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.

Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” was an interesting one with a lot going on. It began with Kaylee talking about how she felt bad about thinking she was ready to go home last week and throwing the weigh-in. Some of her fellow contestants, and especially her trainer Cara, were pissed. Kaylee’s dad Moses pointed out that he knew Kaylee was tired of the show’s gameplay, and that’s why she was ready to go home. Interesting.

Then they all walked into the gym and host Alison Sweeney was waiting for them. As Hannah said, that is never a good thing for them! Alison showed them all video from when they first were told they made it to the show. It was similar to “American Idol” where the contestants who made it were in a holding room in a hotel conference area, and Ali walked in to let them know if they were in or out. But while 11 teams made it, Alison spoke about the 12th team that did not—mother and son Leanne and Vance. And she showed footage where she had told the “white team” that they could earn their way onto campus in midseason. So here they were, but they had to have surpassed the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss currently on the show, who was Kaylee with 25.32% Vance weighed in first, and he had begun at 379 pounds, which meant he had to lose about 90 pounds to grab a spot on campus. He lost 30 pounds, so was way off. Leanne began at 315 and lost 45 pounds, which was great but not nearly good enough. Okay, so that was that. But both were told they were still eligible to win the “at-home” prize of $100K.

Then it was time for the initial challenge, which was for the teams to balance colored balls on a flat board of wood, and carry them as a team about 30 feet to a bucket. The first team to 10 balls won a 1-minute advantage in the main challenge, and the losing team would have to spend a week off campus. The green team won, with black coming in second. So it was down to blue and red, and blue barely won, meaning the red team of Jen and Courtney lost. So Alison let them know that they had a $1000 budget to be spent on various things during the week. They would be staying at a posh resort in Ojai Valley, but had budget items such as doing their own grocery shopping/cooking or having a personal chef, gym membership, personal training, and perks like meal at a restaurant or having a massage. The trainer cost $200 per day, so they knew they couldn’t have Brett for five days, but could have him for one or two days. But instead, they chose to cook at home, have a gym membership and then dine out one night and also get massages. Brett, of course, was pissed and concerned that they chose luxuries over him. But Courtney claimed that that was all Jen’s decision.

Then it was time for the main challenge, which was an Easter egg hunt, and involved a cross-promotion with the premiere of the movie “Hop.” Alison told them they would be participating in the mother of all Easter egg hunts, with 5000 eggs! They had to grab eggs in a field of their respective colors, and put them in cartons. The green team had a one minute head start, and one person would find a golden egg that had some special distinction. Oh, and the winner would be able to walk the red carpet for the theater premiere of “Hop.” Olivia found the gold egg, and then the green team won, followed by red, black and blue. They all got a private screening of the film, and after that it was time for the last chance workouts. Blah blah blah. But wait, the golden egg….Olivia won the only vote this week, but it only applied if her team wasn’t the losing team weighing in.

So the blue team weighed in first, and Olivia lost 4 pounds, while Irene lost 3 and Moses lost 7 (getting him down to 293!). The green team was next—Ken lost 6, while Austin lost 7 and Kaylee 5. That made the green team safe. Next was the blue team—Jay lost 6, Rulon 5, but Hannah lost 0 pounds. Game play? Very possibly, because her sister had the only vote this week and Hannah knew she was safe. Hmmm.

Then the red team went, and had to lose more than 5 pounds combined to be safe. Courtney lost 2 pounds, and Jen (who just HAD to have that elegant meal and massage) lost 0 pounds. Wow. But here was the kicker….with just 2 team members, and with the person with the highest percentage of weight loss on the losing team had immunity, that meant that the other person was automatically eliminated. That person, of course, was Jen, and to her credit, she didn’t get sad, just inwardly angry at herself for not choosing to have Brett train them for a day or two.

So Jen, who lost 91 pounds on campus, was shown at home, and overall she’s gone from 278 pounds down to 173—a 105-pound weight loss.

There you have it…since Justin went home last week and Jen this week, Courtney is now Brett’s only member left. And if she gets booted off last week, Brett is supposedly done for the season as well. What do you think about how things went down? Let me know in the space below and we’ll see you back here next week….