Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Biggest Loser Review, 2009/02/25

PART II

Basically, last night's show was just a weigh-in with a little added "padding" to stretch it out to an hour.

So we start off with a surprise quiz. And once again, hairband on Filipe? STILL NOT A GOOD LOOK, MAN!

Then we get into the unavoidable product placement. Still cheezy, but actually a little more natural this time, amazingly...except for the pathetic "yummy noises" the blue team made while eating the veggies.

After that, it's time for the last chance workout. And I have come to the conclusion that Tara either a) doesn't care whether she's referred to as TAH-ra or TEH-ra (which would make her very different from every single Tara I've ever met), or b) is going to kill Jillian any day now for constantly pronouncing her name wrong.

There were some really uplifting moments in the last chance workout this week. First of all, all the switched people seem to be adjusting really well to their new trainers, and some were really shining. I got fantastic chills watching Bob be so encouraging of Mandi and Aubrey. I would feel sooo good about myself if he were my trainer and talking to me like that! It was awesome. It was also really great to see Mandi waxing enthusiastic about Bob in her interviews, she was really glowing and happy about the whole thing. Another thing I noticed was how Filipe's face is really starting to get chiselled. He's got a real Mario van Peebles thing going on now, I think.

Then we move into the weigh-in. And it's really wonderful that now we're really able to see big differences in people. Even Ron and Cathy, who have been struggling, you can still see changes. And LOOK AT MANDI'S STOMACH!!! Awesome stuff. This is why I watch the show! There were some fantastic results this week, it's such a shame that somebody had to go home. Among the most notable accomplishments, some of which were pointed out during the show:

  • Cathy, Filipe and Sione moved from morbidly obese to clinically obese.
  • Laura moved from clinically obese to obese.
  • Cathy went below 250lbs. I was TICKLED at her weight loss number. She's had a bunch of rotten weeks lately, and it was about damn frickin' time the scale was nice to her. I was so happy to see it.
  • Dane has lost a total of 100lbs.
  • Helen went below 200lbs.
  • Mike went below 300lbs.
  • Ron went below 350lbs.

And then we went back into the elimination room to witness what was possibly the stupidest voting decision ever in Biggest Loser history. I mean, look at the facts. The black team is unbelievably strong - they've got Sione AND Filipe AND Tara! Not to mention Laura, who was the biggest individual loser in week 5 and the 2nd-biggest individual loser last week; and Mike, who's young and strong and has started to hit a stride with good percentages of weight loss. Finally on the black team there's Helen, who's tough, consistent, and a gameplayer. By contrast, the blue team is weak and definitely at a disadvantage. I mean, yes, compassion for people who "need to be here" and all that, but come on! Cutting out Dane increased the Black team's advantage exponentially. As my husband said, "They just tore the guts out of what was already a weak team." Bob is going to be FURIOUS when he finds out what they've done.

Personally, I would have gotten rid of Aubrey. Her weight loss is erratic, and it's not as much of an emotional kick in the nuts to send her off as it would be if they axed Ron. And speaking of Ron, I think his days of coasting on the "who needs to be here" line have come to an end. I love the guy, and I'm scared that he won't do well at home, but the season has really reached the point where he can't compete with the rest of them. At some point soon, his team is going to cut him because he's holding them back.

Back at home, we have no idea how much weight Dane has dropped since leaving the ranch, and he doesn't look much different, either. I thought that was weird - especially since he's been training for a MARATHON - and also disappointing. Hopefully we'll see big differences at the finale.

Funniest moment of the show: Aubrey's eyeroll upon seeing her weight loss number.

Looking ahead to next week, we've got some more potential milestones coming up:

  • Aubrey could move from clinically obese to obese
  • Kristin could move from morbidly obese to clinically obese, which would be amaaaaazing since she started the season as the most overweight woman ever; they keep talking about how Carla WEIGHS the most of any female ever, but her BMI was 57.6 compared to Kristin's 58.1, meaning Kristin was more overweight inch-for-inch; for her to move out of morbid obesity would be a fantastic milestone
  • If Tara loses at least 6 pounds, she'll have lost a total of 30% of her bodyweight since starting the show
  • Big possible week for Mandi: first of all, if she loses any weight, she'll move from obese to overweight, and if she loses at least 4 pounds, she'll drop below 200lbs
  • Huge possible week for Mike: he could hit 100lbs of total weight loss; he could move from being morbidly obese to clinically obese; and he could pass the 25% total weight loss mark

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Biggest Loser Review, 2009/02/24

PART I

Okay, I HATE not having weigh-in results at the end of a show. It totally blows. Can't wait until tonight.

So the pop challenge: mud. First of all, this shouldn't have been a big deal since they all got down and dirty with the mud wrestling last week and had a fantastic time. I particularly loved Kristin's football player raccoon eyes with the mud streaks, and her determined "plop" right into the mud. Hilarious. Also funny was Helen's "Oooh! Oooh!" icky-it's-cold reaction as she slowly lowered herself into it. And finally, after it was all over, we discover the true advantage of being on the Brown team - mud doesn't show on your shirt! It just obscures the Biggest Loser logo...oh hey, another advantage! ;)

However, I was diappointed with the results of the challenge. Of all the teams in the house, I thought Sione and Filipe would be most screwed by a trainer switch, and I was really rooting for Sione to win it. I felt so sorry for them. Watching Sione's face and body language as he handed his muddy blue shirt to Alison and took the black was really saddening. (Tara's reaction to the black shirt, however, that it was "slimming", was pretty funny.) That said, Sione and Filipe (especially Sione) REALLY need to get over the trainer switch or they're gonna be screwed.

As for my reaction to the team changes, I thought Brown's strategy on how to split them up was interesting. Certainly this whole change is going to make voting seriously weird from now on. I also think Mike's going to do great with Jillian. I also think Dane, Mandi and Aubrey will do fine with Bob. It's all going to work out fine. Humans are adaptable. Jillian, however (who was so cool with Sione's disappointment at that first meeting, it was really sweet to see), has now got herself a TREMENDOUSLY strong black team. Bob's at a serious disadvantage here.

And speaking of Bob, he just exacerbated the whole situation. He just compounded the problem for Sione, Filipe, and Helen (Mike, on the other hand, seemed totally cool with being with Jillian), clearly sending them the message: We can't get along without each other. What he should have done was suppress whatever emotional pain he was going through...and LIE. Lie like his life depended on it, to convince his former people that they CAN do it, that it WILL be okay. He was the only guy that could have convinced them of that, and instead, he screwed up large, and just made it worse. Instead, he actually started looking to THEM to help emotionally support HIM, which is so very wrong! Bad Bob. Bad. This is Bob's problem, his weakness - being too involved with the people. I mean, Jillian gets attached, too, but not like that. And I think Jillian knows this about Bob, and uses it to give her an advantage every time.

Generally speaking, I think the team switches send a very important message to people at home, which seems to be a theme this season: it's not about the trainer, it's not about the equipment, it's not about having your teammate with you, it's not about being on a show. At the end of the day, there is only ONE person who can make you work to lose the weight, and that is YOU. The circumstances may be good or bad, but they can't be the reason you do or don't succeed. It's all got to come from inside you.

And what was nice about the overly-schmaltzy, emotional retrospectives of Bob-with-old-team was to see how much smaller Mike has become! That was great.

EXCRUCIATINGLY painful product placement this week. Ugh. Jillian's right, though, and it sucks: the food that is best for you is the food that spoils the quickest. Bleargh. Oh, and Filipe? Hairbands are not a good look for you. Just sayin'.

I don't have too much to say about the challenge - yeah yeah, it was gruelling, it was impressive. It's just that...well, I'm all for the not quitting thing and everything, and I did love the symbolism of working through the awfulness and finishing the challenge and completing what you start and all that great stuff. And hooray for Sione for being the house inspiration to complete the challenge...but, y'know, can we just look at the big picture here? And that is that sleep deprivation is BAD for weight loss. Bad. STOOPID challenge. But hey, did you see Sione's ARMS at one point near the end when he was on the bike? That was MUSCLE, baybee! It was pretty wow. They can flash his arms on my screen again anytime, thanks.

Oh, and Tara? Did you actually sit there on my TV whining about being scared that you won't "look good" to your new team members? Hello?!? Spare me! You're TARA, for the love of gawd! Wake up! NOBODY in the house thinks you're not an asset to your team. Nobody in the FREAKIN VIEWING AUDIENCE ALL AROUND THE WORLD thinks you're a slacker! Please!

Other miscellaneous observations about the challenge:

  • I liked the attempt at trash-talking between Mandi and Helen near the beginning - it was nice to see something that fun and good-natured.
  • Anybody else notice Alison's righteous cardigan at the end of the challenge? I'd knit that.

And best quote of the show:

Aubrey: My ass is on FIRE.
Mandi: Oh, it'll go numb, don't worry.

Tomorrow: (SPOILERS)

The contestants adjust to their newly formed teams and take a quiz about aging and health; after a grueling workout, another contestant is eliminated.

And next week: (again, SPOILERS)

Chef Rocco DiSpirito takes contestants to a restaurant, where they learn to make healthier choices when dining out; contestants compete in a lively cook-off, preparing healthier versions of their favorite meals.

And the week after that: (more SPOILERS)

The team that wins a 24-hour fitness relay is promised 24 hours of luxury, but some contestants are unable to resist temptation; one contestant has it out with the trainer; one contestant is eliminated.

Finally, FYI, the new teams - people marked with an asterisk are those who have switched trainers. Teams marked with a plus sign are those who have been split up from their original partner. Teams marked with a number sign are those whose original partner is no longer in the house.

BLACK (Jillian)
Helen*#
Filipe*
Laura
Mike*+
Sione*
Tara

BLUE (Bob)
Aubrey*
Cathy
Dane*#
Kristin
Mandi*
Ron+

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Biggest Loser Review, 2009/02/17

In this week's show, we see that Tara has more issues than the archives department of Chatelaine. :)

So most of the house is forced to work outside the gym this week. Drama. So Bob discovers that his team went against his wishes and kicked Blaine out of the house instead of Dane. Drama. (Although not as much as I thought there was going to be, admittedly. Notice how Ron got to be the one who told Bob about what happened? Good move there on the part of the team - Bob probably would have gone kinda ballistic on anybody else.) Laura is feeling pressure and inadequacy. Drama. Tara misses Blaine and can't concentrate. Drama.

Notice a theme?

Most infuriating part of the episode, though? Shanon's homemade "MEMBER'S ONLY" sign. And this after she actually had to ask her mother how to spell "members".

GAH!!!

Shanon, it is bad enough that your voice and intonation constantly enter the Whine Zone, now this. Where are my fellow grammar nitpickers to back me up here?

I am, however, really really glad that they started profiling Ron's alternative workout techniques and showing people actually using the goddamn pool for a change. Thank HEAVENS. I know that they DO use the pool at the ranch a whole lot, because I've read interviews with contestants who say that the pool gets used all the time; it's just that we never SEE it, which is very annoying since "aquacise", whether you're swimming or whatever, is such an awesome method of getting fit. It's also been extremely annoying watching Ron have this injury all these weeks and not be told what exercises they're having him to do to get around it - this would be extraordinarily valuable information for a significant portion of the viewing audience at home, no? So I'm really happy they finally covered it a bit this week. All the different stuff you can do "sans gym" was also informative. Keep that up, please.

And then we slip into The Tara Show. Honestly, as pathetic as it was, I didn't get annoyed at her, because finally we're starting to see the kinds of issues she has which got her to almost 300 pounds. She is a control freak. She wants to control everyone and everything, and she hasn't accepted yet that she can't. Laura being a weaker teammate freaks her out. Black going below the yellow line and Blaine going home freaks her out. Not having the gym freaks her out. Add to that the tremendous pressure she's been putting on herself since day one, and how hard she's been pushing herself (thanks ever so for more shots of her throwing up, by the way, that's exactly what I needed to see), and of COURSE she hit a wall. (Normal people would have hit it WEEKS before she did, I think.) What did surprise me (because Jillian's usually so good at getting to the heart of people's issues) was that her trainer didn't seem to dig deeper into what was going on and start forcing Tara to deal with her control issues. It would have been really helpful if Jillian had, I think.

The real criticism I have is, what is up with Tara being THAT attached to Blaine? She went to pieces in the elimination room last week and you could kind of see this wary fear enter Blaine's eyes, like, "OMG with the inappropriate, my WIFE is going to be watching this..." before he said (very platonically, I thought), some kind of "You're a very special person too, Tara" platitude. I don't think that there's actually anything going on between Tara and Blaine, but I think maybe Tara wants there to be? Yeesh.

The mud sequence was hilarious. It's so good to see that there's a basic high level of genuine camaraderie in the house which crosses teams. That was awesome. Also, the interviewing and profiling we saw of Kristin really let us see how far she's come. I mean, she's still really big, but by comparison to how she was at the beginning of the show, the transformation is really noticeable. Way to go, Kristin.

And then - weigh-in time!

(Just as a quick aside...I think it's so ridiculous the way the women totally doll themselves up for the weigh-in, season after season...they've got the PERFECT hair, the GORGEOUS makeup, and...spandex. Yeah. That's a look.)

Anyhoo, we had a lot of redeeming successes this week, which was great: Aubrey, Kristin (although, duh, since I'm sure she waterloaded last week), Laura (one of the top 2 losers of the week AGAIN; y'know, they have just got to stop painting her as this pathetic cancer on Tara's ass, because although she doesn't have Tara's drive or capabilities, she's still taken them to second place in challenges for the last two weeks, and she can be an enormous threat at weigh-ins), and Ron (phew!). Dane had a bad week, but I'm sure he would have waterloaded at least a little bit with immunity. Sione and Filipe had a bit of an off-week (for them), but not enough to bring them close to the yellow line. Helen, meanwhile, is a machine, cranking out these 5- and 6-pound weight losses every week (which, at her weight, is really good), with 8- and 9- pound losses showing up as well. Sadly, her partner didn't back her up this week, loss-wise, and they fell below the yellow line.

(And am I the only one who wishes they'd bring back the concept of giving some kind of prize to the biggest loser of the week? I miss that.)

Then things got weird. Pink bucked the parent-sacrificing-for-child theme that's been running throughout this entire season by asking to send Shanon home. And it was pretty clear that this decision sat sort of "iffily" on Shanon's shoulders. Once Pink went back to their room, they started having second thoughts, and everyone else in the house expressed doubt that sending Shanon home was the right decision. Gameplay-wise, it's hard to say exactly what would have been the better move for each team - is Shanon the bigger threat because she has more to lose, or is Helen the bigger threat because, well, she always does really well? It's a tough call. So instead, I think everyone abandoned all thoughts of gameplay and just accepted Pink's wishes. In one way, this was nice, because it's respectful and builds goodwill, but on the other hand, it wasn't so great, because it was probably the better decision to give Shanon more time on the ranch, as Kristen and Ron pointed out during the discussion.

Fortunately, Shanon's done a really good job at home - she's got a 16.8% at-home weight loss percentage, which is an extremely close second (Jerry's was 16.9%) of all the eliminated contestants we've seen so far (that we've been given concrete weight numbers for, anyway). She's got some waist definition going on and is under 200 pounds! Yay!

(My husband was shocked to hear that Roller Derby still existed.)

Back on the ranch, though, the person I'm really concerned about is Cathy. She's lost 30 pounds over 7 weeks for a total weight-loss percentage of 10.24%. By comparison, the average total weight-loss percentage of everyone else is 19.11%. (Tara is currently the leader at an unbelievable 24.49% loss - after week SEVEN! - awesome.) I don't know exactly what's happening with her, especially since she doesn't have injuries like Ron (that we know of) which could hold her back...but she's just not dropping the weight. Once things go to individuals, she could be in serious trouble. :(

On the plus side, there are some excellent results to report from this week:

  • Kristen and Sione both fell below 300 pounds
  • Mike, Sione, Helen, Mandi and Filipe all passed the 20% total weight-loss mark (Tara and Dane passed it last week)
  • Dane is now merely "clinically obese" (he started the show at "super obese")
  • Shanon is now merely "clinically obese" (she started the show at "morbidly obese")

Some potential milestones to watch for next week:

  • Helen could fall below 200 pounds (she's now 205)
  • Mike could fall below 300 pounds (he's now 307)
  • Ron could fall below 350 pounds (he's now 354)
  • Aubrey and Laura could move from "clinically obese" to "obese" (their BMIs are currently 35.9 and 35.6, respectively)
  • If she loses anything, Cathy will move from "morbidly obese" to "clinically obese" (her BMI is currently 40)
  • Filipe and Sione could move from "morbidly obese" to "clinically obese" (their BMIs are currently 40.6 and 40.1, respectively)
  • Mandi could move from "obese" to "overweight" (her BMI is currently 31)
  • If Tara loses just two pounds, she will have lost over a quarter of her bodyweight since the beginning of the show

But enough of the speculation - here's what we know will happen next week: (SPOILERS)

The teams are re-organized, leaving many contestants without their original trainers; each team tries to bike as many miles as they can in a 24-hour period

According to this link, there's a Biggest Loser article in Entertainment Weekly (the one with Lost on the cover) which shows behind-the-scenes stuff, including what looks like Dane wearing a BLUE shirt (I guess Bob's about to get a loss less pissy that the house didn't vote out Dane last week!). So things are about to get verrry interesting!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Biggest Loser Review, 2009/02/10

I've been concerned since the beginning about the dynamic of Mandi's marriage. Even on the phone in week 2, Rusty didn't sound tremendously loving and supportive. It was nice to see how happy he was to see her, but I'm really not convinced that he's on-side. Jillian made an excellent point about this "silent agreement" that's in some relationships, and that could certainly be what's happening here. Mandi's doing SO well in the house; she's now in fourth place with total weight loss percentage, and you can SEE the differences in her body every time she gets up on the scale for the weigh-in. But I just don't know how she's going to do once she gets home. I really think she needs to stay in the house for a good long time just to get her into the right headspace. Oh, and this part is a little mean but I did do a wee bit of snorting when I heard they'd named their kids "Dawson" and "Remington". Just smacks a little bit too much of "trying to get fancy" with the names (and increasing the chances that they'll get beat up on at school, I might add).

I loved how focused Purple was at that challenge, both of them. I felt bad that after all that pain, Green didn't get it, but Purple so really deserved it.

Of COURSE Mike cried in the last chance workout, Bob, you were putting diamond-creating pressure on him all week! "Do it right or you'll leave this house and your dad will DIE." Geez! And can we stop calling him "Mikey" please, it's driving me nuts! Is he a kid or "becoming a man in this house"? Make a choice, Bob!

(Speaking of the brown team, I was appalled to hear that brother Max is 16. I thought from the photo shot that we saw in an earlier week that he was OLDER than Mike. 16 and that overweight - MAN, that family needs help.)

Bob is going to LOSE it on his team when he finds out that almost everybody voted for Blaine instead of Dane. But I understand why they all did it - it's really hard to ignore the emotional punch of a guy having a new baby at home. But is it just me, or are these at-home contestants not losing very much after they get home? Seriously, look at it - we've got about a three- or four-month time lag between the going home and the airing of the episode. That's a really long time, and yet this is what people have been losing in that time:

  • Blaine: 20lbs (6.7% from leaving the ranch)
  • Carla: 47lbs (13.9% from leaving the ranch)
  • Damien: 43lbs (12.3% from leaving the ranch)
  • Daniel: 41lbs (10.4% from leaving the ranch)
  • Jerry: 58lbs (16.9% from leaving the ranch)
  • Joelle: 26lbs (9.4% from leaving the ranch)

I'm pretty sure I remember in previous seasons that there were much more profound changes taking place between going home and the "after" profile (with the exception of Jerry, who did really well). Am I nuts?

Some other thoughts...

  • It suddenly occurred to me this week that Dane is going to be drop-dead GORGEOUS when he loses that weight. Those lips are killer.
  • I was really nervous for the yellow team's chances at the weigh-in until I saw Mandi's midriff. Holy CRAP, her results are so visible!
  • I'm not exactly sure what happened with Kristin this week. I think her excitement at the prospect of breaking 300 was genuine, as was her disappointment at gaining. So...did she really waterload? It wouldn't make much sense if neither of them didn't try to waterload just a little bit, with immunity this week. But if Kristin didn't waterload, how could she possibly have gained? I'm totally confused.
  • Yellow seriously needs to grow a pair and grab some mental toughness.
  • The expression on Helen's face when Shannon knocked her off her brick was HILARIOUS. Oh, but she was seriously pissed off. I felt bad for her, but at the same time I couldn't help laughing at the "oh, child, you are SO dead, I'm gonna smack you." face. :)
  • Tara is now top of the weight loss percentage list, at 22.11%. Also, with this week's weight loss, she's now merely "obese", as opposed to "clinically obese", where she was last week, or "morbidly obese", which is where she started. She's dropped almost 10 points off her BMI. Wow!
  • I'm so happy for Filipe at getting under 300! I loved his expression when he realised that. I was glad that Blaine did the same thing, but it was bittersweet because it wasn't by much.
  • I was watching the difference between Helen's face in the pre-elimination debate vs. Helen's face in interviews, and I have to say that I think she looks scads better without makeup.
  • Seeing the pre-elimination debate was really sad. Jillian's team did a LOT of damage to what was some really excellent harmony in the house with that surprise Damien/Joelle voting move. Kristin, for example, has totally lost trust. And I didn't appreciate Tara whining about how Jillian's team has always been at a disadvantage. Numbers-wise, sure, but in terms of player strength, the advantage is with Jillian's team. Plus, it's Jillian - she always manages to pull it out somehow.

That's all I got! A decent show, nothing spectacular. Hopefully we'll up the genuine shmaltz factor next week: (SPOILER)

Contestants learn to work out creatively, without the use of the gym; the teams compete in a rowing machine challenge.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The Biggest Loser Review, 2009/02/03

This week, we get right back on the Joelle Train! All aboard the Pathetic Drama Express! Our stops today will be Lazyville; Relax-your-partner's-back-and-you-can-lean-on-her-to-do-all-the-work Junction; the corner of Lying-outright-about-your-effort and Refusing-to-take-any-responsibility-at-all; and, of course, our very last stop, Bullshitopolis. Once we reach our final stop, this train will be out of service. Do not attempt to board the train, it will not be returning to the ranch.

AUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! I mean, seriously! What the bleep is WRONG with Joelle?!? I mean, yes, we still saw less credit being given to her than she deserved - I am sick and tired of the implications that Carla somehow was this miracle weight-loser and effort-giver in Week 1 when she did even worse than Joelle; and I don't think it's fair that nobody mentioned Joelle's commitment and subsequent weight loss last week. But shit, woman! Get your head out of your ass! You had two choices the week after your big success in Week 4:

  1. "Wow! That success felt great! I think I'll keep up the work so I can get that feeling again!"

    OR

  2. "Oh, thank heaven's that's over. Carla's back. Now I can sit on my ass again and let her do all the work for both of us."

And hey, guess what happened.

I think Tara summed it up best: Joelle was given every chance time and again, and we're all sick to death of it. (Did you see everybody's faces when Joelle started trying to blow it up their skirts right before elimination? NOBODY. WAS. BUYING. IT. Honey, at some point you have to ask yourself which is more likely: that EVERYONE else in the house is misunderstanding you, you poor thing; or that maybe, just MAYBE, the problem is with, oh, I don't know...YOU?!?) It sucks that Carla got screwed in the process of giving Joelle what she deserved, but hey. I was never a Carla fan anyway, I think she just exacerbated Joelle's issues.

Back at home, we see that Joelle has not changed at all, and her 57-pound total weight loss, while signficantly better than nothing, indicates that she's still not committed. That's only 26 additional pounds lost in the "several months" since leaving the ranch (according to the words on the screen during "how they're doing now" part of the show). And in her meeting with Carla, we see that she STILL refuses to take responsibility for what she did (or, more accurately, DIDN'T do) while on the ranch. Carla, at last, gave her some good communication ("That made me feel like you didn't care about me,") and still...nuthin'.

Frankly, I'm glad to see the back of both of them. All in all, I think the mood in the house will be SCADS better after this.

Also, I'm hoping like hell that Mike and Ron can get it back on track. Poor Ron. His body just can't put in the effort that the rest of them can. And he needs to be there SOOOO badly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they can really pull it out next week. I'm also hoping that Cathy can have a good week next show, because right now, at 8.53%, she's sitting at the lowest total weight loss percentage of everybody in the house - and that's even if you compare her to Carla and Joelle after the Week 5 weigh-in.

And speaking of total weight loss, we've got some very impressive results after the Week 5 weigh-in, which incidentally, the women kicked ASS on! (Top 6 weight loss percentages for the week were achieved by women.) Leading the pack of total weight loss for the third week in the row, we have Dane at 18.93%. In second place we have Tara at 18.37%; in third place there's Blaine with 16.99%; in fourth place there's Kristin with 16.39%; and in fifth there's Mandi at 15.97%. Aren't those numbers awesome?

Other good news:

  • Blaine has gone from being morbidly obese at the beginning of the season (BMI 40.1) to being merely obese (BMI 33.3).
  • Helen has gone from being morbidly obese at the beginning of the season (BMI 41.5) to being merely obese (BMI 34.9).
  • Kristin has dropped almost TEN points off her BMI since she started, moving from 58.1 (ouch) to 48.6, and is now no longer super-obese.

There are other good BMI successes too, but those are the highlights.

The only other thing I have to say about this episode is that I didn't appreciate Jillian whining about how she's the underdog with her three teams against five thing. Let's remember that Jillian is UNDEFEATED through all 6 completed seasons of this show while poor Bob has been left winnerless every single time. He's got a good bunch of people this season, and Jillian's team was the first to start the unscrupulous game-playing this time around, so I think this might just be Bob's turn to win, and Jillian should stop complaining. Especially since, in my opinion, she has three of the four strongest teams in the house (the fourth being Blue). Of course, if I were her, I'd want to win every single season too, but at some point it's just GOT to be Bob's time.

Oh, and also, the product placements are just getting more and more painful. (Kids love Cheerios! Adults love Cheerios! Cheerios are healthy! What's not to like!) Anybody else find it odd that they were shilling HONEY NUT CHEERIOS as a healthy cereal? Hello? With its sugar content? Holy crap, DH and I could not believe it.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about this week's show. Next week: (SPOILER ALERT)

"The winner of a balancing challenge wins a 24-hour visit from someone back home; one player is sent home following a grueling test of endurance."

I'm intrigued. And I hope like hell it isn't Ron sent home because his body poops out on him. :(