Last night on the finale of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” host Alison Sweeney mentioned that this is the longest season in Biggest Loser history. Since it began shortly after New Year’s Day, I can see the math adding up. There were also 22 contestants this season.

The live finale of the show is always a big event, probably why “American Idol” decided to move its performance show to Tuesday this week–to compete head-to-head. Of course, I blog about both here, so that was annoying to me. Anyway, the first order of business was to bring out Jay and Irene, and find out who America voted to compete for the $250K grand prize along with sisters Hannah and Olivia. The winner was…Irene! So there would be three women competing for the grand prize, and Jay was relegated to compete for the $100K “at-home” prize.

The first group they brought out was Ana, Courtney and Marci. The all look great. Ana, who went home in Week 1 only to see her daughter Irene sail all the way through to the finals, lost 109 pounds at home, or 42.75%. Wow. Courtney lost 110, and she had already lost 100 pounds or so at home before even going on the show, so she is down to 213. Good for her. Her mom Marci lost 86 pounds and looks like a pencil, but it wasn’t enough of a percentage to overtake Ana.

Next up, the twins, Dan and Don; along with Q and Laramie. You might remember that Dan and Don threw their weigh-ins to force themselves out, but they shocked everyone last night by how great they looked. Dan lost 124 pounds, and he took the lead over Ana with a 43.21% weight loss. Don lost 130 pounds, but he was heavier to start out so he was still behind Dan. Q, who still looks mighty large, lost 93 pounds; and Laramie lost 84.

Then came Moses, Kaylee, Ken and Austin. Moses, who was 400-pounds to start, lost 153 pounds, but that still wasn’t enough to win the at-home prize. Kaylee lost 54 pounds, but looks great as she didn’t have as much to lose. Ken lost 158 pounds (wow!), and Austin lost a whopping 174, putting him in the lead now with a 43.94% weight loss.

Next up, Sarah and Deni; and Arthur and Jesse. Sarah, as Mrs. Mike pointed out, looks like a model. Deni, meanwhile, is a thinner pencil than Marci. Sarah lost 106 pounds, and Deni 125 pounds, giving her 48.83% weight loss and the lead over Austin. Arthur looked great too, but he clearly still has a ways to go. He lost 163 pounds, down to 344 pounds from a 507 starting point. And Jesse, who was woo-hooing for ten minutes, lost 83 pounds.

Then came Jay, Jen and Justin. Justin lost 173 pounds, which was great but not enough to win. Jay lost 181 pounds, and being that he was 400 pounds to start, that was pretty amazing. His daughter Jen looked awesome, and she has lost 114 pounds. But none of them lost enough to overtake Deni, who won the $100K at-home prize. But wait. Where was Rulon? Mrs. Mike pointed out that he left the show, so he wasn’t competing for the $100K. But why would they not even mention him?

Okay, here we go…but first, since Jillian Michaels is leaving the show to pursue other endeavors, they needed a new trainer next season to go along with Bob, Brett and Cara. That person is…wait for it….Anna Kournikova. The tennis star, who has been more recognized for her hotness than her tennis skills, will likely tower over most of her pupils, but it will be interesting to see what she brings to the table.

So here we really go. Alison asked Irene to choose the order in which they would weigh in. She picked Hannah to go first, followed by herself and then Olivia. Mrs. Mike pointed out that Olivia won, because they always set it up ahead of time so that the person who weighs in last wins. She is right, but I tried not to believe it.

So Hannah went first and she has lost 120 pounds, or a whopping 48.39%. Irene lost 116, or 45.49%. So it was down to Olivia. She lost 129 pounds, down from 261, giving her the win with a 49.42% weight loss. Good for her!

So there you have it, America. Whereas last time there was a 2-week break from Season 10 to Season 11, this time we have to wait until September for the show to pick up again. Whew, it really has been a long season. Anyway, thanks for reading!

“The Biggest Loser” is certainly not afraid of throwing curveballs at its contestants or its viewers, and last night was no exception. After Jay was eliminated at the end of the last episode, host Alison Sweeney invited the black team into the room and detailed what the next week would hold–namely, that there would be two contestants going home this next week. There would be a red line, in which the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss would automatically be eliminated, and then there would be the regular yellow line, and the team that lost the weigh in would send someone else home as well.

So when Brett and Cara, the red team trainers, found out about the double elimination, they decided that no one from their group would be going home, and they set off to train at an MMA gym. It turns out that the owner of the gym is a guy who trained Rulon for the Olympics in 2004. Pretty cool. Even cooler that the guy didn’t judge Rulon for gaining all that weight.

Then came the main challenge, and it was a team oriented one in which they had to volley giant red and black balls from one end of a football field to the other and through a goal post. The first team to get six balls of their color to the other end and through the post would win, and the prize was a 3-pound advantage at the weigh in. Wow. The red team, not surprisingly, was coordinated and easily won, 6-1.

So since the black team knew they were likely to lose after having won the last few weigh-ins, they also figured someone from their team would also fall below the red line. But wanting to protect Arthur and the younger women, Marci and Deni decided that they would purposely throw the weigh in and then let the chips fall for the yellow line where they may. They of course wanted Jesse to follow along with this, but he lashed out, saying he was also there for himself. Hmmm.

Then after the last chance workouts, blah blah blah, it was time for the (hour-long) weigh-in process. The red team went first. Austin lost 7 pounds and Ken lost 5; Justin lost 7 while Rulon lost 4, putting Rulon in short-term danger; Kaylee lost a whopping 7, while Moses lost 11; but then Jen gained 2 pounds. Yikes. She acted like she tried but I really doubt that. I mean, why hang around when you know you’ll be the next one from your team to go?

Then the black team was up. Arthur lost 9 pounds; Olivia lost 4, while Sarah lost 4; Irene lost 3 and Hannah lost just 1; Courtney lost 2, and Marci gained 1 pound. No surprise there, and she even proceeded to be brutally honest with Allie and the trainers. Jesse gained 3 pounds, and after all that lashing out, he said he didn’t want to put Arthur in danger, so he accepted going home. But then Deni still had to weigh in, and she gained 8 pounds! Wow.

So Deni fell way under the red line, and she was headed home. Then there was the issue that, since all those parents gained weight and they also had a 3-pound disadvantage, the black team lost the weigh in badly, so they had to vote someone else off. Well, duh…that would have to be Jesse. And it was….the first five that voted chose him and that was that.

Deni has gone from 256 down to 170, which is awesome; and Jesse has gone from 293 to 227. We’re now down to 14 contestants, which seems like a lot still, but well, it’s still only February.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and see you all next week….

Yes, my subject line is being sarcastic, and last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” was a bit eye-opening. The show opened with a challenge between the black and red teams in which they were tangled up as teams in rope, and had to collectively untangle, and then go grab a “key” to the gym. That team would be able to train as usual in the gym all week, while the losing team would be locked out and forced to work outside or somewhere else. The red team won easily, as the black team could do nothing but trip over themselves. So Bob and Jillian would have to train their team outside, which didn’t seem to be a big deal as the weather cooperated.

But Jillian looked at the teams as they were competing and said, “Have you seen our teams? It’s like the Care Bears versus an NFL football team.” Then they showed Cara in the gym with her team and putting more pressure on Rulon than everyone else, and he was not having it. She kept telling him she expects more out of him based on the fact he’s an Olympic athlete. But he didn’t agree, and he also refused to open up about his mental roadblocks to losing weight.

Then they showed a friendly challenge between Jen and Justin as the entire red team wound up near a pool, and those two challenged each other as they jumped in with their clothes on and raced one lap. Justin won and his prize was Jen serving him Subway breakfast in bed. Aha, product placement. Nice.

Then came the main challenge, which was the two teams pushing real train cars that weigh 24 tons 800 feet. Along the way they had to answer trivia questions about food, and would lose time based on wrong answers. The winning team would be able to pick one person from the other team to not have their weight count on the weigh in. That was huge, but risky if they chose the wrong person. The red team won, based on their 1:35 time against 2:05 for the black team, but also because the black team had four wrong answers on the trivia while the red team had five wrong but that still nabbed them the win.

So then it was time to weigh in. Jay lost 9 pounds while Jen lost 7; Moses lost 7 and Kaylee 3; Justin lost 5 and Rulon 11, but both were not happy with those numbers, even though Rulon has now lost 103 pounds; Austin lost 10 and Ken 11, bringing Ken down to 296.

Then the black team went, and first the red team chose Irene to not have her number count. Really? You wouldn’t choose Arthur or Courtney? So Irene lost 6 pounds, bringing her down to 198. Then it was time for the ones that counted. Deni lost 5, also bringing her below 200 pounds at 196. Sarah lost 4, Olivia just 2 and Hannah 7 (bringing her down to 194); Marci lost 6 while Courtney lost 7; Jesse lost 8, and then it was time for Arthur and he needed a 13 to win for his team. Well, he delivered with a 20 pound weight loss, giving his team 3.02%, beating the red team’s 2.68%. Wow. I think everyone knew Arthur had this coming, but the red team picked Irene?

Here is what I think…the “family” of the red team, which does not included newcomers Jay and Jen, had a pact not to vote each other off. Well, after Q and Larialmy, that is. So Jay and Jen knew that if the black team won more weigh-ins, they were toast. But was the red team’s strategy yesterday to choose Irene, thinking she’d lose the least amount of weight, therefore giving them the option to lose and send Jay home? I think so. And I’d love to know if Jay and Jen agreed with choosing Irene. I doubt that. It just makes me mad when gameplay rears its ugly head, sending people like Jay who really need to be there home. Give me a break.

So, not surprisingly, everyone voted for Jay, who had asked them to vote for him rather than for Jen. Jen voted for Kaylee and Jay voted for Rulon, but that just didn’t matter. So there you have it, red team. But Jay has gone home and is down from 400 pounds to 289, a 111-pound weight loss. Good for him!

That’s it, we’ll see you next week for more fun and gameplay.

I can’t help it…I can’t help but talk about what a dumbass Arthur is in this season’s “The Biggest Loser.” I’ll get to exactly why in a minute, but first, let’s begin the recap of last night’s episode…..

So host Alison Sweeney kicked things off by telling the contestants that they would officially be going to a red team (the unknowns) and either blue or black (ranch team). The ranch team chose black, so it would be red vs. black for this week’s weight loss challenge. And they started with another temptation challenge–chocolates for Valentine’s Day. The person who ate the most chocolate could control things a bit–they could either choose to keep the teams as is, or they could swap out one couple from their team for a couple on the other team. The good thing, though, is that it would be a secret who ate the most and who made a decision to change teammates. Q was eating chocolate and could not stop, and the same went for Rulon, Marci and Moses, the latter who ate 21 pieces of chocolate. But Arthur, as you might suspect, ate 35 pieces. It was really disgusting to watch such a fat man stuffing his face with chocolate. But that was all they showed, so we didn’t know if Arthur won or not. What we did know is that Jay and Jen from the ranch team had to switch sides and they were trading places with Sarah and Deni. Yikes. Was it Arthur? Why would he do that? No, it had to be someone else, right?

Well, no. Arthur decided he should be honest and speak up, so he told everyone that he won the challenge, and that it was his decision to send Jay and Jen to the other team. He felt they didn’t like him and would make him a target, and he wanted to protect himself and his dad, Jesse. But in doing so, he brought Sarah and Deni over. Why? Because he felt like they were disposable, that they would not lose much weight, therefore putting them in position to be sent home sooner than Arthur or Jesse. Can you say DUMBASS? Suddenly, Arthur had enemies on both sides–especially Jay, Jen, Sarah and Deni. And for no reason–he could have easily kept his mouth shut! So whether or not making the switch was good strategy, admitting to it made it a horrible strategy. DUMBASS. In fact, we’ll call him CAPTAIN DUMBASS.

Bob and Jillian were no doubt pissed at Arthur, but what could they do?
So after a grueling workout, it was time for the main challenge. The red and black teams had a relay race of sorts, where one person had to complete a task before handing off to the next person. Arthur surprised everyone by balancing on a telephone pole its entire horizontal length. But on the red team, Justin and Ken got hung up on the calorie-guessing part of the challenge, and the black team won. Their prize was videos from home. And in those was a video of Deni’s other daughter getting married. That’s right, she and Sarah missed the wedding to go on “The Biggest Loser.” Priorities just slightly out of whack? I think so, but what do I know.

Then, after a last chance workout, it was time to weigh in. The red team went first–Jay lost 14; Jen 14; Austin 10; Ken 14; Q 7 (followed by a lecture from Justin); Rulon 12; Justin 10 (both were not satisfied); Kaylee 5; and then Moses 11 (making him the fastest to 100 pound weight loss in Biggest Loser history). So the red team lost 97 pounds, or 3.43%. Brett and Kara seemed confident.

Then came the black team led by Bob and Jillian–Deni lost 9 pounds and Sarah 10; Arthur lost 9 and Jesse 11; Courtney lost 10 (is anyone else annoyed by her?); Marci lost 13; Olivia lost 16; Irene 12; and Hannah 9. That gave the black team a weight loss of 99 pounds, or 4.38%. Wow! So someone from the red team would be voted off, but it would not be Jen, who with a 14 pound weight loss had the highest percentage on her team.

So it would be between Jay, Austin, Ken, Q, Rulon, Justin, Moses or Kayelee. This was an easy one, wasn’t it? It had to be Q. So of course, Jen, Jay, Ken, Moses and Justin voted for Q, while Q voted for Jay. So it was Q that went home. Big duh, we all saw that coming. But what we may not have seen coming was Q’s success at home–he has lost 92 pounds to date and counting. They also showed him taking his wife blind-folded to a romantic place for Valentine’s Day–to the gym. Come on Q, open up your wallet a bit!

Anyway, there you have it….this competition is sure to get heated with all of the trainers and all of the loud, passionate contestants. And that will make for good TV, NBC. Have a great week everyone……

We’re not talking about a multi-national corporate merger here, just a merger between the Biggest Loser ranch contestants, and the “unknowns,” as they have come to be known.

Since the President’s speech last week cut the episode short, they had to finish up the weigh-in of the Ranch group. But first, they showed the unknowns working out, and Q being disrespectful to his trainer Cara and the rest of the team by walking away from a group workout. The dude didn’t feel like he was getting his “burn” and I have to be honest here–I know he walked away without saying anything, but I understood why he did it. Still, many of those around him don’t feel like he’s pulling his weight, so to speak; the same way the ranch contestants feel about big Arthur.

So it was time for the weigh-in, and up first were Jen and Jay, fresh from a week training with the unknowns. Jen lost 6 pounds while Jay lost 9. Arthur lost 9 pounds while Jesse lost 3. Keep in mind, Arthur is still well over 400 pounds. Courtney lost 10 and Marci lost 3. Hannah lost 5 and Olivia 3. Then it came to the newly formed team of Irene and Don, and they each GAINED six pounds. A-ha. So that Dan/Don thing two weeks ago was a thrown weigh-in as we all suspected, and this time Irene blurted out that she did this to help Don go home, as he had wished. All of a sudden Don didn’t try to hide it, and you have to give him credit for that. Also, trainers Bob and Jillian were pissed, but Bob kind of relented that maybe this was a good thing for Don–that the ranch isn’t for everyone, and that he hoped Don had better success at home.

But they still had to vote, right? Well, since everyone knew what was going on and since this group appears to be prettty tight-knit, host Alison Sweeney simply asked for a show of hands, and it was unanimous that they all wanted Don to go home.

Then Alison announced that there would be two separate competitions this week–the campus players had to beat last week’s tally of 48 pounds lost, and if so, they would all have immunity for a week. But the unknowns would have their own weigh-in, and one of them would be going home this week. The unknowns would also have their own challenge game, in which they had to place weights on another team’s color, and the one left standing at the end would have immunity for one more week. The first to be eliminated was the red team, followed by brown, pink and finally, gray. So the yellow team of Justin and Rulon won.

Then, after I forwarded throught he last-chance workout (sorry NBC), it was time to weigh on. The ranch players went first. Irene lost 8 pounds, which probably was inevitable after last week’s 6-pound gain. Jen lost 4 and Jay lost 10. Olivia lost 4 and Hannah 7. Marci lost 7, bringing her below 200 pounds, and Courtney lost 8. So the tally was already 48 pounds, so they needed one more pound lost between Arthur and Jesse. Uh-oh. Would this be another weight gain for the team that weighed in last? Nope, Arthur lost 6 while Jesse lost a whopping 9 pounds. That’s 63 pounds and the whole ranch team was immune this week.

So now it was time for the unknown teams to hit the scale. Justin and Rulon were first since they had immunity. Just lost 16 pounds while Rulon lost 17. Clearly, these two are not game-players. Of course, Rulon is an Olympic athlete, or was, so he is just a fierce competitor. But his main competition in his own mind is his weight, which is how it should be.

Larialmy lost 11 pounds and Q lost 13, which looked to keep them safe for the week. But there were three more teams–Austin lost 16 while Ken lost 14, keeping them safe. Kaylee lost 9 while Moses lost 14, keeping them safe too. Finally, Sarah lost 9 while Deni lost 11. They were also safe, and the red team was going to have to send someone home this week.

Most of the other players did not appreciate Q’s work ethic, and they told him so. But Larialmy wanted to go home, and once Q declared that he would give it his all, everyone got on board with sending his wife home.

Then they showed Larialmy and Don at home–Larialmy has gone from 301 down to 227; while Don has gone from 309 down to 222. Good for both of them! So I guess this was a good thing for Don. But will Q be true to his word? I have a feeling he won’t be, but we’ll see. And I’ll see you all back here next week…..