Last night began the new season of “The Next Food Network Star” and they changed things up dramatically this time. Instead of taking place in New York City near the network’s offices and studio, they moved it out to Los Angeles, putting the focus on the “star” portion of the show’s name. Also this season, in addition to regular judges Bobby Flay, Susie Fogelson and Bob Tuschman, the show added Giada Di Laurentiis as a mentor to the twelve contestants. Oh, and the fact that there are twelve instead of ten is also a change.

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“The Biggest Loser” has a history and a tendency to throw curveballs at us. But last night they took things to extremes. First, host Allison Sweeney started off live by telling us there would be a weigh in at the end of the episode, but not of a current contestant. Instead, it would be a viewer of the show who has been inspired to lose a lot of weight. Then, the nine contestants were ushered into the gym, where they would be congratulated for getting this far, and given their individual colors back since there would be no more blue team vs. black team.

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If “The Biggest Loser” has taught us something besides how to lose weight in a healthy manner, it’s that karma is alive and well in every walk of life. A few years back, Vicky and Brady got what was coming to them by not winning the cash they coveted so badly, despite stepping on everyone’s collective toe to try and win. This season, it’s Lance and Melissa who are competitive to the point of being obnoxious, and it came back to bite them last night.

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I smell foul play on “The Biggest Loser.” Not Vicky and Brady foul play, but some manipulation by certain contestants. More on that later.

The show began last night with Daris being upset about his mom Cheryl being sent home. That lasted about 5 seconds. Then it was on to the initial challenge, and one of the contestants even said “oh crap” when they saw host Alison Sweeney in the room. That was funny. The challenge was a trivia game, with the winning team earning a “spa night” at the Four Seasons Hotel, and the losing team having to clean both the kitchen and the gym. Yikes. After some trash talk from Stephanie of the black team, the blue team won, which was funny, because their team is mostly huge guys, not the types you’d expect to see in a spa.

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Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” they showed O’Neal sweating it out as he was about to join the blue team, but did not know which blue team member was eliminated until they walked through the door one by one, with his daughter Sunshine being the last to enter the room. Of course, it makes you wonder why he didn’t ask one of the other blue teamers who was eliminated rather than to be left hanging like that. Naturally, O’Neal was thrilled that it was Miggy who was sent home and not Sunshine.

Host Allison Sweeney then told the teams that they would be working real jobs this week. They had limited workout time because they would be bused to the Feed America food bank to work, having to pack their lunch and everything, to simulate what it would be like once they get home.

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Every season on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” the producers have a way of changing things up to the point of having us all scratch our heads. Last night there was more of that, though some of the curves came from natural causes. The first of those was at the start of the episode when Miggy had to call 911 in the middle of the night due to abdominal pain, and was rushed to the hospital.

Then came the return of the blue and yellow teams, who would weigh in to determine which team was coming back to the ranch. The other contestants had no idea that one team would return after 30 days, so they were all surprised and kind of nervous. Host Allison Sweeney instructed the blue and yellow teams to go and weigh in, but instead they were met in the gym by Bob and Jillian, who put them through a last chance workout.

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It’s getting testy on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” After last week’s challenges and weigh in, it’s clear that Michael is watching his back, as are Miggy and Migdalia. Meanwhile, Lance and Melissa are still liars, and nobody likes a liar.

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NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” consistently transforms the lives of its contestants, but that doesn’t mean every one of them really wants to be on that ranch and do the necessary work to change their bodies. Last night we saw two instances of just that, despite what those contestants would tell you.

They began by reminding us that there were two teams, blue and yellow, that had been sent home on Day 1 for 30 days. At his point, it was halfway through the 30 days, and each team was working extremely hard to earn that spot back on the ranch.

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Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” they began with Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels talking about how Week 2 is notoriously difficult for contestants. That’s because they typically lose a lot of weight in Week 1 and then their bodies start to rebound and fight back after that.

So Bob went to work with Michael, who came in at 526 pounds, the heaviest contestant ever on the show. Then they showed Dr. Huizenga lecturing the group and discussing how unhealthy they all were. But before he got to the dirty scoop on exactly how unhealthy they were, he had Michael and his mom Maria meet with Bob…and they put weights on Bob that were equivalent to Michael’s excess “baggage.” Then seeing how Bob was practically immobile, it hit Michael how hard just how obese he was and how much he needed to be on this show.

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It’s hard to believe we’re just a few short weeks away from the finale of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” but there it is. Last night we went from six contestants to five, and either they are going to have a final 3 again, or they are going to throw us another curveball and let someone else back in….these tricky producers have done it before, and I have a funny feeling it’s coming.

Meanwhile, last night the six hopefuls were treated to makeovers, led by “Project Runway’s” Tim Gunn, and a TV Guide sponsored event that had each contestant share their personal journey wth their families and an audience of about 300. Most of them looked pretty good, but I’m not sure why they insisted on cutting Rebecca’s hair so short…both her and Amanda were made to look like ten years older.

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