Last night’s finale of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC featured the big showdown between Danny and Rudy, and the result of that was not exactly earth-shattering. But there were a couple of other shocking revelations during the show, which we will get to shortly.

First, they brought out Amanda and Liz, to see who America voted into the final 3. Each of them looked quite the same as when they broke camp after running the marathon four months ago….but I digress. The person in the finale was Amanda, and we had to hear her thank America once again for voting for her. Woo freaking hoo. Liz, meanwhile, looked kind of pissed, but let’s face it….neither of them was going to beat Rudy or Danny. And how about Liz being a grandmother of nine at the age of 49? Now that’s impressive!

Then they began to bring out the eliminated contestants in the battle for the at-home prize of $100K. The first group was Antoine, Alexandra, Sean and Julio. Antoine and Alexandra have been dating since being eliminated, and Mrs. Mike tells me she has this funny feeling he’s going to propose to her tonight. Yeah right, I say.

Anyway, Antoine gets on the scale and has lost 152 pounds, or 41.42%. He looks awesome. Alexandra lost 91 pounds, or 29.45%, so for the moment Antoine holds the lead over his girlfriend. Sean is next, and he went from 444 to 289, a loss of 155 pounds, or 34%. Awesome, but not quite enough for the lead. Then Julio, who looks like a completely different person, went from 407 to 227, a loss of 180 pounds or 44.23%. Damn..nice work dude! So Julio, for now, had the lead.

The next group was Coach Mo, Dina, Abby, and Tracey. Coach Mo looks great…he lost 92 pounds, or 25.92%. Dina also looks great, but compared to Julio, both of them have not budged the scale enough. Dina lost 79 pounds, or 31.23%. Abby was up, and we all know the back story on her…..she lost her husband and two kids in a horrible car crash and was getting her life back together. Abby lost 100 freaking pounds, from 247 to 147, and looks amazing. But the 40.49% was not enough for the lead. Still, she was very proud of the 100 pounds and so was host Alison Sweeney. Then came Tracey….who looked, um, scrawny? Is there a nice way to say anorexic? I mean, her face was kind of caved in and I think we could see her ribs. That’s just not right. Anyway, Tracey went from 250 to 132, a 118 pound loss, or 47.2% to give her the lead. Sorry, Julio.

The next group was Shay, Daniel, Rebecca and Allen. We all know Shay’s back story too….heaviest contestant ever. Shay started at 476 pounds. Up on the scale she went, and Shay was down to a svelte 304, having lost an astounding 172 pounds. Still, this was only 36.13%, so not enough for the $100K. Daniel was next, and we know his story too….the heaviest contestant before Shay came along and second-chance entrant. Daniel began this season at 312 and was down to 201, a loss of 111 pounds or 35.58%, and he looks awesome.
Dr. Huizenga was on hand and talked about how Shay had gained 13 years of life back and Daniel 23 years. That is truly amazing and inspiring.

Next up was Rebecca, and here was the other shocker of the night….consider that she was really starting to look great, but last night she had cut her hair even shorter and dyed it platinum blonde…and came out in a short dress that made her look like a hooker. And she, like Tracey, looked scary thin….not as bad as Tracey, but still, not quite right. Anyway, Rebecca was down to 140 pounds, and lost 139 total, or 49.82% to give her the lead. Allen was next, and he also looked awesome. Allen lost 116 pounds, or 35.69%.
So now it was only Liz that Rebecca had to beat.

Liz came back out and had gone from 267 to 176, a 91 pound weight loss but not nearly enough to win the at home prize of $100K. It was Rebecca. I guess I’m happy she won over Tracey, but Rebecca definitely took the competition a bit too far.

Then trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels came out and brought Shay to the center of the stage, with a proposition for her. With sponsor Subway footing the bill, they challenged Shay to keep losing weight with a $1000-for-every-pound incentive, with Shay returning for the Season 9 finale in May. Wow, that’s a lot of cash…so if she loses 100 more pounds, that’s $100,000. Holy crap. Shay, of course, accepted, and so did her husband, who wanted to rush the stage to show his thanks.

Oh wait, there was one more surprise….Antoine proposed to Alexandra. Mrs. Mike is psychic! So Mrs. Mike, will the Giants beat the Eagles this Sunday? Alexandra, of course, accepted. Good for them.

Then they brought out Erin, the person Amanda beat out to get onto the show in the first place…and Erin had lost 70 pounds….awesome. And did you notice they didn’t do this America voting thing again? But they did give us a glimpse of Season 9, which kicks off January 5. It will be “Biggest Loser: Couples,” which, if you’e watched this program for any length of time, you know that that basically means squat, because they always break the teams up anyway and rearrange them five or six times.

Okay, finally….Amanda came back out….and then, Rudy. Damn, that guy lost a ton of weight…maybe literally! Anyway, Rudy looked great as we all knew he would. Then Danny….holy crap, he also looked great. No surprises there…we all knew it would be a two man race.

Drum roll please….Amanda lost 87 pounds, down from 250 to 163, or 34.80%. Nicely done, but we knew it wouldn’t be enough. Rudy was next, and he went from 442 down to 208, a loss of 234 pounds. Holy crap. That was 52.94%, even more weight loss than Rebecca, which in a weird way legitimized the way this all turned out. But Danny still had to weigh in. I went back and started doing the math….last week after the marathon episode, Danny had lost 201 pounds already, and that was, in real time, 4 months ago. Alison said that Danny needed to lose 227 pounds to win. 26 pounds in 4 months, for Danny? Piece of cake. And sure enough, he went from 430 to 191, a loss of 239 pounds or 55.58%.

Danny is your Biggest Loser.

But Rudy, who put in an unbelieveable effort, came in second and seemed happy for Danny but still kind of pissed. I can’t blame him…Danny appeared to have a leg up on Rudy all season long, and in the end Rudy won zero cash. But he sure did lose lot of weight and got his life back. That’s what this show is all about, after all.

So that’s it, folks…..it’s been a pleasure blogging “The Biggest Loser” for you this season and we’ll be back in a few weeks with Season 9.

But before that, I’m curious to know what you all think of the finale last night…especially Tracey and Rebecca. Thanks for reading!

Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” it was clear that having friends in this game is just as important as whether or not you lose weight. But more on that in a bit.

First, they began by showing the blue team coming back in from elimination, and everyone on the black team was utterly surprised that they had sent Coach Mo home instead of Tracy. The blue team was collectively defending itself and it didn’t seem like they had a good answer, other than maybe Tracy had brainwashed them all. They all stood by their decision. Okay, we’re going to start giving them the benefit of the doubt here…maybe they gave Coach Mo what he wished for and let Tracy hang around so they could eliminate her at a better time.

Anyway, they began the show this time with a challenge from host Alison Sweeney. She would have each team dig through a giant pile of sand to find a box with a key in it. Each team had to dig up four keys, which would then open a box to display what their prize was. Alison said only that the prize would determine who would be staying and who would be going home. Yikes. So they started to dig, with Abby and Tracy having to sit out for blue, and Amanda sitting out for black to make things even.

Danny from the black team was first to get his box out, followed by Allen on blue…and then the blue team caught fire and finished the challenge first. Their prize? Tickets home for the week. Rudy and Allen wanted to see their familied bad, but then Alison gave them a choice. They could take the prize, or they could give it to the black team instead. A week off the ranch would likely mean a loss at the next weigh in….so the blue team relented and sent the black team home.

And as you might expect, Amanda, Shay, Abby, Dina, Danny and Daniel met up with their families and then faced a world of temptation and distractions to keep them from their rigorous workout schedule. Meanwhile, the blue team had Bob busting their asses back at the ranch. He gave them bookended last chance workouts at the start and end of the week, and in between took them to a food bank where they were able to help fill backpacks with food for starving kids.

Then they showed that Daniel was struggling in the workout, and Jillian coaxed some hidden emotions in him….that kind of didn’t make sense. His mom had been trying to get him to lose weight his whole life so now he was holding back because of that. Huh? Dude, you’ve lost like 200 pounds almost…you’re not holding anything back. Still, Jillian felt like he wasn’t giving it his all. Okay.

Then came the weigh in…..the blue team went first. Allen lost 8 pounds, Rebecca 5, and Tracy 4. Tracy was all upset because she was hoping for a bigger number. Boo hoo, Tracy. (man, does she have the crazy eyes, or what?). Liz lost 4 and now we had the feeling that after this week of having an advantage the blue team might be in trouble. But big Rudy was next and he lost a whopping 14 pounds, brining their total to 35 pounds, or 2.65%.

The black team went next and needed to lose 45 pounds to stay in this. Amanda lost 6, Shay 5, Abby 4 and Dina 5. Uh-oh. It was down to Danny and Daniel to lose 26 pounds combined. Danny went first and lost 15! Good for him…Mrs. Mike and I are pointing him out as a contender. Then it was up to Daniel. But…he GAINED one pound. Yikes. This kid has had a world of opportunity, getting a second chance no one else gets, and he gained a pound here. Of all people, he should know how to do this at home, right?

So you’d have to think the team would send Daniel home, because he had the worst performance of the week. But think again. Everyone loves Daniel, especially his “teammate” Shay. So you knew he had his own vote and Shay’s. Daniel started and voted for Dina. Dina? What the hell did she do wrong? Then Dina voted for Daniel and then Abby voted for…Dina. Huh? Danny voted for Daniel and it came down to Shay. Oh, well of course Shay voted for Dina too. Mrs. Mike pointed out that maybe Dina didn’t have enough friends..because in the end, why wasn’t it Abby or Amanda? In fact, Abby lost less weight than Dina. But it probably came down to the fact that Dina had Rudy from the black team as her only “friend” here, and Daniel had more friends. That’s it, plain and simple.

So Dina, who had really feared going home, has gone from 253 to 188 pounds and is being inspired by her young son to keep it going. Good for her, and maybe she’ll contend for the $100K. Meanwhile, Daniel is still in it, and of course so is Tracy. Don’t think she won’t send ol’ Lizzie home the first chance she gets.

So what did you think of Dina’s elimination? I didn’t really think it was fair, but I admit I like Daniel and wanted to see him continue.

See you next week!