Then they brought out Ron and Mike to see who America voted into the final 3…..both looked awesome but Mikey clearly lost more than Ron, at least to the naked eye. We’re all sick of their gameplay, but you have to hand it to them on doing a great job. And, drum roll please….America voted Mikey in! Many of us were pulling for Ron because we didn’t want to give him what he wanted, but I think in the end everyone saw a Mike-Helen-Tara final as more compelling.

Then a new twist as they brought out two potential contestants from next season, Erinn and Amanda, who looked like they could be twins. America would vote throughout the show on who they wanted on the show. Mrs. Mike said was everyone was thinking…just let them both on!

Then it was time to start bringing out each contestant in sets of four to weigh in. First, Estella and Jerry, the oldest two people ever on the show; and Damien and Nicole. Estella lost 83 pounds, or 34.3%, but Jerry shocked everyone by losing a whopping 177 pounds, or 47% of his original weight of 369. Wow. Dr. H was on hand and went on and on about how Jerry was as healthy as he’s ever been after battling many diseases and conditions early on. Good for him! Damien lost 136 pounds and Nicole 123, but neither was good enough to overtake Jerry. Nicole however is now fitting into a Size 8 wedding dress as she had hoped!

Then came Sione and Filipe, Carla and Joelle. Sione and Filipe were asked to do their hilarious “oonga boonga” Hawaiian dance, before weighing in. Both of them are inspiring the rest of their pork rind-eating family at home. Sione lost 146 pounds and Filipe 135, great numbers but not good enough to take the lead. Carla and Joelle appear to have made up, and both looked really good. Carla lost a stunning 128 pounds, and Joelle, the slacker of the two, lost 80 pounds but looked like she lost more.

Then came Blaine and Dane, as well as Mandi and Aubrey. Blaine lost 116 pounds and Dane 154 (he started at 412!), and both have been running marathons with regularity. Good for them. But they didn’t lose as much percentage as Jerry. Mandi lost 92 pounds and Aubrey only 55, but Aubrey went on about how tough it is being a mom and keeping herself on track, and gave a shout out to all the moms out there to keep on keeping on.

Seven left….next up, Cathy and Kristin, David and Dan. Cathy looked great but Kristin looked amazing, despite her platinum blonde, Pink-esque hair style. Yikes. Cathy lost 95 pounds and Kristin lost (wait for it…) 167 pounds! While Kristin has also become a great motivational speaker back home, and while she went from 360 pounds to 193, it wasn’t enough to pass Jerry. David lost 43 pounds, the lowest percentage among everyone last night, but hey, it’s something. Dan, the heaviest contestant ever at 454 pounds, lost 142 pounds, down to 312, and looks amazing. Let’s hope he keeps after it. But hey, still nobody has surpassed Jerry!

Next up, Laura, Shannon, and Ron. Laura looked awesome, but let’s face it…she was sent home after a bad hip injury so was at a bit of a disadvantage. Laura lost 86 pounds. Shannon, Helen’s daughter who everyone but Helen feels bad for about Helen sending her home too early, lost 92 pounds…not bad at all, but not good enough. So it was down to turkey man (thanks Chris) Ron…..he looked great but to me, not 50% great. Still, Ron lost 192 pounds, down from 430 to 238. Wow. But, Jerry took the $100K at-home challenge crown! Jerry, the 64-year-old man who collapsed at the start of the season, who battled through all that as well as leaving the show around Week 2. Wow wow wow, is all I have to say. What an amazing story.

Mrs. Mike pointed out that with Joan Rivers winning the “Celebrity Apprentice,” that old people were having the “Best Week Ever” (thanks VH-1). Then they showed the winner and runner-up from the Australian version of “The Biggest Loser.” Wow, this show has gone global? And they announced that Amanda won the spot on next season’s show.

Then it was on to the big weigh in between Helen, Tara and Mikey. Mikey was brought out first because he was already introduced earlier. Then Helen, who looks amazing but whose saggy arm flab was almost touching the ground. Then Tara came out, and Mrs. Mike and I held our breath, because for whatever reason Tara didn’t look like a winner. Since Tara won an amazing 12 challenges and never fell below the yellow line, she was able to choose the order of the weigh-in…it would be Helen, Mikey and her. Helen lost 140 pounds, down from 257 to a stunning 117. Damn….117? I think I could pick her up with one hand by her arm flab. Anyway, that was good for 54.47%. Uh-oh. Who would top that? Mikey went next, losing 207 pounds, down from 388 to 181, but just short at 53.35%. Uh-oh. But hey, Godfather Turkey Man and Turkey Son didn’t win anything! Then Tara…..everyone held their collective breath….and she lost 155 pounds, down from 294 to and awesome 139…..but sadly, not good enough to beat Helen, or even Mike.

Helen was crowned the Biggest Loser. Mrs. Mike threw something at the TV, and I hoped that Helen would share her $250K with Shannon. But she probably won’t. So this season, your Biggest Loser is a 47-year-old mom from Michigan who was a somewhat quiet, tequila swilling gameplayer the whole time. Let’s see what kind of role model she is for America and the world.

So that’s it…read here tomorrow as I’m taking part in a conference call with Helen today and we’ll have a recap and see if anyone gives her a hard time about Shannon! Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what you all think of this outcome. Thanks for reading!

Anyway, the contestants went through the process of choosing their trainer as if it was a life and death decision. At least that’s what these lovely producers of the show wanted to portray. I realize Jillian has a winning track record and Bob is the nice guy, but come on. Tara, Mike, Laura and Helen all chose Jillian while Kristin, Filipe, Sione, Ron and Aubrey chose Bob.

Then came the first part of this week’s challenge, in which the contestants had color coded blocks representing how much weight they had each lost. They had to take those blocks and put them on the post representing a competitor. Not surprisingly, everyone wanted to add pounds to Tara, who lost double digit weight for like the first ten weeks, and wins every single individual challenge there is. Her, and Helen, who many of them do not like because she sent her daughter Shannon home a few weeks back. Mrs. Mike doesn’t like Helen either, and I can’t stand Tara.

Anyway, Tara was offended by the fact that they were all gunning for her. Um, what the hell does she expect? That everyone will acknowledge that she beats them every week and they should just let her continue and just win this thing going away? Come on Tara, that’s ridiculous. Anyway, she almost walked off the show and I was really hoping she would, but Laura talked her into staying.

The second half of the challenge was a a speedway with NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer there for some Cheerios product placement. Each contestant had to pull a race car around the track once. Yikes. But they had to do it with the amount of weight from the first challenge added to their car. Most of them had amounts like 10, 20, 50 pounds…but Tara had 257 pounds and Helen 215. Ha! But of course, Tara won. She was inspired and fueled by everyone not liking her, and she won the stupid race, beating Mike and Sione by a wide margin. Ugh…so Tara won immunity, which means I have to endure her at least one more week. Of course, she gloated in the win, and I can’t say I blame her for that.

Then came the weigh in, and it was a grueling 30 minutes of television. Tara went first, needing 4 pounds to reach 100 pounds of weight loss and be the first woman on the show to do so. She lost 3, and I did a little dance in my head. Then Kristin went next, and she lost 8, putting her over the 100 pound mark, making her the first female on the show to lose 100 pounds at the ranch. Good for her. Aubrey lost 4, Mike 6, Laura 7, Helen 5, Sione 7, Ron 10 and Filipe 4. Ron didn’t enjoy his big number because at the time it put his son Mike below the yellow line. But Filipe’s 4 pounds put him and Aubrey below the line.

In the dorm, Filipe and Aubrey stated their case to stay, and the other contestants were not sure of who they wanted to vote off. They both needed to be there, and Filipe is liked a bit more by most of them, but he is more of a threat to win it all. In the end, it was Aubrey who went home, and Ron had the deciding vote, saying that she needed to go home and work with her dad Bryce, who they showed recently as being over 500 pounds. Okay, I can accept that.

They showed Aubrey going home but struggling in her first few weeks, in fact gaining 9 pounds, but then her family adjusted to her spending time in the gym and she got back on track. For all of the twists and turns on this show, the one thing that is sobering is that it’s a reality show and that the reality is when these folks go home, they face incredible challenges that all of us face when trying not to gain weight. For showing us that, I applaud them. But stop with the crazy rules! And stop letting Tara win every challenge! Oh, but they won’t stop. Next week some former contestants are being allowed back in. Ugh!

Rant over, week over, and it’s on to “American Idol” for this blogger….

The show began with the contestants at Rocco DiSpirito’s cooking school, and they had to compete by cooking healthy variations on fast food….burgers, Mexican food and pizza. But they had to make those items taste good. The black team won, and their prize was being cooked dinner by Rocco, with the blue team having to clean up after them. Then each member of the black team had to choose fortune cookies and one of them had the prize of an extra vote at the weigh in, and Laura won that.

Then they showed the blue team working out with Bob, but not at the ranch, in a boxing academy with none other than Sugar Ray Leonard. Man, that had to be cool. Sugar Ray taught them his “POWER” technique of competing: “Prepare, Overcome, Win Every Round.”

Then they showed Dr. H meeting with each contestant and telling them how great they are doing. Blah blah blah, but still great for all of them.

The main challenge last night was at the Los Angeles Food Bank, and the teams had to assemble food in crates and then load them onto a truck. The first team to 150 crates won, and what they won was free groceries for a year, a huge prize considering the cost of food today. The black team had an advantage by one person, and so they chose Laura to sit out.

Of course, since the black team has Tara, they won. Aubrey really wanted the prize for her family of seven, and when Mikey offered his share of the prize to her because he’s a college student and doesn’t need it as much, Aubrey and everyone else were really touched.

At the last chance workout, Jillian was really riding Laura, and still feels Laura is not giving it 100% or more. She threw Laura under the bus, wondering why the black team had let her sit out the challenge while Sione was injured and Helen is twice her age. Tara defended Laura, but admitted Jillian was right too.

At the weigh in, of course host Alison Sweeney announced another curveball. They would all weigh in together, and if the entire bunch of them lost 77 pounds or more, no one would be going home. But if they lost less than that, a member from each team would be voted off. I hate the curveballs, but I like the message….there is less gameplay if they are all weighing in together. So on they went, and my TiVo was drawing closer to the 2-hour mark, making me think that they were going to make it. Helen lost 5 pounds, Mandi 8, Sione 3, Aubrey 8, Laura 7, Ron , Tara 11 (please, are you as annoyed by here as I am? Will she soon be a speck on our TV, literally?), Kristin 9 pounds, Filipe 8, Cathy 3, and Mikey ? Mikey had to lose 10 or more pounds to keep everyone on the ranch, but right as they were about to weigh him, those dreaded three words came across the TV screen…”To Be Continued.” You know, you don’t take 2 hours of someone’s life (1.25 hours without commercials) and then make us wait till next week. Ugh. But that’s reality TV for you, and that’s why “The Biggest Loser” sometimes pisses me off.