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The Biggest Loser  

(Note: This is NOT an official NBC website)

O.K., so I'm a fan of the show and all-too-fond of spouting off my opinions and observations about it so I figured maybe I'd throw up a page on it so that other people could be bored with my opinions and observations.

The Big Finale!

O.K, it's late so I'm just going to start this now and update over the next couple of days...

First of all let me just say there were some DRAMATIC transformations in this show.  Let's take a quick look at them...

Heba: Wow, what a transformation.  She looks amazing.  Love the haircut, love the dress.  I guess the stage is slippery because she's not the only one who nearly falls.

Ed: Another big winner.  He looks good and the clothes fit well.

Stacey:  HOLY SMOKES!  She's seriously hot.  She really looks fantastic.  The dress was a great choice and it's extra amazing, as Allison observes, because she only had 1 week on the ranch.  The rest of it she had to do entirely on her own.

Adam: Stacey's husband.  I have to say...I'm not as wowed.  He looks good.  But I just don't see as dramatic a change in him.  Like Stacey he had to do it entirely at home but his results are just not as visually dramatic as Stacey's.

LT: Nice kid.  He did a good job on his weight loss but I didn't think "Wow" like some of the others.

Tom: Like father like son.  Hard to believe he's only in his early 40s, he looks like he's pushing 60 to me.  But great job on getting healthier - clearly he has made amazing strides in that area and great job inspiring his family to follow his lead.  If he wasn't surrounded by jaw-dropping transformations I'm sure his own would be more impressive.

Amy C.: She looks terrific too.  Still a fan favorite.  The black dress looks great on her.

Shellay:  Actually looks almost skinny.  If she were any thinner I'd think she needs to put ON a few pounds.  Really looks good and the dress is a nice choice.

Phil: Looks like an entirely different person.  Shaving the head is a good choice and the weight loss is AMAZING.  Perhaps the most dramatic transformation of the bunch.

Amy P.: Genuinely hot.  The red dress looks amazing.  She LOOKS like the smallest woman now.

Brady: Another sort of underwhelming transformation.  Maybe because we saw him on the show not that long ago but I didn't think he looked THAT much thinner than the last time we saw him.

Vicky: The woman we love to hate.  Love her or hate her she looks fantastic.  She really does.  The dress had sort of an awkward fit to it (especially around the...umm...bosoms) but she really does look good.  Also came darned close to falling when she came down the steps in those heels - Bob had to give her an arm to hold onto.

Renee:  Nice lady.  Don't really love the short haircut, but great to see her happy and smiling.  Not one of the more dramatic transformations since last we saw her.

Michelle:  The show's sweetheart.  Looks great, the dress was a nice choice and her omnipresent smile lit up the room.  Clearly the fan favorite.  She didn't obviously slip but Bob was a gentleman and gave her an arm escort to the front of the stage anyhow.

One regular on the show has quite obviously GAINED a lot of weight...

...host Allison who is 8 months pregnant.  Congratulations to her!

Weigh Ins

The finale features two weigh-ins.  The first is for the contestants who got sent home to see who would be the "Biggest Loser at Home" and take home $100,000.  The second is for the grand prize of $250,000.  In both weigh-ins what matters is the largest percentage of weight loss from the beginning of the show to the finale.

Biggest Loser at Home

Yep, Heba takes home the $100,000 prize for the Biggest Loser at Home.  She looks great and earned it; though she had the advantage of the most weeks on the Ranch of any of the "at home" contestants.

Biggest Loser

MICHELLE WINS!  Fans of the show must be thrilled, she was clearly the favorite.  Especially after the shenanigans of the Blue Team alliance all year.

Observations:

• Heba, Phil and Amy P. all lost a larger percentage of weight than Michelle.  Phil and Amy P. didn't make it to the end, that's the way the game goes.  But Heba was a possible finalist right up to the end - it was America voting for Ed that sent her to the "At Home" side.  If America had voted the other way then Heba would have easily been The Biggest Loser and taken home the $250K.  RealityTVMagazine speculates that because Heba was so closely allied with Vicky and the Blue Team Cabal that America punished her by sending her to the At Home side and sending Ed to the finals.  I have to admit that I voted for Ed in part because I just liked him more than Heba.  Lesson to future contestants: be careful how you behave and how those you ally with behave.

• Vicky, perhaps the biggest "villain" we've had on the show in 6 seasons, was all sweetness and light this week.  She looked great, she acted humble and there was none of the bitterness that characterized her through much of the show.  I did notice, though it may be that I just didn't see it because of camera angles that Brady didn't come down the steps and congratulate Amy P. for retaining her lead at the weigh-in.  In fact, there was no observable interaction between the Red and Brown teams at all - not surprising considering the bad blood that existed between them during the show.

• Phillip lost the most total weight of anybody at 151 pounds.  In fact he lost more than his wife WEIGHS.  Really amazing.

• 9 of the 16 contestants lost more than 100 pounds, and five of them were WOMEN.

• This probably really chafes Bob but...Jillian won AGAIN.  Despite her Black team being on the ropes most of the year (especially after Amy C.'s collapse and voting off of Colleen) she pulled it out and got Michelle to the title. 

• All but 2 (Adam and Stacey) of Bob's team lost more than 100 pounds and remember that Adam and Stacey got sent home the first week.   Of Jillian's folks only Michelle, Renee (the two who had the most time with her) and Jerry lost more than 100 pounds.  HOWEVER...Jillian also had some of the smallest competitors (Shellay and Colleen) to begin with who didn't have that much weight to lose and her numbers were really skewed south by Tom and LT who, considering they both started at over 300 pounds, didn't really lose that much weight compared to the other contestants at the ranch.  But Tom and LT both went home relatively early as well as did nearly all of Jillian's team.  Jillian really only had Michelle and Renee (both of whom lost more than 100 pounds) for the last couple of weeks after Amy sent Colleen home.  Bob had a lot more time with his team.

Congratulations to everybody.

Articles

• Reality TV Magazine Recap
• Likeable Michelle is the winner on Biggest Loser - Recap from the LA Times
• 'Biggest Loser': Victory for Michelle, death threats for Vicky - Another recap from the LA Times.  This one makes a good point - Vicky claims that the show's editing portrayed her unfairly but remember...even Trainer Bob who is one of the nicest people on Reality TV called her out for her behavior.  That said, people sending her death threats and such...that's just uncalled for.  It's a TV show folks.  She may be mean and petty but she didn't kill anybody; she's just a reality TV contestant. Let it go.

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