Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” was like a slap in the face to the show’s producers, who clearly wanted Melissa in this thing for the long haul but, well, you’ll have to read on…..
Host Alison Sweeney threw another curve ball at the contestants to start the show, when she told them that one of them could literally earn immunity with the push of a button this week. She gave them each a tag to wear around their neck with the amount of weight they had to lose in order to reach 2% of their body weight. If someone felt they had reached that mark at any point during the week, they could hit a red button that sounded a loud and giant alarm. That player would weigh in and if they reached their 2%, they were immune from elimination. If not, they were out of this particular challenge, and someone else could try and gain immunity.
Of course, this was highly competitive, and they all raced to work out as hard as possible, with Melissa leading the charge and saying how much she wanted to play the game and win the $250K prize, but that she couldn’t believe no one else felt the same way. In fact, she said there was too much love in the house this season.
They brought in Dr. H to make sure these contestants were trying to lose the weight safely.
Then, a couple days in, Vicky was the first to push the button. She had immunity last week because it was her first week on campus, but this time she wanted it to stick around another week. Vicky had to lose 6 pounds, but only lost 3. Out!
Then they had a swim challenge, where there were 1000 one pound hockey pucks at the bottom of the pool, and the contestants all had to swim and then go under water to retrieve the pucks, two at a time. The first to 100 won, and the prize was a 2-week vacation at the Biggest Loser resort. The last place finisher would have a 1 pound penalty at the weigh in. But once someone won, that person could help someone else. So Sunshine ultimately won, and then helped her dad. Everyone else tried to help O’Neal too as well as Michael. Nobody helped Melissa, a telling sign indeed, and she wound up coming in last place. Ha!
Then as most of the contestants went to sleep, Sam and Koli did a late night workout and intended to hit the red button in the morning. But Melissa went to bed around midnight and woke up at 3am to go work out, and she also intended to hit the button. The button sounded around 7am, but it was Sam who got their first. He got on the scale, and he had to lose 6 pounds. Well, Sam did even better, losing a whopping 10 pounds (in like 4 days). That was good for 3.82% and immunity this week, while Melissa was cursing herself for not getting there before Sam did. Again, ha!
Then after we fast-forwarded through all of the last chance workouts and one-to-one mentoring of Bob and Jillian with various contestants, it was time for the weigh in. Note to NBC and this show’s producers: this show is still 60 minutes too long each week. We don’t need a 45-minute weigh in.
Sam was immune so he did not weigh in. Then Koli was up, and he lost only 5 pounds, and Daris lost only 4. Both were in danger. Mike lost 9, Ashley 7 and Sunshine 7, putting Sunshine below 200 pounds for the first time (195). O’Neal lost 8 pounds, giving him 106 pounds of weight loss total. Vicky lost 11 pounds, but then Drea lost only 2. That put Drea below the yellow line and Koli was safe. Next up was Melissa, who needed more than 4 pounds of weight loss to stick around. She lost 3 pounds, and even without the 1 pound penalty, Melissa would have been below the line. Ha!
So Drea and Melissa had to state their cases to the other contestants. Drea couldn’t believe she only lost 2 pounds and pleaded with them all to vote for her to stay. Melissa, who said she was an attorney (can you just picture that?), thought she put forth a good argument, and that was that she felt Drea was more of a threat than she was, and that Melissa would probably be in the bottom 2 each week, and each week they could pluck off a competitor if they kept Melissa in the game.
I turned to Mrs. Mike and said there is no way anyone votes to keep Melissa there. She said, “Stranger things have happened.” And she was right. However, this is a different season, one in which the contestants kind of have a love fest going on for each other. Koli, O’Neal, Daris, Michael and Vicky were the first to vote and ALL FIVE voted for Melissa to be eliminated. They all cited that they didn’t appreciate gameplay and wanted contestants there who would push each other and be there for the right reasons. Ha!
So Melissa, despite the producers trying really hard to keep her around, was going home for the second time. That’s it. Now there are nine contestants left as we inch closer to the final four. Who do you like? I like the competitive fire of Sam and Koli, but I like Ashley or Sunshine to possibly win it all.
Let me know what you think and see you all next week…
