FactPlace

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 2

Week 2 starts off with a recap of last week's opener - including the dramatic twist where 9 contestants were sent home for a month.

Early in the epsiode we get a long video sequence showing the at-home contestants.

Carla is shown dancing around her living room. Might not be the most effective workout, scientifically speaking, but her enthusiasm is clear and it's great that she's up and moving around.
Dave demonstrates why the contestants really needed an extra week at the ranch - he's shown at a fast food place with his family trying to find a healthy alternative and settling on hot dogs and french fries. [sigh] At least he goes with water for his drink. Dave...haven't you ever watched Biggest Loser before?!
By contrast Estrella is shown cleaning out the kitchen and throwing away all of the junk food and high-fat foods in the house.
Several of the at home contestants, including Sione, Laura, Aubrey and Estrella are shown working out with personal trainers. Lots of boxing and movement exercises.

Then the contestants are off to start their days.

The Temptation

Allison greets the contestants out near the end of the driveway. There is a white line painted on the road and a black stretch limo with plates that read "EZ $" pulls up to the gate. Allison informs the contestants that the first one to step across that line will get to leave the game and will get $5000 and a ride home. Many of the contestants defiantly shake their heads and several even step back away from the line. But not Joelle. In a sequence of one-shots she talks about how much money that is and how tempting it is. Allison ups the offer to $10,000. Again Joelle is tempted but everybody else stands fast. Final offer....$25,000. Joelle again tells how she lives with her mom and how $25,000 is more than a year's salary for her

Challenge

Today's challenge is to pedal a kayak from a boat to the shore (looks like maybe half a mile) then get out of the kayak and hike to the top of a steep hill. First to the top wins immunity and a call home. The next three to the top get calls home as well. Last place finisher will get a 1 pound penalty.

Blaine is confident, even cocky, of victory but Tara takes it out with a gutsy effort.

Speaking of gutsy...Mom Helen is scrappy! She hangs in and takes 4th place. Mandi gets 3rd to round out the calls.

These physical challenges so early in the competition definitely favor the younger and naturally fitter. The last two contestants are 63-year old Jerry and 424 pound Daniel. Daniel finishes last, escorted the last 100 yards or so by Mandi, Tara and Blaine.

Last Chance Workout - Bob Wears Out the Bleeper

At the last chance workout Dane, Jerry and Dan are all shown going above and beyond. Daniel is telling Jillian to dial the treadmill up FASTER. Dane is leg pressing every weight they can put on the sled INCLUDING 335 pounds of Blaine. Jerry is collapsing to the floor, but sucking it up and contiuing.

But Joelle...oh Joelle. Joelle is going through the motions. Now keeping in mind what we've said before about editing, the shots we're getting from the Last Chance Workout are largely of Joelle sitting or falling or half-assing her way through an exercise. In the one-shots she's talking about how much she doesn't like the gym and how she sees other people collapsing and vomiting and she's not ready to go that far. Unfortunately she's about to push Bob over the edge...

Bob's team is on the treadmills. He's trying to get 30 seconds out of them at a good pace. At 20 seconds Joelle jumps off and Bob goes off on her. The bleeper is in full effect as Bob let's loose. "EVERY [BLEEP]ING TIME JOELLE! 20 SECONDS?!?" She tries to defend herself, claiming she's pushing and giving all she's got but Bob's hearing none of it. And he's right. Everybody else is giving it 100%. Joelle is giving 80%. The other contestants know it too - in their one-shots they point out that she's not working that hard and that she needs to go.

Bob orders them all to go again, "THIRTY SECONDS" he wants. He takes a moment to collect himself, then starts them off. At 25 seconds Joelle bellows something and jumps off. Once again Bob is furious. At one point she feebly tries to deny she stopped...but clearly she did. Even her teammates are losing patience with her. One more time Bob orders and off they go. This time Joelle sticks it out and gives him the full 30 seconds. "Perfect" Bob says, before moving them on to the next exercise.

Weigh-In

This weigh-in was much more straight-forward than last week. No twists. Dan has a +1 pound penalty from the challenge and Tara has immunity. Those two facts play big for Joelle (and Carla) as you'll see in a moment.

Here's the table...sorted by highest percentage of weight loss...

Contestant	Start	1	2	Lost	%
Blaine	365	351	335	16	4.78%
Dane	412	392	378	14	3.70%
Helen	257	245	237	8	3.38%
Ron	430	398	386	12	3.11%
Kristen	360	341	331	10	3.02%
Filipe	364	347	338	9	2.66%
Damien	381	364	355	9	2.54%
Mandi	263	251	245	6	2.45%
Mike	388	366	359	7	1.95%
Dan	454	424	421	3	0.71%
Joelle	309	296	294	2	0.68%
Tara	294	273	272	1	0.37%
Jerry	369	344	343	1	0.29%

Tara opened up the weigh-in in true Week 2 style...by losing just ONE pound. Jaws dropped and everybody resigned themselves to the idea that this week might be a battle. That's week 2 for you. She dropped a huge 21 pounds the first week and it's hard to do that twice in a row.

Then Blaine and Dane stepped up - still weighing in as a team...and dropped THIRTY. Huge numbers. Dane has gone from 412 to 378 in just two weeks! Ron rings up a 12 - bringing his total to 44 pounds so far. Blaine and Dane had good but not great numbers last week, this week they are right at the top. I wonder if they took my advice and coasted a little after winning immunity last week so as not to keep an extra pound or two to drop this week.

Mandi is getting nervous because all of the bigger numbers are weighing in after her and she's sliding down the board.

Joelle describes her 2 pounds as an "I told you so." The other contestants aren't surprised and are probably already preparing to write her name on the card.

Then Jerry and Dan go. Dan loses 3 pounds, but his 1 pound penalty kicks in and with his 424 pounds that results in a small percentage of weight loss so he falls below Joelle. Tara has immunity so Dan is below the yellow line with Jerry and Joelle looks glum. Maybe she was hoping to go home?

Jerry's one pound puts him at the bottom. Everybody is stunned. Even Allison is seen wiping away a tear as we all know that he is below the yellow line.

All told the contestants dropped a total of 98 pounds in week 2, about 2.23% of their total. Week 2 strikes again.

Strategy

Not much strategy to it this week. The contestants had to choose between two of the most popular players in the game and ultimately the unanimous vote was for Jerry to go home. It was felt that Dan needed to be there a little more and that Jerry had a much stronger support system at home.

Jerry is all class. He accepts the votes with grace and dignity. What a great example for other contestants!

Joelle didn't take my advice last week. She really needed to endear herself to her housemates so that they might protect her if she fell below the yellow line. Clearly she didn't do that as nearly every contestant commented that she should go home or that she wasn't working hard in various one-shots. Joelle clearly has some issues and she'll need to beat her mental/emotional demons if she's going to have a chance to get this game (or her life) under control.

Random Stuff

One thing that will be interesting this season is that we'll get to watch the progress of Allison's pregnancy. We learned in the finale of Season 6 that Host Allison is pregnant and since season 7 was filmed over the last quarter of last year she should be right in the middle of that pregnancy during this season. In week 2 she's showing just a tad more but still looking great.
In the "Transformation" shot Jerry looks great!
Tonight's big product placement was Bob practically reading from the cue cards as he told the Brown team about Extra Sugar Free gum. They've given up any pretense of being subtle about it at this point.
Predictions: Green team bounced back this week but Silver team's Joelle is very definitely the weakest player right now. It'll be a miracle if she survives week 3. Black team still looks pretty strong. Daniel's 3 pound loss this week was probably an anomaly. He's got determination and a lot of weight to lose. I'd bet he's in double-digits again next week.