“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.

Then things got really interesting. All of the contestants this season who have been eliminated were brought back in, and one of them would be allowed back into the game. Here we go again, right? Well, it was even crazier than you may have thought. Each eliminated contestant weighed in, but the weight wouldn’t get them back….instead, the remaining contestants on the ranch would vote for who they wanted to come back.

Darrell has lost 104 pounds….Sherry 62 pounds, Miggy 49, Vicky 73, Melissa 51, Lance 91, Cheryl 51, John 85, Patti 46, Maria 57, James 72 and Cherita 47. Each one got to plead their case and they each did, except for Cherita who pleaded for her daughter Vicky to have a chance on the ranch. You may remember they were sent home the first day, and then again when the yellow team beat them at the chance to return a month later. So while Vicky had a sympathy vote, John was a friend and favorite of many of those remaining. It was close, and aside from Darrell and James each garnering one vote, Vicky had four votes to John’s three. Vicky was back in!

But wait, there’s more. The rest of the eliminated contestants would have a challenge to determine one more that could return. Come on, already! The challenge was who could do 1000 steps the fastest. Melissa was determined to win from the start, with Miggy also being competitive. But let’s face it…..we know the producers were just looking for a way to get Melissa back on the ranch since there had been a lack of gameplay in recent weeks. To accentuate that fact, Melissa and Vicky had immunity this week. Then came more drama….Ashley accused Stephanie of throwing a recent weigh in to send Ashley’s mom, Sherry, home. This seemed a bit far-fetched but there is something sneaky about Stephanie.

Then after TiVo’ing through the last chance workouts, it was time for the weigh in. Vicky was first and lost 2 pounds, and Melissa lost 4. For the moment, Melissa wasn’t playing the game, and both of them were immune, so wiped off the board.

O’Neal was next and lost 4 pounds, followed by Ashley who lost 5. Michael lost 8, Koli 6 and Drea 5. Daris lost 7, and then Sam lost 2. Uh-oh. Sunshine, who kept claiming she would be going to the Final 4, lost 6, putting her money where her mouth was. Stephanie lost 1 pound, putting her and Sam below the yellow line. This was sort of inevitable, because Sam lost 14 pounds the previous week while Stephanie had lost 9.

But let’s face it, Stephanie has dodged a bullet a few times recently, and Sam is a bit too popular to be sent home now. So after Koli voted for Stephanie and Melissa voted for Sam, Stephanie received the next four votes and was sent home. I think that was the right way to go, and it was time for Stephanie to go home and begin vying for the $100K at-home prize. That is, unless they bring her back again (note sarcasm).

Then it was time to bring home the inspired home viewer, Wayne. Wayne began his journey at a whopping 674 pounds, and he stepped on the scale looking like a shell of his former self. He now weighs 256, down an unbelievable 418 total pounds. Wow. Of course, Mrs. Mike noted that Allison was overly dramatic about the whole thing.

Okay, so now we’ve gone from 9 finalists to 11 and then back to 10. And Melissa is back. Ugh. I can’t stand how almost every season the producers of this show try hard to make it about gameplay. I know the show helps people lose weight, get healthy and get their lives back on track. But sometimes they throw so many curveballs that it gets difficult to keep track of without a calculator.

Regardless, it’s gonna be exciting over the next two months to see how it all shakes out. What do you think? Are you annoyed by the curves too? Let me know and then we’ll meet back here next week!

After a three-week hiatus due to NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, “The Biggest Loser” returned with a bang last night, with lots of controversy. First, you may remember that they left us hanging three weeks ago with Cheryl and Darrell hanging on in squat position balancing an Olympic torch replica. Darrell’s knees finally gave out, and he went home, with Cheryl remaining on campus.

Then, host Alison Sweeney announced that the teams would no longer be couples but would be broken up into blue vs. black. They do this every season and it doesn’t get any less annoying. Really, do they have to keep confusing us and messing with the show’s format? Alison then announced the initial challenge, which would give one person control in the game. But first, before they agreed to play a game of Memory, they had to agree to the fact that with the game came the possibility of eating a lot of calories, mostly in the form of chocolate chip cookies that were worth 100 calories each. Behind each memory card were food items, and behind two of them were golden tickets that would determine the game’s winner. The only two that stepped forward to play were Michael and Andrea. After the game went back and forth, and after both consumed way more calories than they wanted to, Michael won…despite eating 2310 calories worth of cookies and other junk. He was then given the right to choose the teams, and he also would have the power to give immunity this week to either himself or to one other player.

Michael chose Sam, Cheryl, Drea, Stephanie, Sherry and Ashley for the black team and to train with Jillian, while he chose Koli, Daris, Lance, Miggy, Sunshine and himself for the blue team to train with Bob. He gave O’Neal immunity, putting himself on a strong team instead of giving himself immunity. Next week, O’Neal would join the team that eliminated someone this week. Michael’s strategy was to put the potential big weight losers on one team, and making the black team weak and vulnerable. In the process, he broke up several teams and showed favoritism to Lance and Miggy.

The trainers were pissed, especially Jillian, who was left to coach a team that didn’t have much of a chance to lose weight like the blue team did. Well, on paper anyway. Then the first challenge as blue vs. black was to raise their team colored banner up a huge building. The winning team would receive letters from home. Blue won, as you would expect looking at them all.

Then they had Dr. H meet with some of the contestants to track their progress, and I admit I skipped through both this and the last chance workout. Blah, blah, blah. Then came the weight in….

O’Neal had immunity so he went first, and lost 9 pounds, or 2.77%. Not bad at all, but he had immunity so they wiped him off the board. Then it was the blue team…..Michael went first and lost 15 pounds, now having lost 109 pounds in just 7 weeks! Sunshine lost 7, Lance lost 5, Miggy lost 4 and was furious with herself for letting the team down. Daris lost 7 pounds and then Koli lost 10. The blue team in all lost 48 pounds, or 2.7%. Not bad at all, and the black team then had to lost 39 pounds to win.

Andrea was first and lost 5 pounds, followed by Cheryl with 4 and Sherry with 6. Then came the big guns….Sam lost 8, Stephanie 8 and then Ashley lost 10 pounds! That gave them 41 pounds lost, or 2.82%….and the victory. The blue team was devastated, as Michael’s dream team didn’t come through. But lucky for him, since he had the highest percentage of weight loss on his team, he could not be eliminated. Instead, it would likely come down to the two worst performers this week–Lance and Miggy. Both of them pleaded with their teammates to stay.

Then after Lance and Daris voted for Miggy, Miggy and Michael voted for Lance, tying it up. Then Sunshine and Koli voted for Miggy and it was her that went home. Whew, you could feel the stress level in the house drop immediately! Miggy has lost 41 pounds, down from 240 to 179, and is training at home with Nicole from Season 7. Good for her. She is also meditating to ease her own stress levels.

Then they showed Darrell at home, and he has lost 120 pounds, down from 413 to 293. Good for him too!

So now with Michael having made a few enemies, there is some lingering bitterness among the black team, but the blue team is strong and even stronger now with O’Neal. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out. I like Michael’s overall chances but he’s playing the game a bit too much and that always winds up biting these contestants in the butt.

What do you think? Let me know below and see you all next week!

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.

Before they weighed in, Allison announced that not only would the winning team come back to the ranch, but that they would also have immunity the first week. To make things more interesting, they would also have the only elimination vote at the main weigh in. Wow, now that’s a curveball, and one that really made everyone else worried.

The blue team of Cherita and Vicky went first and they lost 24 and 39 pounds, respectively, for a total of 63 pounds, or 9.92%. Damn. So next was the yellow team of Sunshine and O’Neal. Gotta love that someone named Sunshine is on the yellow team, huh? Anyway, they lost 25 and 51 pounds, respectively, for a whopping 76 pounds or 11.45%. Good for them, but sad for the blue team, who took the loss in stride.

During regular workouts, Bob was really pushing Melissa, and Jillian was pushing Daris through some self-esteem issues. Then they had product placement with Jennie-O turkey, as Bob cooked them all some chili.

After that came the main challenge, and since it’s Super Bowl week in real time, the task would be to push a tackling machine back and forth, and the first player to push 1000 times won. The teams with two players would have to choose one to participate and one to be a cheerleader. But this was a valuable challenge to win, because the prize was immunity. Yikes…that makes two teams immune this week. Also, the team that came in last would have a 2-pound disadvantage at the weigh in. Well, after the red and gray teams battled, Michael of the white team cranked it up and put all of his almost 500 pounds behind it and came away with the victory. The losing team was the pink team.

Then Miggy returned, and announced that she had her appendix taken out, as well as a huge cyst in her abdomen. Yikes. And Dr. H told Miggy she could only walk for exercise, and also that they injected her body with salt water, which would put about 8-9 extra pounds on her. Not good.

Meanwhile, John, who had been working out mostly in a pool, finally worked out in the gym with everyone else and was happy to do so. Then Jillan was shown pushing Ashley harder than ever, and found out that Ashley was holding in some baggage about her dad that passed away when she was young.

After the last chance workout, it was time to weigh in. Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell NBC how pissed I am that they ran half of last week’s episode at 7pm CST, opposite “American Idol.” Since I blog Idol too, I couldn’t watch Loser on TiVo delay….I had to watch it with all the commercials, making the 45 minute weigh-in just agonizing. Thanks NBC, thanks for nothing!

So the yellow team and Michael went first, since all three of them were immune. Sunshine and O’Neal each lost 5 pounds. Not great, but not bad. Michael lost 13 pounds, and has now lost 83 pounds in 5 weeks. If he reaches 100 pounds next week, he will break Rudy’s record of 100 pounds in 7 weeks set last seaon. Good for him.

Then the pink team went, and lost 15 pounds total, and 13 with the 2 pound penalty. That was good for 2.54%. The red team of Melissa and Lance lost 5 and 4 pounds, respectively, for 9 pounds total and 1.73%. That made the pink team safe and made the red team very nervous. Orange was next, and while Cheryl lost just 3 pounds, Daris dropped 12, giving them 15 pounds lost and 3.05%.

Next up was Stephanie of the purple team, who lost 5 pounds, or 2.17%. The gray team of Sam and Koli lost 10 and 6 pounds, or 2.42%. But Koli was bummed he only lost 6 when he expects double digits each week. Easy, dude! The black team of Andrea and Darrell weighed in with 5 and 8 pounds lost, or 13 total and 2.10%. All that remained to weigh in were Miggy and John, and the red team was still facing possible elimination.

Miggy, who has been walking like crazy, lost 5 pounds, or 2.37%, to remain on the ranch. Mrs. Mike and I both felt they should have given her a pass this week, but I’m glad she was able to drop 5 pounds and stay on campus. Finally it was John of the brown team. John had to lose 7 pounds, and Bob had announced in the gym that he expected the time in said gym to translate to a big number. Well, no, it didn’t…John lost just 6 pounds, and while he has lost 63 pounds off his 400-pound plus frame, it wasn’t enough this week. And since he was the only remaining brown team member, John was instantly eliminated without the yellow team having to make a decision.

It really does suck that someone that heavy who needs to be there went home at this stage, but that’s how the game is played…and the producers continually remind us that this surely is a game. But for John, it’s been good at home…he’s gone from 484 pounds down to 380, so he’s lost 104 pounds all told so far. I have a feeling either he or his brother James will win the $100K at-home prize.

So that’s it…..weird things happening at the ranch, and if you asked me who I thought might win it all, I don’t think I could tell you at this point. It’s really pretty much wide open. What do you think? Let me know in the space below, and thanks for reading!

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.

As many of these episodes do, this one began with a pop challenge. But unlike most of the pop challenges, this one came with a prize of immunity at the weigh in. It also came with the power to assign various penalties to the other teams. For the challenge, they would each run the “presidential” mile around campus, and as they completed each lap, would insert a card into a slot that would either show a green check or a red x. Each check was a point, and the first team with three points won. As it went on, you got the feeling the red team was going to win…..I mean, we could all just feel it. And sure enough, they did. So in addition to immunity, they got to open three cards, each of which represented a penalty the red team could pass on to the other teams–no access to the gym, no elimination vote, and a 2 pound disadvantage at the weigh in. They gave the first one to John, since he did well working out in a pool anyway; the second one to Michael, since he was angry at some of the others after they accused him of loafing it; and finally, they gave the 2 pound disadvantage to the green team, who are angry and bitter even without that kind of pressure.

Then, after hearing about the crazy pop challenge, Bob and Jillian were pissed and then wanted to clear the air with Lance and Melissa, since they had called Melissa a liar at last week’s weigh in. But while Bob tried hard to accept that maybe they weren’t lying, Jillian couldn’t accept it, prompting Lance to say to Jillian, “I have no respect for you.” Awesome! But Jillian pointd out that even with immunity this week, Melissa would likely “miraculously” figure out how to lose a few pounds. The problem here, too, is that everyone on the ranch and everyone in TV land knows these two are liars and that Melissa was playing the game the last two weeks.

The next challenge was for each team to get on platforms and lift themselves 120 feet in the air. The winning team would receive phone calls from home, and they would also assign phone calls from home to three other teams. The gray team barely edged out the red team, and gave the other calls to the red team (much to the dismay of most of us), the bitter green team, and to John of the brown team. Say what you will about some of these contestants, the guys in gray are truly good people, and it’s hard not to root for them.

Then after a Subway product placement with Bob taking everyone for sandwiches, he then told them that their last chance workout would be an uphill climb, literally…up and down a mountain and back to the ranch, and then they would have to endure more of a workout from Jillian.

Before the weigh in, Miggy called Melissa out for gameplay, and of course Melissa denied that. Liar! Anyway, Lance and Melissa weighed in first and lost 6 and 11 pounds, respectively. Well, duh! Even with immunity, Melissa knew she had to save face a bit. Michael went next and lost 15 pounds to raise his total weight loss to 70 pounds so far, down from 526 to 456. Next up, the black team of Drea and Darrell, who lost 5 and 10 pounds, 2.37% and not enough for safety.

Next was the orange team….Cheryl and Daris each lost 6, or 2.38%. The pink team of Ashley and Sherry lost 7 and 4 pounds, for 2.11% and below the yellow line for the moment. Next was John, who lost 10 pounds, or 2.29%. Sam and Koli of the gray team lost a whopping 14 and 12 pounds, for a 3.78% mark and first place. Stephanie lost 6 pounds, or 2.54%. Finally, the green team weighed in, and lost 4 and 1 pound. With the 2 pound disadvantage, that meant 3 pounds total, or 0.67%. Jillian cited stress (i.e. bitterness) as the culprit, and Melissa was quick to point out that they would have been below the yellow line even without a 2 pound penalty. To which Migdalia replied, “Shut up!” Ha!

So Miggy and Migdalia pleaded their case to the other teams, but it as more like Migdalia demanding that everyone send her home. She wanted to see her family, because her husband is on his way to Afghanistan soon, but she said it to everyone in an angry, obnoxious way.

The red team voted for Miggy, because they felt she was the drama queen of the house (um, I’m thinking something about a pot and a kettle here). Orange, pink and Stephanie all voted for Migdalia, but the gray team as well as John voted for Miggy to even the vote. That left it up to the black team, and they decided to, reluctantly, honor Migdalia’s wishes and send her home. But everyone wanted to know why she couldn’t have asked them nicely. Exactly!

So Migdalia went home, with her baggage (literally)….and has lost 46 pounds so far, down from 265 to 219. Somehow, I don’t think she’s going to keep this up. There is just too much stress, drama and bitterness that is going to interfere with her weight loss plans. But we’ll see.

What do you all think of the drama? Much more than last season already…and it’s reminiscent of Vicki and Brady from a few seasons ago. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

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.

Then it was time for the first challenge, and host Alison Sweeney describing the premise of the competition this week. It would be “teacher/student” week, meaning each team would consist of a teacher and a student, and that only the teachers would have access to trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, while the students would then be trained by the “teachers.” What’s more, only the weight of the students would count at the weigh in. To determine who would be who for each team, the challenge was to eat M&M’s and whoever devoured the most of them would get to pick the teachers and students. Only Sherry of the pink team and Michael of the white team moved forward to eat the M&M’s but they didn’t feel right about it. As a result, Sherry won by eating just two candies for a total of 10 calories. Her and daughter Ashley were then not thrilled about having to choose the teams, but it was one of those “be careful what you wish for” moments.

Anyway, here is how they chose–teachers were Andrea, Stephanie, Sam, Melissa, Cheryl, Migdalia, Michael, and Sherry; students were Darrell, John (her and Stephanie were teammates this week since their partners had been eliminated), Koli, Lance, Daris, Miggy, Maria and Ashley.

Then they all had a cooking lesson from celebrity chef Curtis Stone. After that, they showed Jillian training Migdalia, who was clearly angry about something. Jillian couldn’t get her to open up, so just kept pushing her buttons until finally Migdalia walked out and threatened to quit the show. After Jillian tried to use Miggy to convince Migdalia not to quit, Bob intervened and knew just what to say to get her to stay. Let’s all get our violins out!

Then there was one of the weirdest challenges the show has ever produced. Each team had to have one member take a large roll of ribbon the color of their team, and wrap it around various parts of a playground. Then, members of the other teams would have to unravel them. So some of them made their ribbons extremely difficult to unravel on purpose, and were shocked to hear Alison tell them that their teammates would be the ones unraveling their color. Snap! But to make it worse, the ones unraveling would be blindfolded and their teammate would have to guide them verbally. Yikes. The gray team won, and their main prize was immunity at the weigh in. Their secondary prize was to be able to switch out one team’s student and force the teacher to weigh in instead. They would announce that at the weigh in, meaning that no one could slack off. Well, in theory, anyway.

After the last chance workout, it was time to weigh in. The gray team announced that they were switching Michael and Maria of the white team, because they felt Michael had not been giving it 100% during the week, and of all the contestants, he should have been, because he started as the heaviest contestant in the show’s history. Michael was pissed, but we could surely ask him how bad he wants this.

The gray team weighed in first and though they had immunity, we know they are on the ranch for the right reasons. They lost 11 and 13 pounds, for a total of 24.

The green team of Miggy and Migdalia was next, and only Miggy’s weight would count, but they lost 8 and 7 pounds, respectively. Miggy’s 7 pounds was a 3.2% weight loss.

Next up, the black team. Andrea lost 7 pounds while Darrell lost 12, giving them 3.22% and putting them above the green team. Orange was next, and Cheryl lost 7 pounds while Daris lost 9, putting them below the yellow line for the moment with 2.9%.

Then came Stephanie and John, with Stephanie losing 7 pounds and John losing 14,or 3.10% and keeping them both safe for the week. The Red team was next, and Melissa lost just one pound while Lane lost 12, giving them a 3.57% weight loss. Remember that last week Melissa was playing the game because they had immunity, and she had gained a pound. So while she acted all shocked, Bob and Jillian called Melissa out, and she and Bob even got into a shouting match. If you do the math, Bob and Jillian were correct, because you can’t work out as much as they do and then put up numbers like that unless you are taking in like 7000 calories a day or something crazy like that. Sorry Melissa, we all know you’re full of crap too. Then again, it had to be risky considering the power of the gray team to switch them.

The white team was next, and Maria lost 4 pounds while Michael lost 10, which for him was only good for 2.08%. Of course, I don’t know what Maria’s percentage would have been, but I’m pretty sure 4 pounds would have also put them below the line if they had counted her weight instead.

Then the pink team was up, and Sherry lost 6 pounds while daughter Ashley lost 12, giving them a 3.48% mark and second place, and putting the white team below the yellow line.

So everyone would have to vote to send either Michael or Maria home. Maria pleaded with them all to send her home because Michael needed to be there more. I can see that, but they all hoped Michael saw it also. And while John was still pissed about Michael slacking off, and he voted for him to be sent home, everyone else voted for Maria, including the gray team, who told Michael they only wanted to teach him a lesson and make him appreciate why he was there.

Meanwhile, Maria went home and has so far lost 51 pounds, down from 281 to 230. What’s more, she has gotten over her fear of water, and is taking swimming lessons. Good for her!

Now, we have some good old-fashioned dissension brewing. How much will Migdalia and Michael want it now, or will they continue to be bitter? And how will Melissa get along with Bob and Jillian now they called her out for being a liar? I know the producers are licking their chops, and I have to admit it’s all pretty intriguing now!

See you all next week…