Archive for the Biggest Loser category.
Aired 11-10-09
Our group, sans Tracey, had returned to the ranch and we opened with them meeting up on the grounds with host Alison Sweeney. She announced that there would be a double elimination this week. They were about to go from 8 to 6. At the weigh in there would be the traditional yellow line but, for this week, there would also be a red line. The person with the lowest percent of weight lost would fall below the red line and automatically be sent home. The next two lowest would go through the regular elimination process. But first, they had to face this week’s Pop Challenge.
Pop Challenge
The winner of the challenge would get a one pound advantage at the weigh in. Amanda and Liz couldn’t participate for medical reasons so they were out of luck. The other six had to jump up and grab tennis balls off of a board. They then had to run over and drop the ball into a bucket. The first person to get 50 balls into their bucket would win. A tall guy, like Rudy, would definitely seem to have an advantage but they mitigated some of that by varying how high the balls were placed on the board based on each person’s height. Allen got off to an early lead just ahead of Rudy. In the end, it was Rebecca who was running neck and neck with Allen but he was the ultimate victor.
We then learned that the house had naturally divided itself into two informal teams: the “older” group (Liz, Danny, Rudy and Allen) and the “younger” (Amanda, Rebecca, Shay and Daniel). Whichever “team” had the person who fell below the red line would be at a big disadvantage when it came time for the regular elimination vote.
Trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels checked in with the group to get the results of the D.C. elimination. Jillian thought it was ironic that Tracey was sent home saying, “I finally am able to stand the sight of this girl and now she’s gone.” They then got the bombshell about the double elimination and they were not pleased. They dismissed everyone and talked the situation over. Jill said that, while they never wanted to get into a discussion about who “needed” or “deserved” to be there, the truth was that Shay did. Jill really saw it as a life or death question. Bob didn’t want to play God but Jill felt they had to do it. After some resistance she was able to get him to look at it more as deciding who was most able to handle the “real world” as opposed to who needed to stay. The trick was that we didn’t see them decide who the person was who was most ready to go home.
In the workouts, Jill really drove Shay. The poor girl was exhausted and crying but Jill wasn’t having any of it. She told Shay that the time for tears and drama was over. She had to be focused and strong. Jill wanted to ensure that Shay, at least, didn’t fall below the red line. She wanted Shay to have a fighting chance.
Jillian then set her sights on Rebecca. Rebecca, though, didn’t handle it as well as Shay. In a scene that looked exactly like Amanda’s previous meltdown, Rebecca said she couldn’t deal with anything else and walked out of the gym. Ironically it was Amanda who talked her through all the drama.
Jill met up a bit later with Rebecca and Shay and found them stressing out about the red line. That provided the perfect opportunity for:
Product Placement Alert 1: Sooner or later they’ll be going home so they needed to plan on finding a 24 Hour Fitness Center near them and taking advantage of the Biggest Loser promotion to work out with a friend. Sometimes I find their lack of subtlety almost endearing.
Challenge
Next up our group met Ali at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. For this challenge they were all going to, literally, jump through hoops. The prize was immunity. They would have to jump on a trampoline and dive through the hoops and land on a crash mat on the other side. It sounds more dramatic than it really was because the hoops were pretty low to the ground. Each hoop had a name on it. Each time someone jumped through a hoop, the person whose name was on it would get a point. At 100 points that person would be knocked out of the game. The “young” team went after Liz first. They felt she was at serious risk of falling below one of the lines and they wanted to make sure she didn’t get immunity. The “older” group went after Amanda because she was fast and could rack up the most points against them. Liz was the first to go, followed by Amanda and Daniel. Allen and Rebecca were next leaving just Danny, Rudy and Shay in the challenge. That’s when things got interesting. When the challenge began, Rudy and Shay were standing next to each other. They seemed to agree to not go after each other’s hoops until the very end of the challenge. The debate was what was meant by “the end”. Shay thought it meant they wouldn’t jump through each other’s hoops until they were the last two. Rudy seemed to mean the end was when one of the informal teams was on their last person. Since Shay was the last of the young ones, Rudy and Danny concentrated on her hoop. That started some trash talking between Shay and Rudy and they said some very, very harsh things. Shay told Rudy he had no integrity and Rudy said Shay had no character. It wasn’t a great moment for either of them. In the end it was Danny vs. Rudy but, at that point, Rudy only had 4 points so he easily won. They all walked away from the challenge with a full appreciation of how divided the house now was.
The young ones decided to get tricky. They took a couple of spin bikes out of the gym and hid them in Shay’s room. The four secretly worked out at night in the hopes of making the older team think they were slacking off. That was a questionable strategy. Sleep is important to health and fitness and they might have ended up exhausting themselves to the point of being counterproductive.
Bob arrived to take the group to a trapeze workout but first, he called aside Liz and Danny to do:
Product Placement Alert 2: for the Larabar - a healthy alternative to a snack bar. Liz got in trouble, though, because she immediately started chowing down on one instead of saving it for later. Bob commented that she really was an emotional eater.
Weigh In
Since Rudy had immunity he weighed in first. He lost 8 pounds for a total of 2.41%.
Shay lost 17 pounds for a total of 4.33%. She had lost exactly 100 pounds in 9 weeks setting a new BL record for female contestants.
Amanda lost 5 pounds for a total of 2.42%.
Rebecca lost 10 pounds for a total of 4.57%.
Danny lost 17 pounds for a total of 5.11%. He’d lost a total of 114 pounds.
Allen lost 10 pounds which, combine with his one pound advantage, totaled 4.35%.
Liz lost 12 pounds for a total of 5.50%.
Daniel lost just 5 pounds for a total of 1.92%. He was below the red line and heading home. He was actually one of the more composed people in the room. Rebecca was a mess and ran over to give him a hug.
Shay and Amanda were below the yellow line so it was a bad night all around for the young ones. Ali gave the group an hour to decide how to vote.
Shay tearfully told the group she wasn’t there to play a game. She was there so she could live. Amanda said she fought to be on the show and it was the first time she’d done something positive for herself.
In the elimination room poor Rebecca had to vote first. She said that she couldn’t vote to send home the person who originally chose her to be a teammate, so she wrote down Shay’s name. Allen voted for Shay because he felt she’d made great strides and had gained control. Danny voted for Amanda because he felt the person with the most to lose (Shay) should stay. Liz wrote Amanda’s name because she was playing the game and thought Amanda would get a good percentage at the next weigh in. That left it up to Rudy. He voted for Shay because she’d set and achieved a goal. Shay said she was OK because she was leaving with her word, integrity and a BL record.
In the “Where They Are Now” clip we learned that Shay has another goal. She wants to lose more than 212 pounds by the finale and set another BL record for most weight lost on the show. Daniel has now lost a total of 215 pounds over two seasons. We watched as he met up with his first teammate, David, who looks to be the same size he was when they both started. It was a little tough to watch because David is still a man in an unhealthy place. Losing weight just isn’t a priority. Daniel pledged to be there for him when he’s ready.
Next Week: It’s makeover time with Tim Gunn.
Full episodes and bonus clips of BL are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Aired 11-03-09
Immediately after the teary exit of the beloved Abby, host Alison Sweeney met with both teams for a big announcement. She told them that obesity was an epidemic in the US and, for the next week, they were going to have to do all they could to help their fellow Americans live happier and healthier lives. To start off, they were heading to Washington, D.C.
The first thing our remaining contestant noticed about their trip was that they no longer needed extenders for the seatbelts on the plane. We also got a subtle:
Product Placement Alert 1: Daniel telling us how wonderful Jet Blue is with their little TVs and ample leg room.
At the Jefferson Memorial, they all met up with Ali and trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. Ali shared that they’ll be speaking to some senators about their journey and visiting the White House during their visit. Bob was brimming with pride saying this truly validated their show. Ali also announced that the teams were done and they would be going forward as individuals. They put back on the colors they started in.
Pop Challenge
Alison informed the group that, in a couple of hours, Bob and Jill would be holding a public workout at the Washington Monument. Their challenge was to get as many people as possible to attend. Ali was vague about the prize, but said the person who gathered the most participants would get a huge advantage at the weigh in. Plus they’ll take all their participants to:
Product Placement Alert 2: Subway!
They hit the streets handing out stickers in their personal color. Amanda had some early success when she ran into a group of young girls who recognized her from last season’s finale. They donned their stickers and walked through the streets chanting her name. Unfortunately for Amanda, the group ran into Daniel … and they loved him. He got a bunch of them to replace their Pink Amanda stickers with his Orange ones.
Allen realized his success would come from calling out to his fellow firefighters. His brothers responded in big numbers. It came down to Allen and Liz for the victory. Liz had used motherly (and in some cases grandmotherly) guilt to get people to show up and it worked. Liz won the mystery prize and a trip for her group to Subway for dinner.
The contestants met with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and Robert Casey (PA). I think it was a bit like preaching to the choir as it was clear these two were already concerned with the obesity issue - particularly childhood obesity. Daniel spoke with a great deal of authority on that subject. Jillian also made a plea for Americans to be more aware of what is in processed foods.
Challenge
The prize for this week’s challenge was immunity at the weigh in. It was setup in four phases with the first taking place at Constitution Gardens. They had to run two laps around the lake which equaled one mile. That started the waterworks for Tracey as she recalled collapsing and being hospitalized after the mile run on day one of the season. As the winner of the Pop Challenge, Liz got a pass allowing her to skip one of the first three phases – but Ali wasn’t going to tell what the other phases were. Liz opted to run the mile and save the pass. The top six finishers out of the nine total would move to phase two. Those six were Rebecca, Daniel, Allen, Amanda, Rudy and Liz.
Phase two was at the Watergate Steps. They had to transport pennies from halfway up the steps to the top and fill a container. Liz chose to sit this one out. Rudy and his giant hands finished first followed by Daniel. Only one more person could move on and it came down to a battle between Allen and Rebecca. Rebecca won by a hair.
Phase three was at the Capitol Building. The remaining four had to stand on a narrow ledge while holding a Pilates ball over their heads. Rudy and Rebecca won and headed to the final phase.
Phase four was outside the gates of the White House. Two step up boxes were attached to monitors. The first person to take 206 steps would win. The 206 stood for the total number of BL contestants who have appeared on the show so far. Rebecca slowly built up a lead and won immunity.
Now that the teams were done, the contestants were back to working with both trainers. Bob was reunited with his favorite this season – Amanda. Together they did:
Product Placement Alert 3: for Extra Sugar Free Gum.
The next day the group got their visit to the White House. They met with Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass. They picked vegetables out of Michelle Obama’s garden and used the produce to prepare a salad in the White House kitchen.
Bob expressed concern during the last chance workout that the numbers would be low this week. It happens every time they go on vacation. Meanwhile Jillian finally got her hands on Tracey. Jill flat-out stated that she’s never liked Tracey because of all the game playing. She wanted to get through to Tracey about what BL is really all about. Jill thought she saw signs of a breakthrough.
Weigh In
The weigh in took place at the Lincoln Memorial. They weighted in as individuals and the two with the lowest percent of weight loss would fall below the yellow line. Rebecca went first since she had immunity. She lost 4 pounds for a total of 1.79%.
Shay lost 9 pounds for a total of 2.24%. She was finally out of the 400’s.
Tracey lost 3 pounds for a total of 1.52%. She was very disappointed.
Daniel lost 11 pounds for a total of 4.04%. It was about time! He’s been having a run of bad weigh ins.
Allen lost 9 pounds for a total of 3.44%.
Danny lost 12 pounds for a total of 3.48%. He’s lost 97 pounds so far.
Rudy lost 9 pounds for a total of 2.64%. He was less than thrilled. He had become used to the double digit drops.
Liz lost just 3 pounds for a total of 1.36%. She was disappointed – but not surprised.
Amanda lost 7 pounds for a total of 3.27%. It was her biggest weekly drop. Bob was especially thrilled.
Tracey & Liz were up for elimination. It was clearly time for some chickens to come home to roost. Liz made a rather lukewarm plea to stay. She didn’t like asking for help. I also think she was upset with herself and, maybe, was struggling with whether or not she deserved to stay. Shay didn’t like the lack of fight. It made her think Liz didn’t want to be there anymore. Tracey, on the other hand, was very teary and desperate. Daniel called her out a bit on her gameplay but Tracey swore she wanted to be there for the right reasons now.
At the elimination vote, Amanda led off with a vote for Tracey. She said it was because of previous betrayals. Shay voted for Liz because she couldn’t get past her lack of passion. Danny said his vote was obvious. He’s super-close to Liz so he had to vote for Tracey. Daniel also voted for Tracey. Rebecca went next and said she was voting for Tracey because she just didn’t know what Tracey was going to do next. Tracey was done and it was about time. I’ll give her credit – she was much more gracious and self-aware about the situation than I ever would have guessed.
Tracey got a pretty spectacular “Where They Are Now” clip. She returned home on a helicopter and was greeted by a large crowd including her husband and four kids. She really seems to have a loving family. Perhaps she’s just one of those people for whom competition brings out their dark side? She looks fantastic now. You could really see the difference since she left the show. She reran that first, infamous, mile at the beach. She did it to show her family how much she’s accomplished. The graphic at the end showed that she’s lost 85 pounds so far and is training for a full marathon in December.
Next Week: It’s a double elimination!
Full episodes and bonus clips of BL are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Aired 10-27-09
The episode opened with the Black Team returning to the house after the elimination of Dina. Blue Team Rudy, who was originally partnered with Dina, was disappointed but not surprised. The two outsiders on Black were Dina and Danny. Danny had immunity so Rudy knew Dina would lose out. Black Team Liz, who has really turned into a little spitfire the past few weeks, said in an interview that she didn’t want to hear Blue talk about what a difficult decision it had been. They knew from the moment they lost the weigh in who was going to be sent home. Her hope was that Black would lose again, and Danny would again be immune, so they’d be forced to vote off one of their little group.
The next morning the whole group met up with host Alison Sweeney who informed them that this week’s weigh in would be a head to head match-up. It was face-off week. She also told them they were about to have a Pop Challenge to determine who would choose the match-ups.
Pop Challenge
For the challenge one team member at a time would have to run back and forth hitting two hanging disks while ducking under a bar placed in between. They could trade off at any time but each team member could only have one turn. The first team to get to 500 would have the power to set the match-ups. Abby and Tracey, who so far have been unable to compete in the challenges for medical reasons, got to lead off this one. After only 20 touches, Abby felt like something was wrong and pulled herself out. Shay took over for Black. The lead went back and forth several times but it ended as a race between Daniel and Rebecca - and Rebecca won it for Blue 500 to 497. After 10 minutes, Blue picked the following matches:
Rebecca vs. Amanda
Tracey vs. Abby – In an interview clip, Tracey said Abby should be worried because she’s “stoked” about being in the gym every day. Abby said, “Tracey is, um, well … she’s crazy. Tracey’s crazy so you just never know what’s gonna happen.” I love Abby.
Allen vs. Danny
Rudy vs. Shay
Liz vs. Daniel
To prepare for the face-off, trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels were really pushing their teams in the workouts. Jill was particularly driving Amanda. She explained that her intention was to create a situation that takes the person out of their comfort zone and triggers all their issues. She wants to do this in a safe, controlled environment where she can create a positive outcome for them and teach them how to handle it in the real world. When it comes to Amanda, Jill suggested that the problem wasn’t a fear of failure – it was a fear of success. Jill flat out told Amanda that she was the strongest person on the team. Amanda replied, “That’s not true.” It all ended with Amanda leaving the gym in tears saying she couldn’t handle the pressure.
Challenge
The group met up with Ali on a baseball field for this week’s challenge. The challenge was explained, via video, by Derek Jeter. In addition to doing:
Product Placement Alert 1: for 24 Hour Fitness centers, Derek told them they were going to have to work as a team in this challenge. The field was covered by 2535 baseballs (one for each hit Derek’s had so far in the majors). They had to run out, grab as many balls as possible, and throw them at one of their opponents’ targets. When someone’s target got hit by 316 balls, that person would be out. And yes, 316 had meaning too. It’s Derek’s career batting average. Ali added that the winning team would have lunch cooked for them by Curtis Stone AND a two pound advantage at the weigh in. Abby couldn’t participate for medical reasons so Blue had to sit out one player (Tracey) to keep things even.
The Black Team focused on eliminating Allen first because he was Blue’s strongest player. They succeeded and he was the first one gone. Amanda was knocked out first for Black. Rebecca was next for Blue and Daniel followed for Black. Rudy was the next gone for Blue leaving just Liz in the competition for them. She didn’t last much longer and Black finally won a challenge.
Curtis showed the Black Team how to make a Mediterranean burger using:
Product Placement Alert 2: Jennie-O Ground Turkey and grilled portabella mushroom caps as the bun. You can find the recipe here: http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/exclusives/nutrition/curtis-stone-recipes/
Jill had a heart to heart with Abby about why she was at the ranch. Abby said it was to find a purpose and it was working. She was loving people again even though that was a scary thing to do after you’ve lost everything. It was a difficult scene to watch as we saw Abby recount the story of the day she lost her family in a car crash. Abby is an amazing woman and I think I’ve become more attached to her than just about any other BL cast member ever. She said that she wants to live again and not just exist and now she knows she can do that. It was fascinating to watch Jillian’s face through the conversation. It was clear that the teacher/student roles were reversed and Jill was mesmerized by Abby and her spirit.
This was followed by another heart to heart between Jill and Amanda about Amanda walking out of the gym. First off, Jillian wanted to clarify that Amanda didn’t walk out on her. Amanda walked out on Amanda. Amanda explained that she’s not used to being the strong one of a group and its generating fear of failure. Jill said that failure is how one learns and sometimes you just have to fall down.
Weigh In
To win the weigh in, one team would have to win at least 3 of the match-ups. Black still had their two pound advantage and they opted to give the whole thing to Amanda.
Amanda lost 4 pounds. With the two added, she had a total of 2.75%. Rebecca lost 9 pounds for a total of 3.88%. One point for Blue. Basically, Black just wasted their two pound advantage.
Abby lost 3 pounds for a total of 1.47%. Tracey lost 5 pounds for a total of 2.48%. Oh, man! I’m never going to get rid of Tracey. 
Two points for Blue.
Danny lost 12 pounds for a total of 3.36%. He’s definitely riding a wave of confidence right now and it’s nice to see. You can tell it’s been a long time since he felt that way. Allen lost 8 pounds for a total of 2.96%. Finally, a point for Black.
Daniel lost 5 pounds for a total of 1.81%. Jill and Bob were shocked – particularly since Daniel had gained a pound last week. Jill said she had him on the same program as Danny and Daniel’s only lost 4 pounds to Danny’s 27. She said something was really wrong. Liz lost 7 pounds for a total of 3.07%. That was 3 points for Blue and they won. Black would have to send someone home.
The weigh in continued, though, with Shay losing 9 pounds for a total of 2.19% and Rudy losing 14 for a total of 3.94%. That meant Rudy had lost 100 pounds in 7 weeks setting a new BL record. The previous record holder, Dane from season 7, was on hand for the occasion. Dane announced that he and 12 former BL contestants would be doing a triathlon the next morning. Bob was bursting at the seams with pride saying that even he has never done a triathlon.
The Black Team had just 20 minutes to talk it over. Danny had the highest percent loss so he was immune. Abby wasted no time sacrificing herself. She said that something is wrong with Daniel’s weight loss and he needs to stay to figure it out. Amanda was on the verge of a breakthrough and Shay has only just started. She went on to say that her journey has been different. It was about opening up and loving people again and she’s accomplished that. The group was a crying mess. In an interview Shay said she’s fought her whole life for a mother’s love and Abby gave that to her. Danny was clearly uncomfortable with eliminating Abby. He felt that it was Daniel’s turn to go since he’s on his second season.
In the elimination room, Abby lead off the voting by putting down a name she figured no one else would write – Amanda. Shay said that every time she looks at Abby she sees the mom she wanted and didn’t have. She said that’s why she minded and did what she was told. She voted for Abby. Amanda also voted for Abby. Danny just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He voted for Daniel. Daniel said Abby made him promise to vote for her so he did. Abby said that she thought her dreams had died with her family but she’s starting to have new dreams now. Ok, at this point I was an absolute mess. I love this girl.
Back home, there was a huge crowd waiting to greet Abby. Abby said her future was looking totally different. She always had these people who loved her but she hadn’t been ready to let them in. She announced to the crowd that she was truly back. The looks on the faces of her parents was priceless.
Today, Abby’s doing motivational speaking and is following her dream of helping people. Oh, yeah. And she’s lost 80 pounds so far and looks fab.
The final graphic revealed that this episode of BL was dedicated to Abby’s family: Rick, Macy and Caleb.
Next Week: BL goes to Washington and, hopefully, Tracey finally gets her comeuppance.
Full episodes and bonus clips of BL are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Aired 10-20-09
The show opened with the Blue Team returning to the house after the elimination of Coach Mo. The Black Team was surprised, and disappointed, by the news. Tracey started crying (there’s a shock) about the looks on people’s faces as she walked in the room. Shay called that was her cue to leave the room. She was over everything on campus being about Tracey.
Challenge
The group met up with host Alison Sweeney at night at what appeared to be a beach. She informed them that each team had four keys buried in the sand. They had to dig up all four to open their team’s treasure chest and reveal their mystery prize. Even though Tracey has been cleared to exercise, she and Abby (who has a stress fracture in her leg) had to sit out the challenge. The teams were uneven so Amanda also sat out for the Black Team. The keys were actually in large, heavy boxes buried deep in the sand. It took a lot of effort to get to them. Black Team Danny was the first to retrieve his key. He then went to help Daniel. Firefighter Allen followed with a key for the Blue Team. Rudy quickly got another one for Blue with some help from Allen. Daniel’s key was next so both teams had two down and two to go. Allen and Rudy finished digging out Liz’s key. Allen then dug out Rebecca’s key and they won the challenge.
The prize was a trip home OR the ability to send the Black Team home. They chose to send the Black Team away. Daniel described going home as exciting but also sucky.
Each Black Team member was greeted by a big welcoming committee and a lot of tears as they arrived home. As usual, I was most touched by sweet, little Abby. She wanted to see her mom and dad who she described as pillars of strength after having lost her family in a car accident. Her mom said it was great to see more life and love in her daughter.
Back at the ranch, trainer Bob Harper was taking great delight in beating the crap out of his team and they all seemed fine with it. That’s why they stayed. Of course, Bob also found time for ….
Product Placement Alert 1: Milk. Bob explained the benefits of milk to Liz and Tracey.
To a person, the Black Team started their week trying to be really good but some faced unexpected challenges from their families. Shay and Dina watched as their husbands ordered the same kinds of foods at restaurants that they did before BL. Shay said it was disappointing. She was also upset watching her step-children eating junk because she knew they were following in her footsteps. Dina was close to tears talking about how she felt watching her husband down a lot of fatty foods and wondered why she didn’t stop him. She vowed that things were going to change for her whole family.
Shay met up with her girlfriends and we learned that being home wasn’t going to stop …
Product Placement Alert 2: having lunch at Subway. She gave her friends suggestions on healthy things to order.
Jillian Michaels gave us a tip that I love – using a 1/4 cup of avocado on your sandwich instead of mayo. It really does work.
Bob took his Blue Team to the LA Regional Food Bank where they helped pack backpacks full of food. It was to help kids who are part of the school lunch program get healthy meals over the weekend.
The Black Team returned in time for the Last Chance Workout and Daniel got a particularly brutal beating from Jillian. She was upset because he seemed to be working below his potential. She knew there was something going on. He finally broke down in tears as he realized that his family dynamic was a big part of his weight gain – and most of it was on him. His mom tried and tried to help him get things under control but, at the time, he saw it as her finding fault and not accepting him. He rebelled by eating more. He was realizing that his mom did what she did out of love and he felt horrible about the way he reacted to her. Jill responded by saying that his mom’s still here and he can start showing her his love right now. It was a good moment. We were watching a kid grow up and take responsibility.
Weigh In
They weighed in as teams and the team with the lowest percentage of weight lost was going to have to send someone home. Allen was the first on the scale for Blue.
Blue: Allen lost 8 pounds and Rebecca lost 5. Allen was happy and Rebecca was disappointed. Tracey lost 4 pounds and was very frustrated. Liz also lost 4 pounds. Blue was definitely feeling down. Rudy was the last to weigh in and they needed him to have a big number – and he did. Rudy lost 14(!) pounds. He’s lost 87 pounds in six weeks. Blue lost 35 pounds for a total of 2.65%.
Black: Black had to lose more than 45 pounds to be safe. Amanda lost 6 pounds and was amazed. Shay lost 5 pounds and declared that she refused to be disappointed with 5 – which was a big clue that she was at least a little disappointed. Abby lost 4 pounds and was genuinely pleased. It affirmed to her that losing weight can be done in “real life”. Dina lost 5 pounds and was pleased but also a little nervous. With just Daniel and Danny left to weigh in, they needed 26 more pounds to win. Danny got on the scale next and lost 15 of those pounds. He was thrilled and Jill was shocked and proud. Daniel needed to lose 11 pounds. He got on the scale and lost ….. nothing. He actually gained a pound. How the heck did that happen? The room was in shock. He said he didn’t understand why it happened. He also didn’t want his fellow teammates to think he’d gone home and slacked off.
Black lost. Someone was going home and they had 60 minutes to decide. Danny was immune because he had the highest percent of loss for Black. Daniel, Shay and Dina made pleas to stay. Oddly, we didn’t see Amanda or Abby say anything. I’m guessing they did make a speech but they were edited out for time.
In the elimination room, Daniel went first and voted for Dina. He said he thought she could do it at home. Dina voted for Daniel because he’s had two chances to be on the ranch. Abby voted for Dina and Danny voted for Daniel. Amanda voted for Dina leaving it up to Shay. There was no way Shay was going to vote off Daniel so it was Dina heading home. Dina was kind and sweet about the whole thing.
Dina was a girl who needed to gain confidence as much as she needed to lose weight. In her “where they are now” clip we learned that she’s lost 65 pounds. Maybe even more important to her, she can now do the platform jumps that confounded her at the ranch. We also saw her get a makeover and she looked like a different person.
Next Week: The teams go head to head against each other at the weigh in and it looks like Amanda has a meltdown.
Full episodes and bonus clips are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Aired 10-13-09
There was no recap or rehashing of the previous week’s elimination. The episode opened with a Temptation.
Temptation
Host Alison Sweeney informed the group that they were about to go Blue vs. Black. That meant that those who were currently paired up might find themselves on opposing teams. The winner of this Temptation was going to be the one to pick the new teams. An enormous “Wheel of Fortune” was set up with 36 spaces that each contained a covered silver tray. One of the trays had the golden ticket that would give the power to choose. The other 35 contained either cash or food. Participation was voluntary and original Blue Team members Dina and Rudy were the first to step up. Eventually they all joined in except for sweet Abby. She said that nothing on the wheel played a part in what she ultimately wanted to get out of all of this.
The first person to spin was Rudy. He landed on a 1000 calorie piece of cake. And yes, he had to eat it. Rebecca followed and got a 280 calorie donut. Next up was Allen (a tiny 100 calorie cupcake) and Danny (a 780 calorie giant cupcake). Then it was time for good ole’ Tracey to take a spin. Everyone’s nightmare was that she’d get control of the game again – and she did. Coach Mo described Tracey getting the golden ticket as “supernatural”. Personally, I had to wonder about it. This was the dream scenario for the producers of this show. I know I would have been crawling under that wheel to see it if was fixed.
As Tracey went off to ponder her choice, the others began freaking out. Shay tried to put things into perspective. She told the group, “No matter what teams we’re on, we’re gonna be fine.” She added that Tracey was in control now but, “She doesn’t have control that I love you guys. She doesn’t have control that I’m gonna work my ass off to beat that yellow line.”
The group reassembled with Ali and the trainers, Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. Jill was less than thrilled to see that Tracey was running the game again. Tracey’s first call was to pick her own trainer. She chose Bob saying that she felt they had a “connection”. That elicited a very non-enthusiastic “wow” from Bob and the look on his face was hilarious. Jill said in an interview that she thought Tracey was just trying to avoid the ass-whipping that Jill’s been desperate to give her. The teams divided up as follows:
Blue (Bob) - Tracey, Mo, Allen, Liz, Rudy and Rebecca.
Black (Jillian) - Daniel, Shay, Abby, Danny, Amanda and Dina.
On the plus side, Tracey kept Shay and Daniel together saying she felt they were meant to be partners. On the negative, Tracey split up Allen & Abby and Liz & Danny. Abby seemed fine with it but Liz was a mess over being separated from Danny. Danny wasn’t happy either saying he felt he’d been stabbed in the back. Amanda was devastated to lose Bob as her trainer and, frankly, so was Bob. He said, “You don’t want to pick favorites. You want to kinda treat them all the same but they’re not. Amanda and I were really connected.” Tracey also separated Amanda from partner Rebecca and broke up Dina & Rudy. The funny part was seeing Tracey act like she was traumatized by it all and then saying in an interview that she just had to stop trying to please everyone else. Uh, Tracey? When has that ever happened?
While many were upset, none was more ticked off than Liz. She said she felt like she’d been backed into a corner and she was going to come out fighting. As for Tracey, Liz was going to “put her ass home in the most evil way possible.” Liz planed to make a show of being Tracey’s best buddy and then she’d get her. I have to say, it all made me really like Liz. 
The downside to Liz’s rage was that she overdid it in the gym and passed out. She was determined to have immunity at the weigh in so she could complete her plan against Tracey. As she recovered she sat with Bob and Jill and made this plan perfectly clear to them. Neither tried to dissuade her and Jill actually got a kick out of it.
During the same workout session, we got introduced to Dina’s biggest challenge – jumping up on a platform. She even walked out of the gym in frustration over it. Rudy was still there for her and gave her a pep talk about believing in herself. She tried and tried but still couldn’t get it.
Bob took his new team to the grocery store to talk nutrition and in the process provided us with:
Product Placement Alert 1 – Buy the Jennie-O Turkey Breast Roast instead of a rotisserie chicken that has high fat dark meat. They used the turkey breast to make quick lo-cal wraps.
Challenge
The first Blue vs. Black challenge was meant to be a team builder. The group met Ali in the hills surrounding the BL campus. The teams had to carry a platform, with one team member sitting on it, through a course that included a hill, a mud pit and a field. The prize for winning was a video from home. Tracey and Abby still had to sit out the challenges for medical reasons. Blue took an early lead and never lost it. It was a pretty clear victory. After it was over, Rebecca offered to give up her video so that Dina could watch the one from her family. As they hugged, Rebecca whispered to Dina that she should now get on that platform. That made Dina stop and think. While seeing the video meant a lot to her, Dina said she had to get on the platform for herself, not for anyone or anything else. She gave the video back to Rebecca.
There were tears aplenty as the Blue Team watched their videos. Oddly enough, Tracey’s was one of the one’s I enjoyed the most. She and her husband seem like a really great match – and I don’t mean that sarcastically. We also watched as Liz asked Danny to watch her video with her and I think everyone but Danny saw what was coming. When she hit the play button, it was Danny’s video that began. I’m really becoming a big Liz fan!
During the last chance workout, Bob wanted to switch things up for his team so he took them to:
Product Placement Alert 2 – 24 Hour Fitness. He also snuck in a promo for the Bodybugg.
Meanwhile, over at the Black Team workout, Dina was still trying to defeat that platform. She wasn’t getting it but she wasn’t giving up.
Weigh In
Going into the weigh in, Blue was feeling pretty confident because Tracey had stacked them with big guys. This time they would weigh in as a team and the team with the lowest percentage of weight loss would have to send someone home. Whoever had the highest percent of loss on that team would have immunity.
Blue: Tracey lost 7 pounds. How does this keep happening? She’s the one least able to work out and yet she keeps putting up good numbers. Mo lost 6, Allen lost 7 and Rudy lost 8 pounds. He was a bit disappointed because it was the first time he didn’t lose in the double digits. He’s already lost an amazing 73 pounds. Rebecca lost 7 pounds putting her at 237. She said it was the amount she weighed when she was 14. Liz was the last to weigh in for Blue and she lost 8 pounds. She was thrilled. As a team, Blue lost 43 pounds for a total of 2.56%.
Black: To be safe, they needed to lose more than 45 pounds. Abby lost 5 pounds. She was a little disappointed. Dina and Amanda lost 6 pounds each. Danny lost 10 pounds and was very happy. He said this week he was able to go above what his mind said he could do and he was ready to choose his direction rather than have his direction choose him. Daniel lost 11 pounds. That meant Shay needed to lose at least 8 pounds. She lost 16! The Black Team lost 54 pounds for a total of 3.05%.
The Blue Team was going to have to send someone home. It wouldn’t be Liz because she got what she wanted – immunity. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Tracey would be hitting the road but then ….. Coach Mo announced in a team meeting that he was the one who put up the lowest numbers and should be the one to go. Rudy still wanted to oust Tracey because she brought stress to the team. Allen felt they should keep her because she did bring good numbers to the weigh in. Liz, who was so adamant about getting rid of Tracey, started to question that choice as well.
In the elimination room it was clear what direction they had decided on when Liz began the voting by writing down Mo’s name. Rudy, Tracey and Rebecca followed suit. Mo asked them all to work hard in the gym so that his leaving wouldn’t be for nothing. He’s such a nice and classy man. I really, really, really wish they’d kicked off Tracey instead. I get what the team was thinking but still, I wanted her gone.
In his “Where They Are Now” clip we learned that Mo has lost a total of 76 pounds and he’s looking great. Mo’s life revolves around coaching and motivating kids and he has brought all he’s learned at the ranch to those kids. He really is one of the good ones.
Next Week: The contestants go home for a visit and there may be some subsequent problems at the weigh in.
Full episodes and bonus clips of BL are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Aired 10-06-09
The show opened with a recap of Tracey’s crazy-eyed antics of the previous week. She’s on her way to becoming the biggest “villain” this show has seen since the notorious Vicky of season 6. The recap segued into a meeting between Tracey and her Purple teammate Mo and the Orange Team’s Daniel & Shay. Daniel had asked Tracey to put him on the scale during the last weigh in. He thought Tracey would go along with the request because Tracey had emphatically agreed that Shay needed to stay at the ranch. Instead, Tracey put Shay on the scale. The Orange Team fell below the yellow line with the Red Team and was saved from elimination by the Red Team volunteering to be the ones sent home. Shay felt betrayed. She said she’d spent her life being hurt by those who were supposed to love her and now she’s got strangers claiming to care for her and then letting her down. Coach Mo jumped in to defend his partner saying that people were asking Tracey for favors without promising anything in return. That was true of the Pink Team but Shay pointed out that Tracey hadn’t said she was doing a favor. She said she truly believed Shay should stay. In the end, Shay said she just wanted some honesty from Tracey but Tracey insisted that she’d been honest all along. Nothing was really settled.
Trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels met up with the group the next day to find out how the elimination went. Jill was uncomfortable with the Red Team basically falling on their sword. Part of the journey for these people is to learn to put themselves first. Bob cautioned that they shouldn’t get caught up in debating who does or does not need to be there. They all need it and deserve it.
Later, while beating the living daylights out of Julio, Jillian managed to help him come to a realization. Julio was emphatic that he wasn’t fat because he was unhappy. He’s very happy with his life and family. The problem was that food has always been the thing he’s best at and knows the most about. He realized that food was his drug of choice. Food wasn’t something he could or would give up so he needed to learn to change how he focuses on it.
Tracey met with Dr. Huizenga to find out if she could be medically released to workout with the group. Apparently when Tracey collapsed running a mile on day one, she did some major damage to a muscle. Tests showed she was still having a problem and Dr. H said she couldn’t do any exercise AT ALL. She burst into tears. I know I should have felt bad for her but I was just too over her dramatics by that point.
Pop Challenge
The group met with host Alison Sweeney in the kitchen for a big and scary surprise. The refrigerators and cupboards were chained up. Ali told them that for the next 7 days they’d have no access to the kitchen. Everything they ate would have to be ordered in. They were going to have to study the menus and figure out the healthiest options. To begin the learning process, Ali gave them a Pop Challenge.
Ali showed the group three options for a meal and they had to pick the healthiest one. The winning team would get a kitchen stocked with healthy food for a year. The choices were:
A: 1/4 roasted chicken breast (without skin), 1/2 cup low fat creamed spinach, 2.75oz. of sweet potatoes, 1/2 cup nonfat peach frozen yogurt and 2 cups of unsweetened iced tea.
B: 1/2 rotisserie chicken (with skin), 1/2 cup creamed spinach, 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt with 1/2 cup blueberries and 2 cups of green tea.
C: 1/4 barbecue chicken breast (with skin), 1 cup peas and carrots, 1 cup mango slices and 1 cup skim milk.
I thought this one was pretty easy – A. The contestants had to ask for details about the food and it was the creamed spinach in A that threw several teams off. They never asked about the fat content. No team chose B. The Orange, Pink and Brown teams correctly chose A. They had a tie-breaker question – how many calories were in meal A? Whoever was closest, without going over, would win. Brown guessed 547, Pink 385 and Orange 475. The correct amount was 445. Pink won the food. Ali ended the segment by presenting the contestants with:
Product Placement Alert 1: “The Biggest Loser Simple Swaps” book.
The food ordering got off to a rough start as they all turned into those picky customers that food servers dread. Plus, their orders were wrong in many cases. I’m sure that was done deliberately by the show. It went a long way towards convincing the group that they wanted to continue preparing their own food when they got home. As they explained all the travails to Bob & Jillian we got:
Product Placement Alert 2: Blue Team Rudy was clearly displaying a pack of Extra Sugar-Free Fruit Sensations gum.
Bob & Jill decided to take the group out to eat at a Mexican restaurant to help educate them. The main lessons learned were to:
-Refuse the chips and salsa (or breadbasket).
-Drink water, club soda or unsweetened iced tea.
-Go for foods that are grilled, steamed, broiled or roasted.
-Have sauces and dressings served on the side.
-Bring a calorie count guidebook with you – something our group of contestants got busted for not doing.
There was also a little meltdown moment from Rebecca when Jill pushed her about not having a clear reason for losing the weight. Jillian said Rebecca needed to have a clear purpose behind her reasons for changing or else it would just all feel like torture.
Challenge
The group met up again with Alison for this week’s challenge. A huge platform was suspended over a pool. The contestants had to hold on to a handlebar as the platform rotated from horizontal to vertical. Whoever stayed up the longest would win immunity at the weigh in for their team. I actually had some concerns about this one. I could picture someone staying up there long enough to pull their shoulders out of the socket. Abby and Tracey were not allowed to participate for medical reasons. Liz was probably wishing she had a physical problem at that point because she was terrified of heights. She was the first to let go and drop in the water and was quickly followed by her Brown teammate Danny. Amanda, Rudy, Rebecca, Dina and Coach Mo followed. Shay finally dropped after 10 minutes and was quite proud that, as the heaviest one, she lasted longer than all the other women and several of the men. Only Julio, Allen and Daniel remained. Julio was the next to drop. Daniel eventually won saying he just kept chanting the word “immunity” to himself. Last season Daniel left in week four and he was determined to go further this time around.
During the last chance workout, Coach Mo hurt his lower back. Bob knew he was in real pain but also thought Mo was making it worse by panicking. Bob told him to rest for an hour before getting too down about his future at the ranch. The poor guy dragged himself back to one of the bikes and continued his workout.
Weigh In
There was a lot of apprehension going in to the weigh in because of the food situation. Blue Team Dina commented that she probably went under her daily calorie allotment because she was unsure of how the ordered food was prepared. Consequently, she also had much less stamina in her workouts.
The Orange Team had immunity so they went first. Shay lost 5 pounds but Daniel lost zero. It was pretty clear what was going on – gameplay – but Daniel denied it saying it came from eating out all week. Even sweet Alison wasn’t buying it saying, “Daniel, you know better than that.” Jillian followed up saying, “I would hope it’s strategy because you’d be stupid if it wasn’t.”
Green: Allen lost 7 pounds and Abby lost 3 for a total of 1.97%.
Blue: Rudy lost 11 pounds and Dina lost 5 for a total of 2.57%. Jillian said Rudy was one of those big ole’ boys, who used to be a football player, and weight just melts off of him.
Brown: Liz lost 3 pounds and Danny lost 8 for a total of 1.74%.
Purple: Tracey lost 4 pounds and Mo lost 8 for a total of 2.21%. Sigh. Karma took another week off. Tracey wasn’t expected to lose anything and she lost more than Abby and Liz! Shay said in an interview that it killed her that Purple was safe and a healthy team, that could workout, was going home.
Black: Julio lost 4 pounds for a total of 1.09%. He was definitely below the yellow line. Jill was perplexed. She said something wasn’t right and, if Julio made it through to next week, their mission would be to figure it out.
Pink: Amanda lost 5 pounds and Rebecca lost 4 for a total of 1.86%. It was the first time Amanda lost more than Rebecca and they were both thrilled.
The Brown Team fell below the yellow line with Julio. Back at the house, the gloomy group gathered. Liz said that the Brown and Black Teams were very close and she wasn’t going to fight against Julio. For his part, Julio said it was a nightmare because he loved Liz & Danny. He didn’t want to go home but he wasn’t going to say he deserved to stay more than Brown. They basically told the others that they would just have to do what they thought was best.
Purple was particularly torn because Julio was Mo’s best friend at the ranch and Liz was Tracey’s roommate. Orange and Pink were also struggling to decide if they should play the game or do what their heart was telling them.
In the elimination room, Orange voted to eliminate Julio because they believed he was best able to continue at home. Blue said it was a nightmare choice but they voted for Brown. Allen of the Green Team said they used logic to vote for Julio because it was better to help two people stay than one. The flaw in the logic was that doing so meant he had to vote out one of his best friends. As for Purple, Coach Mo was the one who gave in and they cast the final vote eliminating Julio. Julio said he had a lot of people at home who loved him and wouldn’t let him quit.
In his “Where They Are Now” clip, we found a slimmed down Julio who looks forward to his time at the gym. He’s lost 108 pounds. His passion is still food but now it’s directed towards healthy food.
Next Week: It’s going to be Blue vs. Black on campus which means Bob vs. Jillian. The power to make the new teams is up for grabs and everyone is terrified that power will go to Tracey.
Bonus scenes and full episodes are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Aired 9-29-09
Well, this was certainly an interesting episode! It was the kind of drama one would expect to find late in the season.
It all started well enough with the group returning to the house after their victorious weigh in. They’d lost more than enough to prevent any eliminations. To make sure the happiness was short-lived, the group met up with host Alison Sweeney the very next morning. She informed them that this was “would you rather week” and it would be all about choices. The first choice was between having their trainers and having an advantage at the weigh in – specifically a two pound advantage. If someone took the two pounds, the trainers would not work with them all week. It seemed that most of the group thought two pounds wasn’t worth it. Then Ali declared that, if no one jumped at 2 pounds, the stakes would go up. We watched the teams discuss it and several people seemed interested. Rebecca of the Pink Team talked like she wanted to go for it but her teammate, Amanda, was strongly against it. Danny, of the Brown Team, told his partner (Liz) that they should go for it if the offer went to 4 pounds. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Tracey of the Purple Team took the deal. Her partner, Coach Mo, was stunned. We didn’t see her ask him and it cost him the trainers too. When the group responded like Tracey had lost her mind, she said that she just didn’t want anyone else to get 4 pounds. Mo knew it was the wrong call but Tracey said she wanted to ensure they lasted another week. The big question is - what is the point of staying if you’re going to cut off your major source of education? In an interview segment, Daniel said he was happy he didn’t have to tell Bob & Jillian that he traded them in for two pounds.
The group then met with trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels in the kitchen and, after some pushing, Tracey finally confessed what she’d done. Bob said it felt like a slap in the face. He and Jill sent the other teams to the gym so they could discuss it privately with the Purple Team. In an interview, Jillian said that Tracey clearly wasn’t “the brightest bulb”. Face to face, though, she and Bob remained calm. They saw Tracey’s choice as having come from a place of fear and panic and they just wanted her to think things through going forward. Tracey acted like she understood but, in a follow-up interview, we got a good look at the manic, crazy-eyed version of Tracey that would dominate the rest of the episode. Yikes!
Elsewhere, sweet little Abby was battling shin splints. Dr. Huizenga did an MRI and found that she had a micro stress fracture in her tibia. He told Abby that she had to keep weight off it so her workouts would have to be in the pool. Abby declared that, considering all that’s happened in her life, this was nothing. She’d just deal with it. Not letting an opportunity slip by, the show had this lead into a:
Product Placement Alert: Yoplait Light Yogurt. Bob told Abby that he was used to working with injured people and she was going to have to concentrate on her nutrition – hence the yogurt.
Temptation
The group met up with Ali again and was posed the question of whether they would rather control their diet or control the game. At this week’s weigh in, only one team member’s loss would be used. The temptation involved some tiny 100 calorie cupcakes. Whoever ate the most cupcakes in 10 minutes would get to decide which person would represent each team at the weigh in. We got a shot of Tracey getting the crazy-eyes again so this wasn’t going to end well. There was a lot of sniffing done but not much eating. Liz probably spoke for most of the players saying that getting that kind of power puts a big target on your back and it was way too early in the game for that. In the end, only two people ate. Antoine took the first bite. Once Alison told the group that someone was eating, Tracey was pushed over the edge. She had 4 cupcakes to Antoine’s 2. Mo leaned down and whispered “What were you thinking?” into her ear. She responded with more crazy-eyes and was on her way to a meltdown.
Of course, the next scene was of Bob and Jillian wanting to know what happened. Bob said it was crazy for anyone to be getting that worried about the game this early on. When Tracey raised her hand to confess, Jillian lost it. She said that she hates wasting her time and, obviously, their discussion the previous day had been pointless. Jill and Bob said they were going to just focus on the people who actually wanted their help. Oh man. Tracey was in serious trouble. I could only imagine that Antoine was thanking his lucky stars that he’d lost that temptation. Meanwhile, poor Mo was paying the price too. He just quietly watched what Bob and Jill were having the others do and followed along.
Challenge
The group met Alison out in the middle of a field where some giant ramps had been set up. The prize for this week’s challenge was a big one – immunity at the weigh in. Each team had to carry 500 pounds up the ramp. The course was set up with 5 pound containers located at the base of the ramp and 25 pound containers located a distance away. They could get to the 500 by carrying either two 5 pound containers each trip or by covering more ground and carrying one 25 pound container each time. Tracey and Abby were unable to participate due to injury. Mo, Allen and Julio (who’s partner was eliminated in week one) had to go it alone and, therefore, only had to carry a total of 250 pounds. This was a tough choice and I don’t know which was the better option. The teams were split evenly with Brown, Black, Red and Orange taking the 25 pounds and Purple, Green, Pink and Blue going with the 10 pounds.
Allen did his firefighter buddies proud and powered through to victory just ahead of the Pink Team. He saved himself and Abby. Instead of quitting once Allen won, the rest all kept going until they were done. Rudy said he had to continue because not finishing has always been the problem in his weight loss battle. Mo was last and everyone joined together to help him get it done. At least Tracey’s actions haven’t alienated everyone from Mo.
Prior to the weigh in, a couple of teams attempted to do some campaigning with Tracey. Daniel asked her to let him weigh in instead of Shay. Tracey said she agreed that Shay needed to stay on the ranch. The Pink Team asked Tracey to choose Rebecca instead of Amanda because Amanda hadn’t been losing as much. Amanda said she had a bond with Tracey and had even been reassured by Tracey that she’d never write her name down. Tracey wanted some reassurance that the Pink Team wouldn’t vote her off if the situation arose. Rebecca couldn’t promise that and Tracey was offended.
Weigh In
Before the weigh in began, Ali asked Tracey if she’d make the same choices knowing what she knows now. Tracey said she wouldn’t because she didn’t need the alienation and stress. Rebecca and Jillian rolled their eyes at that. Ali then asked Coach Mo how he felt about what Tracey had done. Mo replied that, being her partner, he had to support her in the decisions she made. That sent Jillian off the deep end again. She told Mo that you don’t support someone when they make ”crappy” decisions. She then turned to Tracey and said that she didn’t believe that Tracey had learned anything from the experience. If she had, she would have gone to the other teams to make things right. She thought Tracey was full of s*** for saying that she wouldn’t have made the same choices. Clearly, Jill had been sizzling over this all week.
Prior to each team weighing in, Tracey would designate whose percentage would count. The process began with the Green Team since they had immunity.
Green: Allen lost 4 pounds and Abby lost 5. It was a pretty good loss for an immune team.
Black: Since Julio was the only Black Team member, he went next. He lost 7 pounds for a total of 1.87%.
Brown: Tracey chose Liz. Liz lost 4 pounds and Danny lost 4. It wasn’t a great result for either but, since Liz was the lighter of the two, she had the better number. Brown Total: 1.62%.
Blue: Tracey chose Rudy. Rudy lost 12 pounds and Dina lost 3. They got really lucky on that one. Blue Total: 3.00%.
Pink: Tracey chose Amanda. She made a couple of enemies with this one. Tracey tried to sell it as her showing confidence in Amanda but Amanda basically responded by calling Tracey a liar. Amanda lost 5 pounds and Rebecca lost 7. Pink Total: 2.08%. They were safe.
Red: Tracey chose Sean. Antoine lost 11 pounds but Sean just lost 6. Red Total: 1.46%.
Orange: Tracey chose Shay. Seriously, girl! How many knives do you want in your back? Daniel lost 6 pounds and Shay also lost 6. Since Shay was much bigger, the final number wasn’t good. Orange Total: 1.35%. Shay was devastated but Daniel stepped right up to cheer her on. He told her she needed to be proud of her 6 pounds and not give a crap about the rest of it. I love Daniel. In an interview, Jillian said it was one of the nastiest forms of gameplay she’d ever seen because Shay wasn’t a threat. In the room it was Rebecca who lost it. She said Tracey was full of crap and sick and needed to take responsibility for her actions.
Purple: Tracey chose herself because Mo had, apparently, finally put his foot down about something. She only had to lose 2 pounds but she ended up losing 11. Karma seemed to have taken the night off. Coach Mo only lost 1 pound. He was the one person who knew what was going to happen so I can’t help but wonder if his 1 pound was real or if he was playing games too. Purple Total: 5.26%. The room was dead silent. No applause.
The choice was going to be between Red and Orange. Sean said it was the worst case scenario for Red. It was between two teams who worked hard and deserved to be there but with one clear choice of who had to stay. Back at the house, Antoine and Sean took the hit. They declared that they had the support and ability to do it at home. Shay, on the other hand, said flat out that she couldn’t. Everyone was in tears as Sean said he loved everyone and would do anything for them. He even looked at Tracey and said she’d done some crazy stuff that week but he still loved her. These poor people were a mess but, in the elimination room, they did what the Red Team asked.
The class that Sean and Antoine showed was tremendous. Thankfully, they both seemed to be right about their ability to do it at home. Sean has lost 120 pounds – and still looks like he’s about 12 years old. The graphic said that he and his wife were expecting their baby girl any day now and planned to name her Jillian. Awww. Antoine has lost 105 pounds and is a babe. He is happily dating week one evictee Alexandra and they are now on the journey together.
Next Week: The graphic said “Coincidence or Karma?” as we learn that Tracey has a major injury.
Full episodes and bonus scenes are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Posted on September 24th, 2009 by Princess Kitty in
Biggest Loser 
Aired 9-23-09
We picked up back in the elimination room just after Alexandra’s departure and the remaining 15 contestants were a mess. This group has bonded quickly and they felt badly about sending one of their own home. Shay was particularly upset as she felt Alexandra’s partner, Julio, should have been the one to go. She felt he didn’t care that he hadn’t lost as much as the other guys his size.
Host Alison Sweeney announced to the depressed group that the show had a proposition for them. If, as a group, they lost more than 150 pounds at the next weigh in, then no one would have to go home. If they fell short of 150, two people would have to leave. It seemed to be the show’s attempt to overcome the notorious curse of week two. They were all aware that this was a tough challenge. Back at the house, Coach Mo took charge and tried to get them all thinking positively about it. He also looked straight at Julio and said, “You owe.”
Trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels were also skeptical about the group achieving the 150 goal. Jillian said they’d be lucky to lose 100 pounds. The first thing Jillian told them was that they couldn’t starve themselves. They had to be meticulous about getting the right amount of calories. The trainers split the group in half with Jill providing nutrition info to one group while Bob ran a workout for the other.
After the workouts, Bob came upon the Blue Team, Rudy & Dina. So far, I really like these two as a team. They seem very supportive of each other. Rudy wanted Bob to talk Dina down because she was feeling very negative about her week two weight loss. Bob told her she’d never last if she was getting herself worked up this early on. He pointed out that stress can interfere with the body’s ability to lose weight. This scene led into Jillian meeting with the Brown Team (Liz & Danny) for:
Product Placement Alert One – Jillian used Ziploc Easy Zipper bags to teach the Brown Team how to prepare portion controlled snacks and meals in advance.
We then got an update on Tracey (finally!) who collapsed during the first challenge and had been hospitalized ever since. Her Purple teammate, Coach Mo, paid her a visit and found her looking pretty good. She was very grateful that Mo lost enough during week one to keep them in the game. She told him she was scheduled to be released the next day.
Shay continued to be frustrated by what she saw as Julio’s lack of effort. She even was shown in an interview segment questioning whether he was being truthful about the number of calories he was burning each day.
Tracey returned to the ranch and received a very warm greeting from the group. She got emotional as she told them that her crisis really drove home the seriousness of her weight problem. She came back with major restrictions on her workouts. Bob met with her to discuss how she needed to focus on the nutrition side of things which led to:
Product Placement Alert Two - Adding Biggest Loser Protein Powder to her diet.
Food Challenge
Ali and Chef Curtis Stone met with the contestants for this week’s food challenge. Curtis gave them a seminar on cooking and nutrition. Ali informed them that they needed to pay close attention because, after the class, she was going to quiz them. If they could answer 5 out of 8 questions correctly, they would get a 15 pound credit at the weigh in – meaning they would only have to lose 135 pounds to keep everyone safe.
Question 1: The Purple Team had to identify a proper portion size of protein (3 to 4 ounces). They guessed correctly.
Question 2: The Orange Team was asked to name 3 ways of cooking without using oil. Shay answered baked, poached and steamed which was correct.
Question 3: The Brown Team was asked to guess the number of calories in a chain restaurant’s chicken caesar salad. The choices were 540, 840 or 1010 calories. Brown guessed correctly - 1010.
Question 4: The Pink Team was asked how many calories could be saved by substituting zucchini for pasta in one serving. The choices were 110, 248 or 343 calories. I would have been wrong on this one. I thought it was 110 but the answer was 248. Pink got it right.
Question 5: The Green Team was asked how many calories would be in 16 ounces of soda with 3 refills. The choices were 685, 747 or 789. I had no clue. There really wasn’t that much difference in the choices. Green guessed 789 but the correct answer was 747.
Question 6: The Red Team was asked to identify a dessert with less than 150 calories. The choices were one cup of raspberries with 1/2 ounce of melted dark chocolate, a parfait made up of one cup blueberries with 1/2 cup lowfat yogurt and 1 tablespoon of slivered almonds or one cup of vanilla ice cream. Red went for the yogurt parfait but the correct answer was the raspberries and chocolate.
Question 7: The Blue Team was asked to name 2 reasons why one should add a protein to every snack. Rudy answered that it makes you feel fuller and provides fuel for your muscles. He was right and they earned the 15 pound advantage at the weigh in.
Physical Challenge
The group next met Ali at the edge of a lake. Four rafts were in the water connected to each other by narrow beams. They all had to cross the beams to get to each raft. The first raft was worth 5 pounds at the weigh in. The second raft was also worth 5 pounds. The third earned them a call home and the fourth raft got them an additional 10 pounds. Everyone had to be on the raft at the same time to earn the reward. To make it more difficult, the beams got narrower as they went along and, if anyone fell into the water, the challenge would be over.
Allen and Amanda lead off and they immediately found that the beams were wobbly. Tracey seemed to struggle the most because she had the weakest legs. Daniel kept hold of her hand and helped her through the challenge. They all moved slowly, and together, and got all the way through the course. It was actually quite impressive.
Back at the ranch, tears flowed as everyone made their call home. Abby’s call to her mom was particularly moving. We learned in the premiere that she lost her husband and two children in a car accident two years ago. She told her mom that she’d climbed a mountain and there were two little butterflies that followed her the whole way. She really is an amazing woman.
The group was feeling pretty good about having earned a total of 35 pounds towards their 150 goal. They now only had to lose 115 – a fact that didn’t make Bob and Jillian feel any more optimistic. They understood that, if they got big numbers this week, they would pay for it in week three. As Jill said, losing a large amount of weight in a short time will put the body into survival mode. They agreed to have Bob concentrate on training Julio. They, like Shay, didn’t think Julio was working at his peak.
This week’s last chance workout breakdown/breakthrough belonged to Shay. She was coming to grips with the fact that her extra pounds really represented all of her life’s wounds. She had to let go of the disappointments and betrayals and accept that she deserves happiness.
Weigh In
Going into the weigh in, Julio knew he had something to prove. He said that a person had been sacrificed so he could stay and he knew that this had caused a rift in the house.
Pink: Amanda lost 4 pounds and Rebecca lost 6 for a total of 10. That struck fear in everyone’s hearts because they needed to each average about 8 pounds to meet the new goal of 115.
Purple: Tracey lost 10 pounds and Mo lost 9 for a total of 19. Tracey was thrilled since she hadn’t been able to work out like the others.
Red: Antoine lost 8 pounds and Sean lost 11 for a total of 19. The group now only needed to lose another 67 pounds.
Green: Allen lost 10 pounds and Abby lost 11 for a total of 21.
Brown: Liz lost 10 pounds and Danny lost 12 for a total of 22. There were only 24 pounds remaining with 3 teams left to weigh in.
Blue: Rudy lost 14 pounds and Dina lost 8 for a total of 22.
Black: Julio only had to lose 2 pounds. Shay was still upset about Alexandra leaving and said in an interview that she actually hoped Julio would get a bad number so he’d realize he had to work harder. Instead, he got a great one – 19 pounds. Everyone was safe for another week.
Orange: Daniel lost 7 pounds and Shay lost 16 for a total of 23 pounds. They’d made it past the original goal of 150 with a total loss of 155 pounds.
Oh, man. Week three may become the new week two. This is going to be interesting.
Next Week: Speaking of interesting, apparently the next challenge results in a person or team getting to choose between having control over the “game” or having the help of the trainers. Someone is going to make Bob and Jillian very angry.
Bonus clips are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 by Princess Kitty in
Biggest Loser Alexandra White was last week’s evictee from the “Biggest Loser” ranch. She’s now lost 73 pounds on her own and that’s pretty exceptional for someone kicked off after only one week. She visited the “Today Show” to discuss her transformation with Al Roker.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 by Princess Kitty in
Biggest Loser 
Aired 9-15-09
I’ve really missed this show. “Dance Your Ass Off” was fun but nothing beats “Biggest Loser” when it comes to inspiring stories. Based on this opening, we’re going to be doing a lot of crying this time around. The 16 contestants are among the heaviest in the show’s history and their back-stories are certainly living up to this season’s theme of “second chances”.
Let’s begin by meeting the cast:
Dina – 28. She is a custodian from California who wants to have a second child but can’t because of her weight.
Sean – 29. He is a youth pastor from Oklahoma. He is married with a 3 year old, a one year old and another baby on the way. He’s afraid he is going to die young and his kids won’t remember him.
Alexandra – 20. She is a college student from Pennsylvania who is tired of the daily indignities (like not being able to fit in the desks at school) caused by her weight.
Danny – 39. He is a musician from Oklahoma that feels his weight has stolen his dreams.
Liz – 49. She is a grandmother of 9 from Tennessee who is afraid she won’t see her grandkids grow up.
Mo – 56. He is a former athlete who now coaches and mentors children and wants to be a good role model.
Tracey – 37. She is a military wife from Texas who gained 100 pounds with her first pregnancy.
Shay – 30. She is a social worker from California. Her mother had a long heroin addiction and they were homeless until Shay was put in foster care at the age of 5. She graduated out of the system at 18 and was able to put herself through college.
Antoine – 23. He is a health insurance agent from North Carolina. We didn’t get much back-story about Antoine in the opening but he came across as having an effervescent personality.
Daniel – 20. He is a student from North Carolina and was a participant in season 7 of BL. He began last season at 454 pounds and was the show’s heaviest contestant. He has since lost 142 pounds and is one of this season’s smaller men.
Amanda – 20. She is a nursing student from New Jersey and won a competition during last season’s finale to join the season 8 cast. She feels pressure not to let down those who voted for her.
Rebecca – 25. She is a nanny from Iowa who is tired of hearing “but you have such a pretty face.”
Rudy – 31. He is an engineer from Connecticut and is a former college football player. He said that when his playing days ended he just kept eating at the same pace. He is a father of two.
Allen – 44. He is a firefighter and EMT from Indiana. He worries that his lack of mobility will endanger a citizen or fellow firefighter.
Julio – 40. He is a mortgage loan officer from Illinois. He gained 100 pounds during the year after he met his wife and doesn’t know why. He’s now a father of two and promised that he’d deal with his weight issue when he turned 40.
Abby – 35. She is a teacher from Texas and is destined to be one of the most memorable cast members ever. In October of 2006 her husband, 5 year old daughter and 2 1/2 week old son were killed in a car crash. She’s struggling but still has a zest for life.
The show opened with us getting our collective asses kicked by Bob and Jillian. We then watched as the new 15 contestants arrived by bus at the beach where last season’s marathon ended. They were all excited to see host Alison Sweeney but have watched the show enough to know that pain was about to be experienced. Their next surprise was the arrival (in a limo, no less) of the 16th contestant – fan favorite Daniel. Ali also informed the group that they were about to face their first challenge. They had to race the final mile of the marathon course. The winner would get to choose their teammate and would get immunity from this week’s elimination for both of them.
Tracey, the military wife, sprinted out to an early lead with Daniel following close behind. She had the military mentality but not the physicality. Daniel passed her and crossed the finish line in just over 14 minutes. Poor Tracey pushed herself too hard and collapsed about 100 yards short of the finish line. She was determined to keep going and initially fought off any help. She seemed to be in that kind of altered state that sometimes happens with exhausted marathon runners. She finally let the group help her (by that time they’d all finished) and they dragged her to the finish line. The medical people swarmed her and it was a scary situation. She was very pale and out of it. They ended up airlifting her to a hospital. Coach Mo was also in distress and went to the hospital. Sheesh! After this beginning these people are going to be terrified of the next challenge.
Back at the ranch, Ali had the 14 who survived the mile run gather together. She told them that Tracey and Mo were doing well but would have to stay at the hospital for observation. She then instructed the group to spend an hour getting to know each other so they could decide who to choose as a partner. The big moment came when Abby told her story. All of them were devastated and several were openly sobbing. She is an amazingly positive person. She said that she has to believe that she’s still here for a reason and knows that she wants to make a difference. She’s not sure what that difference will be, but she knows she’ll figure it out.
When Ali returned she called Dan forward to make the first pick. The teams ended up as follows:
Orange: Daniel & Shay. Daniel said he chose Shay because he could tell she was the biggest – just as he once was.
Green: Allen & Abby. He knew from her story that she was a fighter.
Pink: Amanda & Rebecca.
Blue: Rudy & Dina. They had run most of the mile together and seemed to have developed a quick bond.
Red: Antoine & Sean.
Brown: Liz & Danny.
Black: Alexandra & Julio.
Purple: Coach Mo & Tracey, who got each other by default.
As if all that hadn’t been enough for one day, the group then had to head over to the gym for their first weigh in. Rudy commented that most of them probably don’t know their weight because they’re too big for home scales. On the plus side, they finally got to meet trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels – who, as usual, were both looking hot. The initial weigh in results were:
Pink: Amanda – 250, Rebecca – 279. Team Total: 529.
Green: Allen – 325, Abby – 247. Team Total: 572.
Black: Alexandra – 309, Julio – 407. Team Total: 716.
Blue: Rudy – 442, Dina – 253. Team Total: 695.
Brown: Liz – 267, Danny – 430. Team Total: 697.
Red: Antoine – 367, Sean – 444. Team Total: 811.
Orange: Daniel – 312, Shay – 476. Team Total: 788.
Shay burst into tears. Bob was aghast. She is now the biggest ever on the show. The Purple team didn’t get to weigh in since both members were still at the hospital.
Hey! It’s Mike & Ron from last season in a commercial for Jennie-O Turkey. I wonder if this will be the new style of product placement for the show? It was actually nice to see.
The next morning they all experienced their first workout session and got some more big news from Bob and Jill. They were going to train all the contestants together. No more Team Bob and Team Jillian. Jill said there was going to be a lot of blood. As it turned out, there wasn’t actually any blood - just a whole lot of puke.
The first meltdown of the season belonged to Shay. She quit and walked out of the gym while Jill was training her. Jill refused to go after Shay saying she wasn’t going to buy into a pattern of victimization. After a good cry, Shay came back in and continued.
Coach Mo finally returned and was concerned that no one knew how long Tracey was going to be in the hospital.
The group met with Dr. Huizenga and was run through a battery of cutting edge tests as part of some advanced obesity research. The person who got the bomb dropped on them during the tests was Sean. He thought he was relatively healthy, all things considered, but found out that he has type 2 diabetes. He was mortified. Coach Mo found out that, at 56, he has the body of a 69 year old. Shay, at 30, had a biological age of 45 – only 3 years younger than the age at which her mom died.
Weigh In
Ali informed the group that they would be weighing in as teams. The team with the lowest percentage of weight loss would fall below the yellow line and one of them would have to go home. Orange had immunity so they went first. Daniel lost 12 pounds and Shay lost 17 for a total of 3.68%.
Pink: Amanda lost 6 pounds and Rebecca lost 18 for a total of 4.54%. Amanda was clearly disappointed with her results.
Blue: Rudy lost 28(!) pounds and Dina lost 8 for a total of 5.18%.
Red: Antoine lost 18 pounds and Sean lost 22 for a total of 4.93%. They both did a little victory dance to which Bob responded, “Oh, lord.”
Brown: Liz lost 10 pounds and Danny lost 24 for a total of 4.88%.
Green: Allen lost 19 pounds and Abby lost 15 for a total of 5.94%.
Abby then had the moment of the episode as she explained that she was there for a much different reason than the others. Death doesn’t scare her. It actually would be the easier choice because it’s just her now. But, she’s getting up every day and giving it her best and it feels good. Jill was in tears. She said that she’s always believed that, if she experienced a loss like Abby, she’d kill herself. Seeing Abby’s strength has made Jillian now believe that she too could be stronger.
Black: Alexandra lost 13 pounds and Julio also lost 13 for a total of 3.63%. Alexandra said in an interview segment that she was pissed and wondered if Julio could have pushed himself more.
Purple: Since Tracey was still in the hospital, it was all on Mo. He started at 355 pounds and lost 19 for a total of 5.35%.
Either Alexandra or Julio was going home. In the elimination room, the voting was done as teams. The choice seemed to come down to who needed to be at the ranch and who could handle being at home. Purple voted for Alexandra. Pink, Red and Orange voted for Julio. Brown and Blue voted for Alexandra. It was up to Green and they voted to send Alexandra home.
As it turns out, those who thought Alexandra could handle it at home were correct. In her ‘where they are now’ clip, she looked amazing. She’s lost 60 pounds and has brought her family into her healthy lifestyle. In a really interesting tidbit, she also shared that she has a crush on a fellow contestant and she’s looking forward to getting to know him better now that she has newfound confidence. Hmmm. Based on age and marital status, I’m thinking it’s either Daniel or Antoine.
Next Week: If the whole group can lose at least 150 pounds, no one will be eliminated. If they don’t lose that much, two people will be going home.
Bonus clips are available at NBC’s website here:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/
