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!

Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” featured another surprise for the contestants–a trip to New Zealand. And the show featured a bit of everything. The first thing they had to do when the arrived was to climb up the famed tower in Auckland and either decide to take the stairs back down or jump off using bungee style wires. I don’t know about you, but I was getting the willies just watching that. Moses and Rulon were not allowed to do it based on their weight, and Jay because of a heart condition, but everyone else was eligible and chose to do it with the exception of Ken. Ken was terrified of heights, but Bob Harper said he would do it if Ken did, and Bob was equally afraid. But the both did it. But hell, I still wouldn’t!

Then they showed Moses telling Bob that his dad went to college in New Zealand, helping his family move to the US for a better life, Bob gave Moses his cell phone to call the dad. Pretty cool but way too fluffy a story. Then they showed Ken and trainer Cara fighting because Ken felt he needed more from Cara in the way of getting in his face and being more like Bob and Jillian. Ouch. But Cara was really indignant and defensive, just like most New Yorkers are (I am from there, I can say that!). But they kissed and made up.

Then the contestants did an America’s Cup style race on a sailboat with another boat of people we didn’t know…who were those people anyway?

Then the contestants had a 5K race on the beach, which looked grueling because of creeks and sand dunes. The blue team won, and their prize was a helicopter ride and a lunch on an island. Irene and Olivia gave their prize to Kaylee to let her enjoy the prize with her dad. This really is a great bunch of people this season, and that’s been evident since they broke up the red and black teams.

After a last chance workout featuring Cara getting in Ken’s face, it was time to weigh in.

Olivia went first and lost 2 pounds, Irene lost 3 and Moses lost zero. Uh-oh. Jay GAINED 2, Rulon lost 7 and Hannah lost 4; and despite Jay’s gain, Rulon and Hannah kept them safe this week. Kaylee GAINED 4 pounds. Yikes. But Austin lost 8 and Ken lost 6, keeping the green team safe as well. So it was blue, and Irene had immunity as she lost the most weight on her team. It was down to Olivia and Moses.

When they pleaded their case to the others, Olivia spoke about being 35 and married for 13 years without being able to have children, and that struck a chord with Moses, who loves his family so much that he asked everyone to vote him off. I wonder if Olivia knew that Moses would relent and used that card. Hmmmm. But anyway, everyone but Kaylee voted for Moses and he was sent home.

But Moses has gone from 440 pounds down to 273, a loss of 167. Awesome! He also flew back to New Zealand with his dad and bungee jumped. Good for him!

So now we’re down to 8 and I think they are going back to singles next week. Man, this show gets confusing. But there you have it. See you all next week!

I have to ask as I do occasionally. Does “The Biggest Loser” HAVE to be two hours long every week? Last night, I swear, there were commercials between each contestant’s weigh in. Well, not really, but between every team for sure…..and there was just so much fluff and stalling for time, while this show could have been easily 90 minutes long and maybe even one hour. But thankfully I watched it on DVR delay and skipped the crazy amounts of commercials.

They began with a challenge, where the contestants had to walk a mile and place a flag on where they thought was the exact spot that constituted one mile. There were markers all over the place, but they had to put a flag on the marker they thought was the mile marker. They also only had 15 minutes to do so. The winning team won a night of luxury in Hollywood, while the other three teams had to clean the campus. It was sort of like a “Hell’s Kitchen” type prize and penalty. Well, the black team of Hannah, Jay and Rulon won…even after Hannah’s complaining the whole way that they were approaching the challenge wrong. Ha!

Then Jillian had a chat with Rulon about the fact that he scarfed down a bag of chips late at night and was caught on camera. Dude feels like he deserves something like that after working so hard, but dude…..eat like that when you’re not trying to win a quarter of a million dollars! Jillian told him so but was not mean about it whatsoever.

Then after showing the black team out on the town and a lengthy last-chance workout, it was time to weigh in. Hannah went first and lost 4 pounds, while Jay lost 6 and Rulon 7.

The blue team went next and Olivia lost 2, Moses 7 and Irene 6–they had to lose 14 to stay in contention and they lost 15. So they were all safe while the black team was not.

The green team was next–Ken lost 4 pounds, but Kaylee lost just 1 pound and Austin 2. Uh-oh. The black team was safe and the green team was not with only Courtney of the red team to weigh in. She had to lose only 2 pounds to stay at the ranch, and with Brett working her like crazy, that was very likely. But she has struggled the last few weeks to lose more than 2-3 pounds. So then………wait, there is a commercial…..okay we’re back……Courtney lost 1 pound. Yikes. So she was automatically eliminated and the green team was safe.

Courtney was totally cool about it…..saying she was mentally prepared and could easily do this at home along with her mom, who was eliminated a few weeks ago. But this also meant Brett’s season was over. But Bob, Jillian and Cara were all standing there with their mouths open, and Bob was clearly angry. Hey, she lost fair and square, so I don’t know what the big deal was about–there was no gameplay at all. But they were upset because Courtney still has a long way to go while some contestants, like Kaylee and Hannah, appear to have reached their goals.

So Courtney went home and announced that she has lost 113 pounds since starting her journey on the show–but she also lost over 100 pounds before she even stepped foot on campus, because the show had inspired her so much at home. So she is now down to 210 pounds and I, for one, am so happy for Courtney. But what’s more, since her parents own a Dairy Queen franchise and she works there, Courtney brought in a regional rep and is trying to help change the DQ menu to include some healthy options. Good for her! And good for DQ for the product placement that provided.

So we’re down to three teams and nine contestants altogether. And wow, Brett’s red team were eliminated clean-sweep style the last three weeks. Too bad for him, but that’s how the tortilla chip crumbles (sorry, Rulon!). Thanks for reading and see you next week…

Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” was an interesting one with a lot going on. It began with Kaylee talking about how she felt bad about thinking she was ready to go home last week and throwing the weigh-in. Some of her fellow contestants, and especially her trainer Cara, were pissed. Kaylee’s dad Moses pointed out that he knew Kaylee was tired of the show’s gameplay, and that’s why she was ready to go home. Interesting.

Then they all walked into the gym and host Alison Sweeney was waiting for them. As Hannah said, that is never a good thing for them! Alison showed them all video from when they first were told they made it to the show. It was similar to “American Idol” where the contestants who made it were in a holding room in a hotel conference area, and Ali walked in to let them know if they were in or out. But while 11 teams made it, Alison spoke about the 12th team that did not—mother and son Leanne and Vance. And she showed footage where she had told the “white team” that they could earn their way onto campus in midseason. So here they were, but they had to have surpassed the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss currently on the show, who was Kaylee with 25.32% Vance weighed in first, and he had begun at 379 pounds, which meant he had to lose about 90 pounds to grab a spot on campus. He lost 30 pounds, so was way off. Leanne began at 315 and lost 45 pounds, which was great but not nearly good enough. Okay, so that was that. But both were told they were still eligible to win the “at-home” prize of $100K.

Then it was time for the initial challenge, which was for the teams to balance colored balls on a flat board of wood, and carry them as a team about 30 feet to a bucket. The first team to 10 balls won a 1-minute advantage in the main challenge, and the losing team would have to spend a week off campus. The green team won, with black coming in second. So it was down to blue and red, and blue barely won, meaning the red team of Jen and Courtney lost. So Alison let them know that they had a $1000 budget to be spent on various things during the week. They would be staying at a posh resort in Ojai Valley, but had budget items such as doing their own grocery shopping/cooking or having a personal chef, gym membership, personal training, and perks like meal at a restaurant or having a massage. The trainer cost $200 per day, so they knew they couldn’t have Brett for five days, but could have him for one or two days. But instead, they chose to cook at home, have a gym membership and then dine out one night and also get massages. Brett, of course, was pissed and concerned that they chose luxuries over him. But Courtney claimed that that was all Jen’s decision.

Then it was time for the main challenge, which was an Easter egg hunt, and involved a cross-promotion with the premiere of the movie “Hop.” Alison told them they would be participating in the mother of all Easter egg hunts, with 5000 eggs! They had to grab eggs in a field of their respective colors, and put them in cartons. The green team had a one minute head start, and one person would find a golden egg that had some special distinction. Oh, and the winner would be able to walk the red carpet for the theater premiere of “Hop.” Olivia found the gold egg, and then the green team won, followed by red, black and blue. They all got a private screening of the film, and after that it was time for the last chance workouts. Blah blah blah. But wait, the golden egg….Olivia won the only vote this week, but it only applied if her team wasn’t the losing team weighing in.

So the blue team weighed in first, and Olivia lost 4 pounds, while Irene lost 3 and Moses lost 7 (getting him down to 293!). The green team was next—Ken lost 6, while Austin lost 7 and Kaylee 5. That made the green team safe. Next was the blue team—Jay lost 6, Rulon 5, but Hannah lost 0 pounds. Game play? Very possibly, because her sister had the only vote this week and Hannah knew she was safe. Hmmm.

Then the red team went, and had to lose more than 5 pounds combined to be safe. Courtney lost 2 pounds, and Jen (who just HAD to have that elegant meal and massage) lost 0 pounds. Wow. But here was the kicker….with just 2 team members, and with the person with the highest percentage of weight loss on the losing team had immunity, that meant that the other person was automatically eliminated. That person, of course, was Jen, and to her credit, she didn’t get sad, just inwardly angry at herself for not choosing to have Brett train them for a day or two.

So Jen, who lost 91 pounds on campus, was shown at home, and overall she’s gone from 278 pounds down to 173—a 105-pound weight loss.

There you have it…since Justin went home last week and Jen this week, Courtney is now Brett’s only member left. And if she gets booted off last week, Brett is supposedly done for the season as well. What do you think about how things went down? Let me know in the space below and we’ll see you back here next week….

One of the best parts of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC is that they bend the rules, often. So even when someone is eliminated, it’s not always forever. And last night they brought back one of the eliminated contestants.

The show began with host Alison Sweeney meeting the contestants in the gym, and then screwing with any remaining team chemistry again. They would be broken into four teams of three, and each would train with one of the four trainers. Each would draw randomly a color that represented a trainer, starting with the person with the highest percentage of weight loss to date, Justin. He wound up with the red team, training with Brett. And here is how it went down–Brett’s red team was Justin, Jen and Courtney; Cara’s green team was Austin, Ken and Kaylee; Bob’s blue team Moses, Irene and Olivia; and Jillian’s black team was Rulon and Hannah. Um, wait. That team was one person short, but Alison announced that Rulon and Hannah could choose from any eliminated contestant and bring them back into the game and onto their team. Would it be Arthur? Jay? Q? More on that in a bit.

First, they showed each trainer taking their respective team somewhere to work out–Bob took his team to Crunch gym for a spin class he’s been teaching there since 1997; Jillian took Rulon and Hannah to her beach house in Malibu; Brett took his group on a hike; and of course, Cara took her team boxing–including making Austin spar with someone from the gym. That was pretty cool.

Then it was time for the main challenge, and at this point the black team had to announce who they were bringing back–and it was Jay. Jen, of course, was giddy, even though Jay would not be on her team. Jay would also be immune this week, so his weight loss would not count for the black team. The challenge was for the teams to hold up the amount of weight they have lost to date with ropes, and letting go would drop water onto flames and put out the fire for that respective team. The winning team would receive video chats with their families. The green team went out first, followed by the black team. So it was down to blue and red. Justin had to let go, but kept coaching Jen and Courtney. Meanwhile, Moses let go and could only encourage Irene and Olivia. But in the end, the blue team let go and the red team won. But before they could use their prize, they gave their prize to the blue team–because Jen’s dad is back, and Courtney’s mom just left last week, and because Justin is, as Courtney said, “a good guy.” That was very cool of them.

Then after I forwarded through the boring last-chance workouts, it was time to weigh in. The losing team would lose one person, chosen from the two on their team with the lowest percentage of weight loss. That meant that the person with the highest percentage on each team would be immune. But this time, the players on the team not up for elimination would do the voting. Hmmm, interesting.

The black team went first, and Jay was first to weigh in since he was immune. He lost 7 pounds. Hannah lost 4 and Rulon 5.

The blue team was next–Moses lost just 3, Irene 5 and Olivia 5. And they were all safe.

Next was the red team, and Jen lost 4; Courtney lost 3 and Justin lost 2. Yikes. They were now at the bottom, which made the black team safe.

Finally, it was the green team, and Kaylee announced that she had discussed with Ken and Austin that she was ready to go home, and that they had agreed to all fall on the sword together for her. But of course, her team would not be voting, so who knows if her plan would work. And why does she want to go home, anyway? I have my theories, but I probably shouldn’t share them here.

So Kaylee lost 0 pounds, which was no surprise. But Austin lost 3, which made you think that maybe he wasn’t going along with the plan. Then Ken, who had to lose 6 pounds to keep his team safe, lost 7 pounds! It was clear gameplay, and Kaylee was devastated. But Ken said something like, “We can’t choose when we go home,” but Alison snapped back at him, “This is not a prison!” Then Alison told Kaylee that she could go home if she wanted to–but of course, Moses talked her out of it.

So it was the red team up for elimination–and Jen had immunity on her team. That meant it would be Justin or Courtney. Of course, Justin pleaded with everyone to vote for him, because he was going to be selfless even if he wanted to stay. Courtney, though, also said she would not mind going home at this point, and Justin replied with, “No, you need to be here.”

So at the voting, Kaylee went first and voted for Justin. Rulon, Justin’s buddy who brought him here, voted for Courtney–but then everyone else voted for Justin, and he was heading home. You know, I bad-mouthed this dude a few weeks ago when he sent Arthur home, but Arthur was also the reason Jay went home. And these folks all seem to love Justin.

But that’s not even the whole story. Justin has gone from 365 pounds down to 225, and he was known on the ranch for calling people out and getting the most out of those around him. Well, he’s gone home and done the same thing to his friends–with T-shirts made up that Justin is “calling them out.” Pretty awesome.

So okay, now we’re down to 11, which makes me wonder how long this show is going to drag on for. It sure seems like it could last through half the summer. Anyway, it’s definitely getting interesting if anything. Thanks for reading and see you next week!