Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” two contestants were sent home as Season 8 barrels toward the December 8 finale. So just like that we’re down to the final six contestants. How did we get there? Glad you asked…

The show began with host Alison Sweeney greeting the eight remaining hopefuls, and that always means they are about to find out how the game is changing. Would she tell them it’s back to black vs. blue again? Well no, things don’t change that fast, even on this show. But Alison told them that this week, two of them would be eliminated, and that in addition to a yellow line, there would also be a red line this week, and whoever falls below that line would be automatically sent home. Wow. Now that’s how this show should operate..no voting, no gameplay, just send home the person with the least amount of weight loss.

Of course, this freaked everyone out….there was absolutely no margin for error this week, no room to loaf off. Then Alison announced the pop challenge, which was to grab 50 tennis balls and throw them into a bucket about 20 feet away. The person who finished first had a 1 pound advantage at the weigh in, which this week was huge. That person was Allen, as he outlasted Rebecca for the prize.

Then they showed some of the contestants walking around the campus and discussing how it’s now going to be more about gameplay than ever before. Amanda and Rebecca decided that there were two main alliances…the young players against the older ones. Which meant those two along with Shay and Daniel trying to fend off Liz, Danny, Rudy and Allen. Then trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels discussed that they too needed to start thinking about gameplay, but in a different way…they wanted to keep Shay on the ranch at all costs because she needed to be there the most.

The main challenge was to jump through hoops, literally, under a circus tent. And at the start, Rudy said something to Shay that made her believe they had an alliance. The gist was to jump through hoops representing each other until that other person had 100 hoop-jumpers and was eliminated. The winner of this challenge would have immunity this week, an extremely coveted prize considering the red line. Liz was out first, followed by Amanda, Daniel, and Allen. Then Rebecca and Shay, and Shay called Rudy out for playing the game and tricking her. Whatever….they are all playing the game now. It came down to Danny and Rudy and Rudy won the immunity.

Then after this, Bob took them all to another circus related workout facility, where they would all use trapezes to get a good and difficult burn in. And after that, they would still have to endure Bob and Jillian’s last chance workout at the gym. Before this, however, they had shown the “youngsters” having lifted a few bikes from the gym to put in their rooms so that they could work out at night while the other contestants thought they were sleeping. Hmmm…Mrs. Mike suggested this might backfire on them, because getting the proper rest is important in a weight loss program as well.

Then came the dreaded weigh in. Rudy went first since he had immunity and he lost 8 pounds. Not bad considering he could have really dogged it this week on purpose. Then it was Shay’s turn, and she lost a whopping 17 pounds, bringing her total weight loss to exactly 100 pounds in nine weeks. Wow. So Shay should be safe this week, right? Right? Anyway, Amanda was next and lost 5 pounds, but she is looking like a stick lately and doesn’t appear to have a ton of weight to lose. Rebecca was up next and lost 10 pounds, deeming her safe for the week, and then Danny lost 17, keeping him on the ranch another week as well.

Allen lost 10 pounds, and that might seem like a lot, but it wasn’t compared to Danny….however, he was still ahead of Shay by 2/100 of a percentage point. Yikes. Liz lost 12 pounds, so she was also safe. But that meant Amanda was in danger of being eliminated, while Shay would be below the yellow line at best. Daniel was the only one left to weigh in, needing a 7 pound loss to remain on the ranch. So what did he do? He lost just 5 pounds, putting him below the red line and sending him home. Amanda, meanwhile, dodged a bullet, but she was still below the yellow line along with Shay.

So after all that talk between Bob and Jillian, you’d think the remaining contestants would have hearts and vote Amanda off because Shay needed to be there more. But that’s not how they operate on “The Biggest Loser.” It’s a test in selfishness (thank you, $250K), and usually selfishness wins out. Shay obviously had much more weight to lose so keeping Amanda there would increase everyone else’s chances…or they could decide to break up the Amanda/Rebecca alliance. However, I kept saying to Mrs. Mike that I thought these folks would have to be pretty horrible people to send Shay home.

At the judgement table, Rebecca went first and voted for Shay to go home….well, that was no surprise. But then Allen was next and also voted for Shay. Come again? Dude, if you are reading this, you are a bad man. Danny and Liz were next and both voted for Amanda. So it was down to Rudy. Mrs. Mike mentioned that Rudy could redeem himself here and make nice with Shay….so what does he do? He sends Shay home. Damn, was that necessary? You are a bad man too, Rudy! I mean, does the gameplay mean that much that you have to send a 376 pound woman home and keep a relatively thin girl there?
And hey, how about stealing those bikes and putting them in the rooms? That did kind of backfire.

And well, now Rudy and Allen are going to have to face Bob and Jillian and explain why they did what they did. I surely wouldn’t want to be either one of them!

Note about Daniel…after two seasons on the show, he has lost a total of 215 pounds, down from 454 to 239. Man, that is amazing…and even though he didn’t win in two tries, Daniel is a poster boy for this show and proof that no matter how much you weigh, you can always work hard to get yourself healthy again.

As far as Shay, they did not show her at the end of the show, but they did show her going home to her family, and we do know that she has lost 100 pounds. Good for her, but she was definitely sent home prematurely. Let’s just hope she is keeping things up at home. We’ll find out in a few weeks. Meanwhile, we’re down to six…Rebecca, Amanda, Rudy, Allen, Liz and Danny. I still think Danny is going to win this thing…what do you all think?

And what do you think about Rudy and Allen sending Shay home?
Thanks for reading!