Melissa McCarthy And Billy Gardell Are Both Nearly Unrecognizable A Decade After Mike & Molly Ended

The CBS comedy "Mike & Molly" starred Billy Gardell as Chicago police officer Mike Biggs opposite Melissa McCarthy as fourth-grade teacher Molly Flynn. The two of them meet at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, and they fall in love. The show ran for six seasons from 2010 to 2016, and in the decade since it was last on the air, both Gardell and McCarthy have slimmed down considerably.

On the podcast "Breaking Bread," Gardell confirmed that his peak weight was 375 pounds, and that was during filming "Mike & Molly." It took a while for Gardell to really commit and follow through on his weight loss. "Every year. I'd say I'd start on Monday," Gardell told People in 2025. "Or the first of the month. Or New Year's Eve. That was always my routine."

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A part of his motivation was his diagnosis with type 2 diabetes, and he realized that he didn't want to have to stay on medication for it for the rest of his life. Gardell underwent bariatric weight loss surgery in 2022, and since the surgery, with continued work on his health and fitness, he's lost 170 pounds.

Like her former co-star, Melissa McCarthy has also slimmed down since she starred on "Mike & Molly." While the show was on the air, McCarthy told Good Housekeeping, "sometimes I wish I were just magically a size six and I never had to give [my weight] a single thought" (via the Daily Mail). It hasn't been magic that's helped McCarthy slim down, but rather a slow and steady approach. She'd tried more drastic measures, including a restricted (and doctor-led) liquid-only diet, which she said she would never do again. At Variety's 2026 Power of Women event, she looked notably thinner than her "Mike & Molly" days in a sparkly, form-fitting black dress. Some estimates are that she's lost around 95 pounds. 

McCarthy wouldn't have been a part of "Mike & Molly" if it was just about the weight of the main characters. She told Parade in 2011: "I don't like anything that is just one little topic—it's beating a dead horse. ... And then I read the script, and I thought: That's not what it's about at all. It's a love story."

For the conceit of the show to work — at least at the start — both actors did have to be overweight. However, there was always room for that to change. "They're going to OA because they're on a journey," showrunner Chuck Lorre told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2010. "They're taking actions to improve their lives, in one way or another. These are people who are alive and in process and that's something we can write about forever." So if "Mike & Molly" ever got the reboot treatment, both Billy Gardell and McCarthy could come back as their slimmed-down selves, no problem.