alisonsweeney

(S08E09) Suddenly, it's game on! After this week's double elimination, we're left with our final six competitors. Now they've no choice but to start playing the game. No more of this "who deserves to be here" crap, because there's a quarter of a million dollars on the line and they're starting to smell the finish line.

With Tracey gone, it looks like the producers have found their next "villain," though it could just as easily be a case of the whineys with another contestant -- a contestant with a history of whining.

Both challenges were endurance events, with one having the contestants jump up and grab tennis balls secured to a panel by velcro strips, and the other having them jump off a trampoline and through a hoop a couple of hundred times. When Ali announced that it took 100 jumps through a contestant's hoops to eliminate them, I was flabbergasted. I was also pretty sure we were going to see an injury.

(S08E07) As promised, absolutely everything Biggest Loser was transported to our nation's capitol, Washington DC, for the week. The contestants had to deal with vacation eating, exercising, and even their challenges and the weigh-in happened surrounded by national monuments.

It was a pretty exciting thing for our contestants, and even Bob and Jillian were somewhat in awe of the majesty of where they were. The episode wasn't as emotionally gripping as it's been the last few weeks, but I think a lot of that has to do with the distractions of everything that was going on this week.

It's hard to have an emotional breakthrough when you're away from the comfort of the Ranch and the Biggest Loser Gym, and all the trappings that have come to make these contestants feel at home. So I found myself worried as to what would happen after a week of chaos when these guys got up on that scale.

(S08E06) What's the most bittersweet prize you can win on The Biggest Loser? A trip home. Oh how great it is to see your family, but all that time at home with your favorite temptations and without Bob and Jillian kicking your ass up one side of the gym and down the other. It can also be the worst reward possible.

At this week's opening reward challenge, the winning team won tickets home. But, to make things more interesting, they also got a choice. They could take the tickets and the trip home, or they could send the other team home, thus gaining the advantage of an extra week in the gym with their trainer.

I was looking for a lot of things to happen this week, but I was a little surprised at what came about with Daniel. He's been such a positive force of inspiration and support that I was actually surprised when he had an emotional epiphany and breakdown stemming all the way back to his initial weight gain.

(S08E05) It's been a lot of fun seeing Bob and Jillian working together to help everyone on the Ranch lose weight and become better people. It was a good idea to pair up these total strangers as teams of two, so that they could develop a personal support structure. Everyone was in a good and happy place, and things were moving along.

Everyone except for Tracey. It is amazing how soundly she is despised in this game by nearly everyone there.

But still ... one big happy family, right? Wrong! This week everything we thought we knew about this season was thrown out the window, and once again a single contestant was given ultimate power in how the new face of The Biggest Loser would play out. At least until they change it again.

(S08E04) Last week's episode of The Biggest Loser was about choices. Tracey made the choice to become the most hated woman in the house. This week, the theme was again choices. More specifically, how do you choose what to eat when you have to eat out? To drive home the point, Alison locked up the kitchen and forced the contestants to eat out for every meal this week.

To make matters even worse, Tracey hasn't been able to work out at all, and as the promos showed, her frustrations with her health continued into this week. However, despite restricted exercise, Tracey dropped eleven pounds last week. Could she do it again?

Could they all hang in there to make it another week on the Ranch? See, that was funny because of this week's challenge. Everybody had to hang on an incline above a pool as long as they could. Scary thought for 437-pound Shay. But surprises awaited.

(S08E03) Perhaps as a response to no one going home last week, or maybe it was always in the cards, but tonight saw the elimination of entire teams as opposed to the individual elimination of week one that sent Alexandra home. This meant that the stakes couldn't be higher as everyone was going to have to pull their weight to shed those pounds and keep their team safe, right?

You'd think so.

In a very interesting and revealing twist, Alison announced that this week on The Biggest Loser Ranch, it was all about choices. As such, she set up several scenarios, challenges and temptations whereby people could make choices that could not only affect their fate in the game, but everyone else's, as well. Let me tell you, choices were made and all hell broke loose!

(S08E02) It's week two on The Biggest Loser ranch, and you know what that means? You don't? Well, let me tell you.

Biggest Loser first week weigh-ins are notorious for ridiculously huge numbers. These people are shocking previously inactive bodies they've been filling with the worst possible foods into a sudden regimen of regular exercise and proper diet. Before their bodies can react, they dump weight. It's nothing for contestants to drop 20-30 pounds in the first week.

By the second week, their bodies go into a protective mode, hoarding carbs as they try to figure out just what the hell is going on. It's common for contestants to turn around and drop only a pound or two, or even gain weight. So why not, Alison Sweeney, come out and tell the contestants that if the 15 of them can collectively lose 150 pounds in week two, none of them will be going home. If they fail, two are out. No pressure, right?

Next week is the season finale of this run of The Biggest Loser. But before we can get there, they had to perform the hardest task of their entire lives; a full 26.2 mile marathon. All this while spending 30 days at home. But this isn't the going home before the finale trip. This 30 days culminated in another weigh in before the finale. And the revelation that only three of the final four would be competing for the quarter of a million dollars.

I've really found myself enjoying the gameplay this season, especially the Ronfather's maneuvering to keep his son Mike in the game. The fact that he somehow managed to keep himself in the game to this point is equally astonishing. In fact, considering his extensive injuries and the sheer number of times he's fallen below the yellow line, I think we need to give him credit for being one of the shrewdest players in the game. But let's look at all four of our finalists.