Last night’s “Biggest Loser” finale on NBC was a true showdown of four contestants who really deserved to be there. No real game play was evident this season, anyone who started to play the game was swiftly eliminated by everyone else. Anyway, this was a live event, but they went through and showed each of their collective journey, especially how they all had to weigh in in front of their hometown friends and family at the start. This included the ubiquitous showing of Daris saying “I will do everything I can to make you proud,” in which he sounds like an overweight robot. I mean, the producers of this show love that clip so much, that you could seriously create a drinking game around every time they show it.

Anyway, host Alison Sweeney brought out Daris and Koli, because America held the vote that would send one of them to the Top 3 and one of them back into the “at home” competition. You may remember that Daris slipped last week, overeating when he was home and training for the marathon. I thought for sure Koli would win based on that, but America had sympathy and voted for Daris. Maybe it was all a ploy by Daris? Hmmm. But either way, it would be Daris vs. Ashley and Mike for the title of The Biggest Loser. And Koli, who came out all fired up, was reduced to almost whimpering.

Then after showing former winners such as Danny, Bill and Erik, it was time for one of last season’s fiercest competitors, Shay, to weigh in for her Subway challenge. You may remember Subway enlisted her to win $1000 for every pound she lost from December up until now. Shay looks great, and she lost another 52 pounds for $52K! But then Jared from Subway came out and challenged Shay again, saying she and him would train for a marathon, and when completed, Subway would double that money. Wow. But that was awesome.

Okay, time to what we came here for. To see everyone and how much weight they’d lost. Here is how it broke down:

Cherita lost 91 pounds, down from 277 to 186
Victoria lost 136 pounds, down from 358 to 222
Sherry lost 99 pounds, down from 218 to a stunning 119 (current leader)
Maria lost 114 pounds, down from 281 to 167
Patty lost 73 pounds, down from 243 to 170
Stephanie lost 99 pounds, down from 264 to 165
James lost 128 pounds, down from 485 to 357
John lost 149 pounds, down from 484 to 335
Melissa lost 90 pounds, down from 233 to 143
Lance lost 128 pounds, down from 365 to 237
Migdalia lost 52 pounds, down from 265 to 213
Miggy lost 91 pounds, down from 240 to 149
O’Neal lost 159 pounds, down from 389 to 230

Sunshine lost 114 pounds, down from 275 to 161
Darrell lost 189 pounds, down from 413 to 224 and he took the lead from Sherry
Drea lost 84 pounds, down from 298 to 214
Cheryl lost 76 pounds, down from 227 to 151
Sam lost 142 pounds, down from 372 to 230
And finally Koli lost 215 pounds, down from 403 to 188, and he took the at-home prize from Darrell, with a 53.34% weight loss

Koli was asked by Alison what he was thinking, and he said, “I just want to go home with my family.” Yikes…..that’s all he could muster? He’d just won $100K!

So then it was time for the big showdown between Daris, Ashley and Mike. Daris went first, and lost 168 pounds, down from 346 to 178 for 48.55%. Ashley was next and lost 183 pounds, down from 374 to 191 for 48.93%. Both of them looked amazing, as did Mike, who went next. Mike started out as the heaviest contestant ever, at 526 pounds. He struggled a lot this season, but kept dropping weight like crazy. Mike lost 264 pounds, down from 526 to 262, for a 50.19% weight loss and the title of the Biggest Loser! Now this was a true Biggest Loser champion, the kind of person who can inspire millions of people. But until now, I didn’t realize that Koli had lost more percentage of weight than Mike, and if America had voted him into the Top 3, he would have won. Ouch, that has to sting a bit. But I like having Mike as the champ, and he won fair and square based on the rule of the game.

Now let’s hope Mike keeps that weight off and keeps going, because he still has a ways to go. But he sure deserved to win and should enjoy it. We’ll be on a conference call with him today so look for some excerpts from that interview later this week. Thanks for reading this season!

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!

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!

Anyhow, there really were serious problems in building L.A.’s still majestically insufficient, extraordinarily expensive subway system, but there was a lot more water involved than fire in the first seriously fouled up attempt at the important goal of creating some decent L.A. public transit in the City of Angels. Still, who wants to see a movie about busted water mains and overflowing sewers. So, instead, we got “Volcano” – from the director of “L.A. Story.” Seriously.