Last night on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” they showed O’Neal sweating it out as he was about to join the blue team, but did not know which blue team member was eliminated until they walked through the door one by one, with his daughter Sunshine being the last to enter the room. Of course, it makes you wonder why he didn’t ask one of the other blue teamers who was eliminated rather than to be left hanging like that. Naturally, O’Neal was thrilled that it was Miggy who was sent home and not Sunshine.

Host Allison Sweeney then told the teams that they would be working real jobs this week. They had limited workout time because they would be bused to the Feed America food bank to work, having to pack their lunch and everything, to simulate what it would be like once they get home.

But before this, they had the main challenge of the day, which was to literally pull blue and black colored semi trucks, picking up puzzle pieces along the way to spell out “The Biggest Loser,” and the winning team won a year’s worth of groceries. The blue team, however, has big dudes with one woman (Sunshine), while the black team has one dude (Sam) and five women, some of which are small-ish at this point, at least compared to the guys. Still, the black team made it closer than you would expect, but the blue team ultimately won.

Then they showed the contestants at work, including about 10 or 12 shots of Michael falling asleep on the bus. A dude named Big Steve came into the lunchroom to talk to them, asking for tips on how he could lose weight. Hopefully they have him slated for next season already, because dude needs it. Then Sam pretended to forget his lunch, prompting a product placement visit to a nearby Subway for Sam and Stephanie.

Then after fast-forwarding through the last chance workouts (sorry NBC), it was time to watch the weigh in. It was at this point that Mrs. Mike and I realized who Michael looks like with his bandana and big bushy hair….Richard Simmons. Dude was ready to sweat to the oldies right then and there.

The blue team went first, leading off with O’Neal, who lost 5 pounds. Sunshine lost 7, Michael 9, and Koli 10. Koli has now lost a whopping 97 pounds! Daris lost 9 and Lance 10, giving the blue team a 50 pound weight loss this week, or 2.71%.

The black team needed more than 38 pounds of weight loss to win, and they led off in good shape with Andrea losing 7 pounds and Ashley 8. Cheryl was next and lost 5, and her pal Sherry also lost 5 pounds. Stephanie was next and lost 3, and it was up to Sam to bring it home, and he needed most than 10 pounds. Dude looks pretty thin and muscular, so I don’t think anyone thought he could do it…and he didn’t losing just 4 pounds. That gave the black team 32 pounds of weight loss, or 2.27%.

The black team then deliberated a bit, and Andrea asked them all how far they were from their goal weight. Sam was pretty close, but some of the others were too. They were talking about Sam and Cheryl, but I couldn’t understand why no one mentioned Stephanie, who lost the least amount of weight this past week.

At the voting, Sam voted for Cheryl, and so did Stephanie. Cheryl voted for Stephanie (there ya go!), Sherry voted for Sam….and then, Ashley voted for Cheryl, giving her enough votes to go home. See ya Cheryl!

Overall, Cheryl has gone from 227 pounds to 164 and is doing great at home. And the blue team still looks pretty dominant, but we’ll see how that all plays out. These producers like to change things up, so it’s only a matter of time before they make them go back to two-person teams again.

What do you all think? I think Stephanie dodged a bullet, to be honest. See you next week!

It’s getting testy on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” After last week’s challenges and weigh in, it’s clear that Michael is watching his back, as are Miggy and Migdalia. Meanwhile, Lance and Melissa are still liars, and nobody likes a liar.

As many of these episodes do, this one began with a pop challenge. But unlike most of the pop challenges, this one came with a prize of immunity at the weigh in. It also came with the power to assign various penalties to the other teams. For the challenge, they would each run the “presidential” mile around campus, and as they completed each lap, would insert a card into a slot that would either show a green check or a red x. Each check was a point, and the first team with three points won. As it went on, you got the feeling the red team was going to win…..I mean, we could all just feel it. And sure enough, they did. So in addition to immunity, they got to open three cards, each of which represented a penalty the red team could pass on to the other teams–no access to the gym, no elimination vote, and a 2 pound disadvantage at the weigh in. They gave the first one to John, since he did well working out in a pool anyway; the second one to Michael, since he was angry at some of the others after they accused him of loafing it; and finally, they gave the 2 pound disadvantage to the green team, who are angry and bitter even without that kind of pressure.

Then, after hearing about the crazy pop challenge, Bob and Jillian were pissed and then wanted to clear the air with Lance and Melissa, since they had called Melissa a liar at last week’s weigh in. But while Bob tried hard to accept that maybe they weren’t lying, Jillian couldn’t accept it, prompting Lance to say to Jillian, “I have no respect for you.” Awesome! But Jillian pointd out that even with immunity this week, Melissa would likely “miraculously” figure out how to lose a few pounds. The problem here, too, is that everyone on the ranch and everyone in TV land knows these two are liars and that Melissa was playing the game the last two weeks.

The next challenge was for each team to get on platforms and lift themselves 120 feet in the air. The winning team would receive phone calls from home, and they would also assign phone calls from home to three other teams. The gray team barely edged out the red team, and gave the other calls to the red team (much to the dismay of most of us), the bitter green team, and to John of the brown team. Say what you will about some of these contestants, the guys in gray are truly good people, and it’s hard not to root for them.

Then after a Subway product placement with Bob taking everyone for sandwiches, he then told them that their last chance workout would be an uphill climb, literally…up and down a mountain and back to the ranch, and then they would have to endure more of a workout from Jillian.

Before the weigh in, Miggy called Melissa out for gameplay, and of course Melissa denied that. Liar! Anyway, Lance and Melissa weighed in first and lost 6 and 11 pounds, respectively. Well, duh! Even with immunity, Melissa knew she had to save face a bit. Michael went next and lost 15 pounds to raise his total weight loss to 70 pounds so far, down from 526 to 456. Next up, the black team of Drea and Darrell, who lost 5 and 10 pounds, 2.37% and not enough for safety.

Next was the orange team….Cheryl and Daris each lost 6, or 2.38%. The pink team of Ashley and Sherry lost 7 and 4 pounds, for 2.11% and below the yellow line for the moment. Next was John, who lost 10 pounds, or 2.29%. Sam and Koli of the gray team lost a whopping 14 and 12 pounds, for a 3.78% mark and first place. Stephanie lost 6 pounds, or 2.54%. Finally, the green team weighed in, and lost 4 and 1 pound. With the 2 pound disadvantage, that meant 3 pounds total, or 0.67%. Jillian cited stress (i.e. bitterness) as the culprit, and Melissa was quick to point out that they would have been below the yellow line even without a 2 pound penalty. To which Migdalia replied, “Shut up!” Ha!

So Miggy and Migdalia pleaded their case to the other teams, but it as more like Migdalia demanding that everyone send her home. She wanted to see her family, because her husband is on his way to Afghanistan soon, but she said it to everyone in an angry, obnoxious way.

The red team voted for Miggy, because they felt she was the drama queen of the house (um, I’m thinking something about a pot and a kettle here). Orange, pink and Stephanie all voted for Migdalia, but the gray team as well as John voted for Miggy to even the vote. That left it up to the black team, and they decided to, reluctantly, honor Migdalia’s wishes and send her home. But everyone wanted to know why she couldn’t have asked them nicely. Exactly!

So Migdalia went home, with her baggage (literally)….and has lost 46 pounds so far, down from 265 to 219. Somehow, I don’t think she’s going to keep this up. There is just too much stress, drama and bitterness that is going to interfere with her weight loss plans. But we’ll see.

What do you all think of the drama? Much more than last season already…and it’s reminiscent of Vicki and Brady from a few seasons ago. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

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!

Anyway, with DVRs creeping into more and more households, advertisers (and television producers) are getting more and more aggressive with their product placement since they know many of their viewers are simply skipping the commercials. It’s a fine line between having reasonable and distracting product placement. If the CSI unit pulls up in a Toyota truck, that’s okay, but what the folks on “Eureka” are doing is ridiculous.

This season, “Eureka” started a joint campaign with Degree deodorant to shoehorn its logo into (seemingly) every episode. Most recently, there was the episode where Sheriff Carter kept living the same day over and over and, you guessed it, he kept pulling a stick of Degree out of his medicine cabinet. And it’s not like the stick is just sitting there in the background. The first time he pulled it out, we were treated to a two- or three-second closeup… of a stick of deodorant! Then there was the episode where Zane was working in his lab and Fargo came to him with a favor. Mysteriously, there was a stick of Degree sitting on Zane’s desk. Once again, we were treated to an inexplicable closeup. Later in the same episode, there was a scene in a larger room and in the background there were metal crates with the Degree logo on the side.

When does it stop? The shoehorning of the Degree logo into every episode has become a joke between me and my wife, and we’re seriously considering dropping the show from our watchlist because the product placement is so cheesy and distracting. Moreover, I’m actually less likely to buy Degree deodorant because the product is ruining a good show.

And I’m not alone in this. TV Guide’s website posted a jeer from one of its readers.

Jeer to Eureka, one of my favorite shows, for indulging in product placement. This season, the producers apparently came to an agreement with the makers of Degree deodorant to display their logo at every opportunity. Not only is it disappointing, but it is annoying, and distracting to deal with in an otherwise quality show.

In the associated poll, 45% agreed with the jeer, 15% disagreed, while 40% said it was a “Jump the Shark” moment.

In total, 85% of respondents find the product placement distracting. So is it worth those extra advertising dollars if you’re irritating 85% of your audience?

Doubtful.