For a reality show that changes things up frequently, “The Biggest Loser” can get a tad predictable and formulaic at times. That’s why I was fully expecting the final four to have to run a marathon as they have done the last few seasons. But alas, they did not. Maybe they felt they had proved their point. Anyway, here is how last night’s episode went down….

They had the final four–Jay, Irene, Hannah and Olivia–sit in a post-eliminating-Austin pow-wow with host Alison Sweeney and kind of feign fist pumps that they were in said Final Four. Okay, we get it! But seriously, who saw this coming? Tell me you had any of these folks in the finale.

Then came the initial challenge, sponsored by Jennie-O Turkey–where the contestants had to create the best tasting turkey burger for a bunch of kids. Yikes. The winner would take home $5K as well as a 2-week trip to the Biggest Loser Fitness Ridge Resort for someone they love. Olivia tried to pass plain Greek yogurt colored with food coloring as “green slime,” but she must have forgotten to add sugar, because what kid eats plain flavored yogurt? Wait, what adult does?? Anyway, Irene made hers with turkey bacon and cheese, and hers was a dud too. It came down to Jay’s “volcano” burger in which he added ketchup and cheese that somehow spewed out like lava, and Hannah’s cheesy burger. Not surprisingly, Jay won.

Then came the main challenge, the final one on the ranch–and instead of going home and running a marathon and coming back to weigh in, they had this golf course challenge on campus. And in lieu of golf clubs, they carried golf bags with the weight numbers they lost each week, which they had to gradually shed. They usually do a variation of this challenge every season, and this one never seems to get old. Hannah won and her prize was a $15K home gym. Kaboing! Now, that’s a prize. Oh, I forgot, they had a gratuitous appearance by last season’s champ, Patrick House, who still looks great.

After the last last-chance workout, it was finally time to weigh in. Irene was first and lost 3 pounds, followed by Jay who lost 4. Olivia needed to surpass 3 pounds, and she did, losing 4. Olivia was in the finale for sure. Then it was Hannah’s turn, and she also had to lose 3 or more. She also lost 4, bringing her total lost this season to 102, and a spot in the finale with her sister. So America will vote for whether or not to put Jay or Irene up against the sisters for the title of the Biggest Loser, and which one will then compete for the $100K at-home prize.

Then they showed them all going home, which is always cool. But this group of finalists just seems really cool and deserving, as in past seasons, there were alliances and catty behavior around this point.

So there you have it, America…..next week is the finale….will you vote for Jay or Irene? Honestly, I have no clue who I’d vote for. But it’s been a long season, and we’re almost through it! See you next week…

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!