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!

On NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” last night, the episode began with everyone (well mostly Shay) telling Tracy they didn’t trust her anymore. Tracy had told Shay she wouldn’t call her name to represent the orange team at the weigh in, but she went back on her word. Shay just wanted Tracy to admit that, but Tracy kept back-pedaling, making Shay and everyone in the house dislike her even more. Then, in a show of karma, Tracy met with Dr. H., who told her that she still could not participate in any workouts, not even walking, because of her strange muscle disorder that was causing her danger to her kidneys. Yikes. This had her teammate Coach Mo worried to say the least. Then trainer Bob Harper was telling a bunch of them that they should all fight to stay on campus, and not sacrifice for others the way the red team did last week.

Then came the next curveball. The kitchen would be locked up and off limits, meaning the contestants were going to order in every meal all week. This was a big test because they are all still learning how to eat right, and they were going to have less control over their meals but still needed to watch their calorie intake.

Host Alison Sweeney then pulled a pop challenge out. Each team would be shown three chicken meals cooked differently and with different side items, and they had to guess which one was the healthiest. The winning team would get a year’s worth of healthy groceries, a huge prize. It came down to pink, orange and brown who all guessed the correct dish. The tiebreaker was to guess the total calories in that meal without going over, and the pink team of Amanda and Rebecca won.

Then they showed them all ordering their dinners and having a tough time of it. We all know that feeling of not getting the right order upon arriving home, and this was magnified in the case of these contestants, and probably intentionally so for effect. Trainers Bob and Jillian then took the group out to a Mexican restaurant, a real test for them among tortillas and cheese and fried everything.

After this was the main challenge, in which each contestant (minus Abby and Tracy because of injury) had to hang on to handle bars while being suspended above a pool. They fell off in this order–Liz, Danny, Amanda, Rudy, Rebecca, Dina, Mo, Shay and Julio. That left firefighter Allen and last year’s returnee Danny. Dan won and his prize was immunity for both he and his teammate Shay.

During the last chance workout, Mo’s back gave out but he forged ahead after a pep talk from Bob. At the weigh in, Dan and Shay went first and Dan lost 0 pounds while Shay lost 5. Alison said “good strategy, Dan,” to which Dan said that it wasn’t intentional. Yeah, okay…you have immunity….no one believes you, dude. Green was next, with Abby and Allen losing 10 pounds, then the blue team of Rudy and Dina lost 16 (11 by Rudy). Liz and Danny lost 11, putting them in danger of elimination. Tracy and Mo lost 4 and 8, respectively, and you just have to wonder what the hell Tracy did to lose 4 pounds. Starve? Julio, the only member of his team, lost 4 pounds and also was in danger. Amanda and Rebecca went last and lost 9 pounds, which made them safe. Amanda went off again about America voting her in, and I’m just sick of hearing this….Amanda, it was filler for the finale last season, and America voted you in over one other person….get over yourself!

Anyway, it came down to the brown team of Liz and Danny, or Julio. At first Mrs. Mike and I thought it might be Julio because they would all want to vote off one person as opposed two. But some of them said a better strategy might be to send two people home. The votes began and when Julio received his third vote (after agonizing banter and crying), he was sent home.

They showed Julio, who started at 407 pounds, now weighing 299, so he’s lost 108! Nice job, dude. He also wants to lose 200 pounds total, so he has a ways to go.

So with Tracy still hanging around and gameplay beginning to rear its ugly head as it always does, the season moves on. I’m starting to think Dan could go all the way, because he’s been here before and knows what it takes, and he’s really determined.

What do you all think?

If you watch NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” regularly, you know that a few seasons ago, Vicky and Brady — well, mostly Vicky — were doing all they could to win the game, at times with no regard for teammates and housemates. It was all gameplay all the time. Last season big Ron did the same thing while appearing to be the gentle father figure. Well, the new season has its game-player, and it’s Tracy from the purple team. Yeah, the same Tracy who started the season in a hospital because she couldn’t breathe on her own after jogging a mile. We’ll get into all that soon..but meanwhile, here is your recap….

The contestants began with a challenge from host Alison Sweeney. Each team was offered the chance for a 2 pound advantage at the weigh-in in exchange for giving up the right to train with Bob and Jillian. If no one jumped, Alison was going to raise the stakes a pound or two to tempt them. At first, no one did jump, but then Tracy did, saying she didn’t want anyone else to have the advantage. The problem is, Coach Mo did not agree with Tracy’s decision and couldn’t say anything until it was too late. He, as her teammate, had to go along with it. As you can imagine, Bob and Jillian were pissed off beyond belief.

Then they showed Abby, who had recent X-rays on her knee, with Dr. Huizenga. Abby had a micro-fracture, meaning she could only work out in the pool for a bit and had to really focus on diet…there was then the obligatory product placement with Yoplait Light yogurt (note to those of you who are not sponsors….I love regular Yoplait yogurt, but that light stuff that has fake sugar is positively disgusting…just my 2 cents!).

Then on to the next challenge, another temptation, and this time with cupcakes. Whoever ate the most cupcakes would have control at the weigh-in….meaning, that person would choose which contestant from each team of two would weigh in for their team, with the other teammate’s weight not counting this week. Only two contestants did this…Antoine, who ate two cupcakes, and, yep, you guessed it…Tracy, who ate four. Tracy had this switch go off in her head that this is a game and decided she needed that control too badly despite the consequences–which were, the trainers being pissed off, again, and everyone else in the house hating her. Coach Mo was, needless to say, frustrated and pissed, but not nearly as pissed as Jillian, who more or less told Tracy she had no interest in helping her anymore.

Anyway, the main challenge was a physical one, and the winner of the challenge would give their team immunity. They had to choose between lugging 10 pound weights a short distance or 25 pound weights a longer distance, and the person who put in the most weight the fastest would have their team color’s flag raised. Allen won for the green team, great news for Abby since she could not participate in this one.

On to the last chance workout, and Bob was harping on Dina while Bob was doing the same to Amanda. Then Danny as well as Amanda and Rebecca decided to butter up Tracy and try to sway her vote on who would weigh in for their respective teams. Danny wanted her to choose him and not Shay, because he knew Shay might have a bad week and feared for her being eliminated. Meanwhile, Amanda has struggled to lose weight thus far and wanted Tracy to choose Rebecca.

At the weigh in, Tracy said something about regretting her decisions, to which Jillian promptly replied: “Tracy, you are full of shit!” Awesome.

Anyway, here is how the weigh in went, and keep in mind the losing team would be sent home, not just one person. The green team lost nine pounds, Allen 4 and Abby 5, but they were immune this week. Julio, the only remaining black team member, lost 7 pounds. Brown went next, with Liz and Danny each losing 4…Tracy had chosen Liz to count, but it didn’t matter. Blue was next, and Tracy chose Rudy over Dina, and Rudy lost 12 pounds to Dina’s 3. Backfire-age! Up next, pink…Tracy chose Amanda against the teams’ wishes, and Amanda lost 5 pounds to Rebecca’s 7. Next was the red team, and Tracy chose Sean, who lost 6 pounds to Antoine’s 11. This put them below the yellow line. Danny and Shay of the orange team were next, and of course the evil gameplayer Tracy chose Shay, but both of them lost 6 pounds. Still, this put them below the yellow line as well. The only team left was purple, meaning Tracy and Coach Mo. Tracy, amazingly, lost 11 pounds and Coach Mo just one pound. How did Tracy do it? Diet pills? I mean, she couldn’t have done that legally with no trainer, could she? As you might suspect, nobody clapped or cheered for Tracy.

So it was the red team and the orange team, but Antonie and Sean decided to sacrifice themselves and asked for everyone to vote for them to keep Danny and Shay on the ranch–mainly because they felt they had strong support systems back home while Shay did not. And that’s how the vote went, unanimously.

Back home, Sean has lost a whopping 120 pounds, down from 444 to 324, and Antoine lost 105, down from 367 to 262. Wow! Not only that, but remember the first contestant to be eliminated, Alexandra? She lived near Antoine, so he looked her up and now they are an item, working out and losing weight together. How cool is that?

So now we’re down to 13 contestants, 12 of which are pissed off at Tracy and don’t trust her. This is going to get interesting, just like the producers want it to. See you all next week!

For a change on last night’s episode of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” there was a happy ending. No gameplay, no formed alliances or ulterior motives…only the opportunity and the inspiration of having to all work together. And now that the contestants have scored a victory, as Mrs. Mike pointed out, the producers are going to find a way to mess with them again. What do I mean? Well, read on….

The episode began with some of the remaining hopefuls talking about sending Alexandra home in Week 1 and how bad they felt. Host Alison Sweeney gave them a proposition at that point, and said if they lost 150 pounds as a team in Week 2, no one would go home this week. If they failed to do so, however, two contestants would be sent packing. Cake, right? Not really, when you consider that Week 2 is notoriously a bounce back week where contestants typically lose 1-2 pounds or even gain weight. So as trainer Bob Harper admitted, this was a tall order.

But the contestants were determined and wanted to make this happen. Coach Mo (has there been a more likeable contestant on this show, ever?) rallied the troops as a good coach would, and enlisted the help of Danny, who had been through a Week 2 before, to let everyone know what they had to do.

Then Mo visited his teammate Tracy in the hospital, who was feeling much better and ready to return to the ranch the following day. They never tell us what is wrong or was wrong with her, though, and I’m not sure why. Back to the ranch, and in the gym Shay is noticing that Julio, who fended off elimination last week, is not working nearly as hard as everyone else.

Then to the initial challenge, where the contestants are at the California Health & Longevity Institute with celebrity chef Curtis Stone. Curtis gives them 7 tips for healthy cooking, after which they are quizzed. If they answered 5 of 8 of Alison’s questions correct, the contestants would get a 15 pound advantage at the weigh in. They got 5 right, but Mrs. Mike and I were annoyed that some of the multiple choice questions about calorie counts were too tricky. But they did it, and now only had to lose 135 pounds to keep everyone on the ranch.

Next came the main challenge, and the contestants were taken to a lake where they had to walk as a team on balance beams that got progressively thinner to reach platforms that represented prizes–5 pounds, 5 pounds, phone calls home and 10 pounds. If one of them fell in the lake, the game would be over for them all and they would only receive the points for whatever platform they last touched. In other words, this required ultimate teamwork. And while many of them were on the verge of falling in multiple times, they completed the whole thing. That meant calls home and 20 more pounds off their goal, which brought it down to 115. Bob and Jillian were not as happy as the contestants, and still wanted to work them extra-hard.

There was one funny (though I really shouldn’t laugh) moment….when Danny was talking about the fact that he wound up on this show because his young daughter said “Daddy, I want to have a big belly just like you!” Anyway, good for him that he’s doing something about it, but that was really funny how it came across.

Anyway, at the last chance workout, Bob pushed Julio like crazy, and then he and Jillian had a tug of war with Allen, which was pretty funny to watch.

Okay, on to the weigh-in. The pink team of Amanda and Rebecca went first and lost only 10 pounds, 4 and 6. They suddenly seemed worried that they let their team down. However, it got better. Mo and Tracy (purple) lost 19 pounds, and the red team of Antoine and Sean lost 19 as well. And it kept getting better. Abby and Allen (green) lost 21, Danny and Liz (brown) lost 22, and Dina and Rudy (blue) lost 22 as well.
That left them with 2 pounds to lose, and the orange team and Julio to weight in.

Uh-oh. Would Julio blow it? He couldn’t possibly have gained weight, could he? Well, no, he lost 19! That raised the weight to 132 lost, and now the contestants were thinking of reaching their original goal of 150 pounds. Shay and Danny (orange) weighed in, and lost 23 total pounds, bringing the overall total to 155. They did it, as a team, and there would be no elimination this week.

Wow, that was quite an effort by all of them, even Julio! But now we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. Who will be sent home next week, and how many of them? Everything is warm and fuzzy, but you just know that there is a big “bridge out” sign coming. I guess that’s what they need to do to keep us watching, so let’s see what’s in store.

See you next week, and thanks for reading!