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” exposed who the Final Four would be, but not before some weird “final exams” administered by the trainers–Bob, Jillian, Cara and Brett. Of course, the prize was not weird–a cool $10K. They would have to show the trainers how much they learned by either showing them how to ride a spin bike, offering advice, boxing Cara, or answering questions about nutrition. The second part of that was that they would be competing in a Biggest Loser video game using their own avatars. Ha! Olivia won the overall challenge, edging out her sister Hannah by a hair.

The main challenge was stacking sandbags up colored flights of stairs or something (can you tell how much I actually watched this?). Austin won the challenge and had a 1-pound advantage at the weigh-in. Then, there was more final exam stuff–Brett took them all to Subway where they had to guess the exact calorie count of a sweet onion teriyaki sub. Hannah won that and a $500 Subway gift card.

Then came the last chance workout. Yeah, I forwarded through that too.

Then at the weigh-in, host Alison Sweeney offered Olivia a 1-pound advantage instead of the $10K she won, and offered Austin $10K instead of his 1-pound advantage. Naturally, Bob and Jillian tried to talk Olivia out of the $10K but she wouldn’t budge–and good for her. That’s a lot of money!

Then to the scale–Hannah was first and lost 4 pounds and was thrilled with that. Irene lost 5 though, and Jay lost 9. So Hannah was at the bottom. Olivia was next and lost 5. So she was ahead of Hannah but there was a chance the sisters would be below the yellow line together. Austin was next….and lost 1 pound. Ouch. So even his extra pound didn’t help him, and alas, he should have taken the money! But Olivia made the right choice.

Anyway, it was between Hannah and Austin, but almost a moot point because both Jay and Irene were close with Hannah throughout the competition, so it was bye-bye Austin.

So your final four–the sisters Hannah and Olivia; Irene, and Jay. Who would have picked this foursome, seriously? And that’s what makes the next two episodes so intriguing. By all accounts, Jay should win but he has shown weakness at times, so who knows. Irene has been a warrior after her mom was eliminated in Week 1. And the sisters have just been super consistent.

That’s it…we’ll see you all next week!

Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC was overshadowed again by “The Voice,” and that’s fine because it kept the show to one hour. It was also, finally, makeover week. “Project Runway’s” Tim Gunn rode in on a horse and buggy to the Biggest Loser ranch and announced that it was not only makeover week, but that he had two surprises.

So the five semi-finalists–Austin, Hannah, Olivia, Irene and Jay–were treated to makeovers, and most of them looked great. Hannah’s hair was dyed blonde and looked borderline hideous. Then they had their family members waiting for them back at the ranch for a celebration, including Gunn’s hiring of the band One Republic. Well, I know he didn’t actually hire them, but you get the drift.

Then they all met on the beach for their challenge, and host Alison Sweeney announced that they were giving away two Mazda 5 cars. To win, they had to dig through car-shaped sand castles and pull out a key, then run a 1/4 mile down the beach and pier to the cars and see if the key would work. Irene won after I think two tries, and then it took a long time for the next winner, who was Olivia.

Then after the last chance workout, it was time for the big weigh-in. Hannah was first and lost 2 pounds; Jay lost 3 and suddenly both of them looked like they were in trouble. Austin pulled a 7, Irene lost just 2 (but weighs in the 150’s) and Olivia lost 4. That brought Olivia to 100 pounds lost, and she had promised everyone that if she did that, she would sing on the scale (Olivia is an opera singer). But before that, they had to choose between Hannah and Jay to go home.

But wait…..Tim Gunn’s voice and image appeared and he told them all that he had that final surprise to announce–the erasure of the yellow line. No one was going home! That was awesome. But not as awesome as Olivia’s voice…holy crap. All of the contestants and trainers were open-mouthed and teary-eyed after that. Wow.

So that’s it…there are still five remaining and just a couple more episodes of the show to go. Next week we’ll reach the final four for real. See you then!

Don’t you just love it when reality TV hosts, judges and contestants are “shocked” at something obvious? I am exaggerating, sure, but not a whole lot when you think about how things went down on “The Biggest Loser” last night.

First of all, thanks to the show NBC is pimping hard, “The Voice,” which premiered last night, they chopped “The Biggest Loser” down to an hour, a way more reasonable amount of time to expect us to devote, DVR or not.

They began with host Alison Sweeney talking about it being “favorites” week, meaning former contestants would be returning for cameo appearances. First, Ali, a former champ, and Sam, a favorite from a few seasons ago who is now a trainer on the Biggest Loser Fitness Ridge ranch, led a workout and then showed the contestants some nutrition tips.

Then came the challenge, and it was a favorite from a few seasons ago, the car-pulling challenge. Guess who was back? Yep, Tara, the queen of challenges. First, NASCAR star Clint Bowyer showed up and then Ali announced that the prize for winning this challenge was to hang out in a sky box at a NASCAR race, and also getting their picture on the cover of a Wheaties box. Rulon said he didn’t get to be on a Wheaties box when he won his gold medal, so this was a shot at redemption. But to win, he’d have to beat Tara, who was competing against them.

It was a good race and actually was a photo finish between Rulon and Tara–and after review the winner was….Tara! Of course she won. Oh well.

Then it was time for the weigh-in and the promos kept promising something “shocking.” That announcement would come from Rulon, who announced he was leaving the show “for personal reasons.” Everyone was shocked, but I wasn’t. In fact, I had said to Mrs. Mike that I thought Rulon would be leaving. And considering Kaylee wanted to leave a few weeks ago, how shocking is it that this happened at all? Not very. So anyway, Rulon was out.

And now it was time for the weigh in, and someone else would be going home as well. Irene lost 3 pounds, bringing her weight loss to 101. Good for her. Kaylee GAINED 2 pounds, AGAIN. Yikes. Why does she keep fluctuating? Austin lost 7, Olivia 6, Jay 7 and Hannah 5.

So the bottom two were Irene and Kaylee. But with Hannah and Olivia being tight with Irene, and Kaylee having the lowest percentage of weight loss (errr, gain), Kaylee was doomed. And indeed, the sisters voted for Kaylee and Austin voted for Irene. So Kaylee lost, and this time was sent home against her will, though she didn’t seem too upset.

Kaylee has lost 68 pounds, and she also is now dating someone from the show, but no one you’d expect. It was Vance, who was part of the 13th “couple” who auditioned and just barely didn’t make the cut, but who along with his mom had the chance to join those on the ranch. Anyway, they are dating…good for them, another Biggest Loser courtship.

So that’s it folks….we’re now down to five–Irene, Olivia, Hannah, Austin and Jay…..all good people, so this should be interesting who makes the final four and who doesn’t next week.

One thing I noticed about this season of “The Biggest Loser” is that there are quite a few people, mostly the ladies, who have lost a ton of weight and look like athletes now. And fatter folks like Arthur, Jay (even though he’s back), Arthur and Q get voted off. Last night that happened again.

The episode began as the two teams were still in New Zealand, and this time they were in Queenstown, and also host Alison Sweeney announced that the contestants would be going to singles again. No more teams, not nearly as much gameplay. And since they were doing that, Brett the trainer was brought back. But he was brought back in a parachute. That was cool. But it was just a sign of things to come, as this episode featured a lot of extreme sporting challenges and workouts.

Kaylee and Hannah decided that they wanted to go jump off a cliff, and Cara reluctantly took them. Cara was terrified but the other two acted like it was the greatest thing ever, which, maybe it was, but yikes. Then Alison joined them all at the site of the first bungee jump, and after telling them all that they would riverboard for 25 miles as their challenge, Alison jumped. Wow, I wonder what the show’s attorneys thought about all of this.

Anyway, the riverboarding even looked really difficult, and there seems to be some tension growing among everyone except Rulon toward Rulon. He crept up to Olivia in the race, but Olivia held strong and won, with Kaylee second and Rulon third. Olivia’s prize was immunity, and a helicopter/lunch prize similar to Moses’ prize last week.

Then there was more extreme stuff–Brett took Jay and Austin mountain climbing, and Bob took Rulon and Irene bungee jumping. Then after some boring last chance workouts, it was time to weigh in.

Olivia went first and lost 4 pounds, but she was taken off the board as she had immunity. Jay was next and lost 5 pounds, followed by Irene with 4. Rulon went next and lost a whopping 10 pounds, and Austin lost 5. Ken lost 4, which wasn’t a lot for such a big dude, and Hannah lost 3, putting Ken and Hannah at the bottom with just Kaylee to weigh in. Kaylee lost 5, which to someone like Jay or Rulon would have been like 20. So it would be between Ken and Hannah.

Now, I thought for sure this would be a slam dunk that Hannah would go home, but it didn’t turn out that way. Austin of course voted for Hannah and Olivia voted for Ken. Irene then voted for Ken and Kaylee voted for Hannah. Then Jay voted for Ken, saying Hannah and Rulon kept him on the ranch one more week when he had a bad week. And even though it could be no worse than a tie, that also meant Ken was going home because he had the lowest percentage of weight loss between he and Hannah.

So there you go, another large man going home while a skinny girl stays on the ranch. For some reason, I’m going to be extremely annoyed if the final four is Kaylee, Irene, Hannah and Olivia. Honestly, I’m putting my money on Austin.

Anyway, Ken has gone from 377 pounds down to 238, a loss so far of 139 pounds. That’s remarkable and it appears he had a good shot at the at-home prize of $100K.

So now we are left with 7–Olivia, Hannah, Irene, Kaylee, Jay, Austin and Rulon. Kind of an odd final 7, don’t you think? Anyway, we’re barreling toward the finale, and I think next week as “The Voice” premieres, that this show will be a more realistic one hour instead of two. Whew.

That’s it, I’ll see you all next week!