Thanks to the NCAA basketball tournament for giving us the term “Final Four,” because now it’s used in every walk of tournament life. Same with NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” which reached the final four of this season last night.
The episode began with the final five–Rudy, Allen, Liz, Amanda and Danny–talking about Rebecca having been eliminated and now Amanda was afraid she no longer had allies. Then CNBC finance personality Suzy Orman made a guest appearance and talked about how obesity is costing our nation and individuals so much money….really, almost as much or more than cancer. Yikes. They had a challenge in which they walked on treadmills while answering quetsions about how obesity relates to money. Pretty scary stuff! If they got a question correct, they would earn $1000, but if they got it wrong, their speed on the treadmill would increase.
Then came the main challenge, and this one was a football challenge featuring former NFL Pro Bowler Rod Woodson. They would, as they do each season around this time, have to run with footballs representing the weight they’ve shed, until all of that weight was shed, and the person who finished first won. That would be Allen, and his prize was $5K to the school of his choice for sporting equipment. He chose is daughter’s school in Indiana.
Then after watching Danny play guitar and sing a song he wrote about his journey on the show (which wasn’t half-bad, by the way), it was time for the last chance workout and then the weigh in. The winner of the weigh in would have celebrity chef Curtis Stone come to their house in the time between the taping and the finale to help show how to cook healthy meals.
Liz went first and lost 5 pounds, but she was at 198, under 200 for the first time. Rudy went next and lost 12, giving him 146 pounds lost in 11 weeks, a Biggest Loser record. And he was likely safe. Allen went next and lost 8 pounds, putting him in danger of falling below the yellow line. Danny was next…..and he lost a whopping 16 pounds. Holy crap. He was now down to 288, first time under 300 and he set the record with seven straight weeks of double digit weight loss. Good for him and I still hope he wins. Amanda went last, and she knew she needed to stay above the line or she was headed home. She lost 7 pounds, and that kept her safe and in the final four with Rudy and Danny.
So it was down to Liz and Allen, and everyone remaining liked both of them, so this was tough. But we knew Danny and her had a special alliance from being teammates, and Rudy was going to vote to keep Allen there. So the swing vote was Amanda. Allen pulled her aside and pleaded his case, telling Amanda that Liz was a bigger threat to win.
At the judgement table, naturally Rudy voted to eliminate Allen and Rudy to send Liz home, while Amanda had the deciding vote. In the end, she voted to send Allen home, and said she had more of a bond with Liz and thought that having Liz in the final four would push her more. So Allen would not be the Biggest Loser.
They showed Allen at home and he lost another 10 pounds, putting him at 220 and not really giving him much more to lose. But he looks great.
So your final four is Liz, Amanda, Danny and Rudy. Quite honestly, this is probably between Danny and Rudy, as they have been big losers all season and still have the most to lose. But hey, Helen surprised us all last season so Liz or Amanda could do the same. But please, for the love of G-d, can we stop with the “America voted me in” stuff from Amanda? Mrs. Mike correctly pointed out that NOBODY remembers who Amanda was up against in last season’s finale. Seriously, Amanda, enough.
And I guess I was incorrect about them bringing someone back on to the show…it’s down to these four and we will have some hand in choosing who the final three will be with phone votes. Awesome.
So here we go…two more episodes including the grand finale in two weeks. And tonight, a special two-hour treat…..a bonus episode of “where are they now?” from former contestants. That is must-see TV. See you all next week, and enjoy your Thanksgiving!
