics in the ongoing diet wars. thanks juju chang for that. when we come back, the final season is under way. we have a back stage pass on the set of "lost." don't miss the secrets we

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so, how will it end? that question is on the minds of millions tonight with the premiere of the sixth and final season of the sci-fi smash, "lost." and with that mystery in mind, my colleague john donvan went to the show set in hawaii where he was granted extremely rare access behind the scenes to see what made "lost" such a phenomenon and went in search of any secrets he could find. >> reporter: once upon a time, under an endless sky, there was a beach where people came to tell a very tall tale of once upon a time. >> remember, i beat the crap out of charlie over there, i think. >> don't be walking on our graves. >> sorry. >> a couple of other people are

bauerried here. nicky and paul low. those people who showed up and disappeared. >> this is echo's church, he never got to finish it. he had to pay the price for his -- >> his karma. >> good word. generally speaking, the world divides into two groups. group one, those who know exactly what this man is talking about and would recognize his face in their sleep, and group two, those who do not have a clue. he's quinn starring on a tv show called "lost." you group one people know that, of course. this little stretch of beach we strolled the other day, where the story began, six years ago with a bang. a plane crash on to a remote pacific island. and while this show on a beach early on broke many of the shackles of conventional tv story-telling, as it followed survivors through a wild and

woolly mystery, at the end of the season, lost will break one more rule, it is ending. taking itself off the air on purpose. and taking a full season to do it. and despite a certain wistfulness that this will all become past tense -- >> this is glorious. >> it's been fun, huh? >> it's been great. >> reporter: on the set they were shooting the other day, final episodes are not done yet. no, we cannot show you what's going on inside that big wooden box, sorry, we promised on the set there's a sense of pride and practice, that ending on purpose, makes "lost" unlike any show that ever aired on television. >> that's appropriately crazy. that's director jack bender, for the group two folks he's giving you an insight into "lost." a crazy, weird show. just a stroll among sets gives you a favor how weird it gets.

>> these are special electronic gizmos. >> we're in hawaii where every scene in the show is produced. every foreign scene and every aspect of the fictional island of "lost." isolated water falls sighted for the first time. such as the ougaudubon center o year round. >> our show is location drink and mainly, in terms of jung many and beach and all of the beautiful things in hawaii we've seen. along with making it iraq, making it paris, making it los angeles, all of the places we've gone in the show without having to cut to a cheesy shot, i would say. >> no eiffel tower in there? >> no eiffel tower and cut to the cafe. we all feel we're ready to stop. creatively we've told the story we want to tell. >> damon. lindelof and karlton cuse.

is why lost succeeded. >> enormous blessing. it is incredibly rare. it's easy to find writers who want their show to end. it's very difficult to find networks that want to end something that is successful. >> i'm kate. >> reporter: it's a curious argument. making "lost" end. save "lost" from dying. it makes sense if you get what made this show different, the answer, character, story and fans. characters first. >> i tell you what it is, gentlemen. i think it's not a typically american show. >> reporter: what terry means, what the play character he plays is american. the others not. australian, brits, africans and iraqi who served in the iraq army. and koreans. there aren't many shows that make you read this many sub

titles. >> you are a liar. >> and nobody is easy. >> a lecture about lying, betty? >> everybody lies. >> why are you lying to me about him? >> why are you lying to me. >> i think you're lying. >> we have to lie. >> lie -- and you're a liar. >> the most sweet-faced and sympathetic blows up her father in a house and the guys that are supposed to be strong, like handsome jack shepherd played by matthew fox are self-clothing and in his case suicidal. no, it's not easy. >> it's a very demanding show. you have to pay close attention. it's not something you can sort of pop in and out of. >> why do you think it worked? >> it's full of surprises. i really think "lost" will. it's sort of like a really big puzzle, and i think people really enjoy something that challenges them to think like that. >> reporter: which takes us to story.

so we know how these desert island stories go, they're going to build a raft. they're going to get involved. dr. with sweetie, sweetie with con man. con man with, oh, she's a doctor, too. nice straight story lines, right? >> you're dead, what do you expect me to do? >> reporter: far from it. because polar bears pop up. a column of smoke kills people. a wheel makes the island relocate. "lost" isn't a story line, it's a story tangle of sub plots, flash backs, flash forwards. not a plot, it's a maze. >> are you getting this? >> when you started traveling through time is when you started going, oh, great, now where are we headed with this. but i had, you know, i trust the riders. and i was just like, okay. let's see how it's going to unravel. t 50, 60.

>> reporter: unravel, jorge garcia, plays good hearted hurley haunted by six numbers whose meaning as of tonight remains unresolved. we know before tonight the numbers won him a fortune. >> stop, i can't do this. >> reporter: when the survivors find the man-made shaft, the numbers are there also. and later lock must type the numbers every 108 minutes to prevent the end of the world or something. that is a triple sub plot crisscross. a lot of moving parts for one tv show, which is why when jorge got me back into the prop room. it was like visiting a story teller's attic. so much stuff was there. what we found when we come back. consider this: at iowa lakes community college, the students learn tkeep america's wind turbines going and to keep them safe, the only battery they trust in their high voltage meters are duracell rechargeables.

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many fans who follow the show "lost" do so devoutly and with an eye nor every last detail. and that's because those details often count, each one offering another clue to the mysterious master narrative here. more now from john donvan. >> this was the flag made from a hawaiian shirt. >> reporter: it took a nostalgic room when i asked jorge about the problem room. >> this is cool. >> reporter: everything is there. according to propmaster, rob. >> all of this is from the hatch. >> reporter: anything every character handled from any episode. jorge opening crates seemed to do time travel of his own, the

way it took him back. >> this is what "nightline" gets. >> reporter: we even spot thad famous lottery ticket, the one with all of those numbers. >> your lucky number. that is the voice of the fans. >> we do know he has telekinetic powers. who in hundreds of blogs and fan sites, endlessly work to break the crowd. theories connected like the transition whose husband and wife team spend hour on this podcast. yes, they have day jobs. >> there are people who spent more time on "lost" than we have. they've watched every episode nine, ten, 11 times. >> what does hourlily say? >> welcome to the first and last island open. >> reporter: or go to hawaii, to visit scenes where hurley gets everyone to play golf and you show up with the hurley action

figure and it happens again. >> these fan communities were going viral. we were able to go on message boards and get feedback. >> it served as a barometer of what we were doing. >> reporter: then something happened. while "lost" took off because fans were able to play the game. something happened in the course of season three. fans began raising doubts over whether these stories really had any design to them. wetter they were puzzles after all that would be solved or just a lot of crazy plot getting crazier to fill up time which alarmed the show's producers because they agreed "lost" was starting to tread water a little. >> in the beginning of the third season of the show. we had our characters locked in cages. looking back, damon and i were like met forically how we felt. >> we were doing our best but at a certain point the show ran out of story.

>> the fans were expressing real reservations about making an investment. >> if you weren't working towards an investment all you can do is mill. >> reporter: you have a hit run it until it dies. two years ago they mapped a conclusion, and picked an end date. "lost" found his way again to head open. >> the solution was saving the show. we wouldn't be here. no one would care. had we not negotiate an end date to the show, the show would have faded into irrelevancy. >> reporter: it's as simple as that. so 15 episodes from tonight, we say good-bye to the show on the beach where the sky may be endless, but the story is not. and that is good. i'm john donvan for "nightline" in honolulu. >> and i note about those lost props, when the show does finally conclude, they will be auctioned off for charity. our thanks to john donvan.

maybe he should be thanking us for that sweet gig there. we'll be right back. but first here's jimmy kimmen with what's coming up on "jimmy kimmel live." tonight, carlton cuse answers my que lisa, your family thinks you might have roaster phobia. i'm not roaster-phobic. my perdue oven ready roaster is already seasoned in its own cooking bag. and it cooks in about half the time. my work here is done. [ male announcer ] now try perdue oven ready bone-in breast and cornish hens.

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