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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.

Week 1

So it's a new season of Biggest Loser and it's exciting to see it off and running! This year they are starting off with 11 couples - all family members.

The season starts off with each team getting the call from Bob or Jillian to tell them they're on the show. Honestly it can't come as that big a shock to them, there's a camera crew sitting there with them when they get the call. I don't think NBC is sending camera crews all over the country to tape people not getting called.

After that the first twist of the new season. The contestants have to do their first weigh-in in their home town. In public. In front of their family and friends and neighbors. Some do it in a high school gym packed with fans. Others out in front of a favorite restaurant. All express a lot of angst about having to doff their shirts and let everybody see what they weigh. It's an interesting twist but I'm afraid I really don't get all the drama around it - they're going on Biggest Loser. Surely they've seen the show? Surely they would know that in the first half hour or so they're all going to have to take their shirts off and weigh-in on national TV? I guess maybe it's a little bigger deal to do it in person but really...everybody in the hemisphere is going to see you and know what you weigh before the first episode ends.

A few thoughts on the contestants...

Orange Team is Daris and his mom. Reminds me a little of Dan and his Mom from a couple of seasons ago. No, not Daniel (from seasons 7 & 8), but Dan from Season 6. Nice folks. He actually doesn't look TOO bad for a guy who weighs way over 300. Except for the hair...I hope they make it to makeover week because the hair needs help.
Brown Team is a pair of identical twins; John and James. First time for twins on Biggest Loser I think. Interestingly they weigh one pound different - 485 and 484. When they got introduced Carrie and I were both surprised that they're only 30. Carrie observed, correctly, that being that heavy makes you look a lot older. Interesting to note about the twins...last year Shay was the heaviest contestant they'd ever had and she started at 476. These two have her beat.
Pink Team is a mother/daughter team and they do see very...ummm...pink. When they got told they were the Pink team they seemed delighted. I don't know if that's just because they love the color or because they're aware that Pink has been a lucky color in the house - several former Pink team members have gone on to win, including Michelle and Ali (arguably the most successful/famous of the BL Alumni). During the introductions daughter Ashley had some sort odd headband thing on that looked like somebody had strapped a penny to her head with a rubber band. Maybe it had a sentimental meaning for her, but she really should skip it next time. Aside from the minor accessory issues she seems like a very nice girl and will probably do well in the house. To Pink team's credit there wasn't all of the televised drama and hysterics of previous years pink teams. Maybe these girls are a little tougher? Mom (Sherry) looks tiny - clearly the shortest person in the house - but has a lot of personality.
Grey Team is back! Nice to see Sione and Filipe back on the ranch! O.k., not quite but Sam and Kolu are Tongan Cousins, just like the famed Blue team of season 7. I wonder if we'll see some traditional Tongan dances this season? I hope so, that was cool. Right away Kolu is one of my faves on the show. He's a football coach but he has a soft side too. No, I mean in his heart. He even commented that Sione and Filipe were an inspiration to him, as a fellow Tongan, and how he envied Filipe's relationship with his wife. I hope Kolu has the same kind of success Filipe had.
Yellow Team...might as well talk about them now because I'm not sure how much of them we're going to get to see. O'Neal (yes, that's his name) and daughter SunShine. O'Neal is a postal supervisor who can't put on his own shoes and socks back home because of his weight. In the family shots we see his wife and three sons (the sons all seem normal-sized) and they show a photo of when he met his wife...and he was a stud! Hard to believe in 25 years or so he's gotten to where he is now. He's the oldest 51 year old I've ever seen. I liked him right away though, and I hope he is able to succeed in turning things around.
White Team is a mother/son pairing from Chicago. Mom Maria doesn't look that big (by BL standards) but son Michael tops the scale at 525 pounds - making him the biggest contestant they've ever had. To put that in perspective...he's about 50 pounds heavier than Season 8's Shay...the previous biggest ever.
The youth movement is over. Nobody in the house under 22 this time and since she went home (as did 24 year old SunShine) I guess that leaves Tongan Sam (24) as the youngest in the house.
The senior movement is over too. No obvious grandparents on the show this time. Even though the contestants often look a lot older than they are, the oldest in the house is 55 year old Patti. (Purple Team)
The Name Game: Most interesting names this year would probably have to go to the Green Team. Mom "Miggy" and daughter "Migdalia". Honorable mention to SunShine for the extra capital "S", O'Neal & Daris
Where's the villain? In previous years America learned to love to hate the BL villains.
- Last year it was crazy Tracey who in-between tears and collapsing made everybody's eyes roll with bad decision after bad decision. And yet...somehow got away with it. First time I think I ever saw Jillian want to kick somebody out of the house. At the finale Tracey showed up looking lean, happy and muscular...but still somehow odd. A little TOO muscular really, almost masculine. Speculation on the fan-boards ran rampant that her dramatic new fitness level might not be entirely natural, though that might have just been folks taking a last shot at a disliked contestant.
  
  Honorable mention last year goes to Rudy who towards the end double-crossed show-sweetheart Shay and then openly told Rebecca he didn't trust her. Not nice Rudy, you're lucky you didn't have to rely upon America's vote to get into the finals.
- Season 7 had Joelle the woefully out-of-touch lady who rambled philosophically whenever confronted with the fact that she was going thru the motions. Be interesting to see where Carla, her partner from that year, is today.
- Season 6 had the woman who really got BL Fans riled up. Brown team's Vicky. By midseason she was terrorizing the show with enough attitude for everybody. I'm not sure I've ever seen a BL contestant so openly contemptuous and even hateful towards other contestants. She later claimed, plausibly, that she's really not like that and that it was just the show's editors making her look bad. Perhaps. But even trainer Bob called her out as "conniving" and he's not influenced by the editing - he's really there and see's what's going on.

So who is our villain this year? So far none has emerged, but don't let that fool you into thinking there isn't one. Vicky didn't really show up for a few weeks in Season 6. So we'll see...

First Challenge

For their first challenge of the season the teams are shown exercise bikes and told they have to ride 26.2 miles. The winning team gets immunity...the TWO teams at the bottom go home. Wow. They've been on the ranch for 5 minutes and already they're facing elimination. The next 15 minutes or so we watch big people labor on bikes. Blue team's Cherita has to be helped off the bike before the end because of massive cramps. I'm a little surprised she's the only one.

In fairness, as teams, each team member only had to ride about 13 miles, which isn't dramatically far. It's probably an hour or maybe a bit less, of pedaling. But for folks who are THAT out of shape that is a LOT of work.

In the end it's the Green team who pedal like absolute MANIACS who wins and Blue and Yellow teams going home. A little disappointing because I was hoping to see Yellow get a couple more weeks on the ranch. O'Neal seemed really sincere about wanting to fix his life and really crushed to have lost the bike race and be going home so soon.

Naturally this is Biggest Loser so there has to be a twist. While the Blue and Yellow teams are crying in their limos as they drive way from the ranch and we're all sitting at home commenting on how it sucks that they're sending folks home so early...suddenly Bob and Jillian jump out of the bushes and stop the limos. They tell the contestants that they're only going home for 30 days. After the 30 days they'll come back and whichever team has the highest percentage of weight loss will be back in the game. Apparently the REST of the contestants don't know about this deal - they just think Blue and Yellow are history.

Bob and Jill also assured Blue and Yellow they'd be available to them during the 30 days. It's not clear yet what that means - I'm guessing it means they'll prepare workouts for them, talk by phone and maybe make the occasional guest appearance. You know Blue and Yellow will get to work out at 24 Hour Fitness.

Weigh-In

So we now fast-foward to the weigh-in. The thing with having SO many contestants and spending so much time setting up the teams and the season is that you really don't get to see much of the week's activities. They have a lot of product placements to squeeze into those two hours (Bob explaining about using the 24-Hour Fitness Body Bugg device, Jillian with the obligatory Brita placement, etc.) and so before you know it, we're off to the last chance workout and elimination weigh-in.

Keep in mind...Week 1 always has jaw-dropping numbers. Lot of water weight getting lost, of course, and these guys are smart enough to have bulked up some before they came in order to drop big numbers. And, it's their first week getting professional training and diet. This will be as good as it gets for single-week numbers.

Before it started I predicted that we'd see somebody drop 30+. Carrie was skeptical but we'd see...and as expected, big numbers. Remarkably the twins each dropped 23 pounds. Even Allison can't help but comment on that. A few folks drop 29. Even some of the (relatively) little ladies are dropping pretty good numbers. Every single contestant is in double-figures.

Last to weigh in, with the Brown team (twins) on the bottom, is the White team. Maria and big Michael. For some odd reason they decided to weigh them in separately with Maria going first. Didn't make sense to me other than to manufacture still more drama. No great surprise, Michael drops a huge number (34) and is out of the 500 pound range already. White team is spared, Brown team is on the chopping block.

Don't get used to these numbers. Week 2 is notoriously bad on the back of these numbers. Most of the water weight is gone and the bodies are starting to adapt. We'll see what happens.

Now the contestants all get to sit around and decide which twin to send home. It's hard enough to tell them apart but now folks who barely know them have to decide their fate. Predictably each brother tries to fall on their own sword, but ultimately it's James - the twin with the bad knee and no need to rush back to work when he gets home who gets sent home, almost unanimously. Only the Green team votes for John - gameplay perhaps?

Random Stuff

Bob and Jill are training together again this season. That certainly removes a lot of the team drama we've seen in previous years which has led to some conflict on the show. Especially when contestants developed loyalties to one trainer or the other and then ended up having to switch. Lot less tension this way - maybe the producers heard feedback from the audience that they found the tension distasteful? Last season natural teams tended to coalesce around the kids versus the older folks with the kids getting the worst of it after a pivotal week when TWO of them got sent home.
James had one of the more dramatic transformation moments I've seen. After he got sent home it was revealed that in the 8 weeks since...he's lost 100 pounds! WOW! He says he's shooting for Danny's record of 240 pounds in total weight loss.
Anybody notice that it looked like Michael had to be helped out to meet Bob and Jillian the day after the bike race?
Bob has taken to calling Lance (a rancher from Texas) "Texas".
From the "Lead by Example" department: Allison Sweeny looks AMAZING, less than a year after giving birth. Somehow she looks even better than before she got pregnant.
Lot of emphasis on matters of the heart this first episode. O'Neal talking about wanting to get back to the man his wife fell for. 29 year old Stephanie admitting she's never been in love. Coach Koli tearfully admitting he didn't think anybody would ever love a 400 pound man.
Predictions: It's pretty early and we don't know the teams that well yet. Green are obviously driven ladies but it remains to be seen if they have enough weight to lose. Black team is going to have a tough go of it, I suspect. The Tongan cousins seem primed to recreate the success of their countrymen.

Best Quote of the Night

"I could lose an entire other overweight person and I'd still be overweight."
-Michael-

Honorable Mention

"You've got to be kidding me."
-Jillian, meeting huge twins John and James for the first time-

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