Meet your host, Marissa Jaret Winokur. Photo: dyao.oxygen.com

Host Marissa Jaret Winokur calls Oxygen's latest reality TV series "Dance Your Ass Off" a "cross between "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Biggest Loser."

And she should know. Not only is Winokur blogging her own weight loss at People.com, she's also a "Dancing with the Stars" alum.

Here's how it works: According to the website, 12 finalists (totaling 3,000 pounds) will "shake and rattle their rolls" with a professional partner. They'll be judged each week on both their dancing ability and their weight loss. Plenty of DWTS contestants have raved about how fit they were after their run on the show, so we'll see if dancing can do the same for this crew.

The contestants were greeted with two pantries when they arrived, "eat" and "cheat." "Eat" was, of course, filled with fruits and veggies. "Cheat" contained every fatty, carb-laden treat you can think of. Brandon, a diabetic, went straight for the glazed donuts. At first, I worried this was gratuitous -- did they put the snack there so we could watch them all fail? But later, Dr. Rob, the show's doctor, said that they put the junk food there so that contestants could get used to saying no. "We want this to be the real world," he said.

After complete physicals, the contestants met with Dr. Rob, their personal nutritionists, their trainers (they live next door to Crunch gym) and, finally, their professional dance partners. Then, the dancing began.

Alicia kicked things off enthusiastically -- she even did the splits! -- and was so excited about her performance that she forgot about the weigh-in. And dad of two Warren promises to be an early favorite. At 357 pounds, he's one of the heaviest contestants, but even with no dancing experience, he mastered the "running man" for his performance and lost a whopping 11.6 pounds. Contestants' total score is a combination of their dancing score plus the percentage of their body weight lost.

Is the show outrageous? Yes. Over-the-top? Absolutely. Would you catch me doing it? Not a chance. But in general, the contestants (so far, it's only day one) seem to be happy and excited to be there. They're being taught lifelong healthy living skills and all lost a significant -- but not scary -- amount of weight by their first weigh-in. If you're a fan of "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Biggest Loser," you might just find that "Dance Your Ass Off" is your new favorite show.

Did you watch the show? What did you think?