The Biggest Loser 5 Episode 1 saw the elimination of someone who stole the spot of someone who actually wanted to be there, Lynn, with his daughter Jenni being dragged down with him. 8 teams weighed in with losses of over 5%, with half of them above 6%.
Remember last week when the first challenge was a competition to get the trainer the teams preferred? Yeah, never mind that. Jillian and Bob have teamed up and will train people together. Partly because none of us could tell who was on which side anyway (seriously, which trainer’s team went home last week?). Partly because they plan to gather ’round the campfire and sing Kumbaya.
The biggest drama of the first training session besides that is Bette-Sue falling on the treadmill and yet still getting back up and continuing.
Now it’s time to disgust the players by showing them how much fat/sugar/calories/etc. they eat.
The difference between Neill and Amanda continues to be a topic of discussion. It was no surprise that she lost more weight than he did last week. As before, Jillian gets on his case. She asks why he’s there. He says to get thin. Wrong answer. True but wrong answer. This time, she won’t let anybody else leave the gym until he walks for an hour.
For the challenge, the teams get massive seesaws, on which they must go up and down 100 times. The reward is calling cards for calls home. After about a dozen reps, Trent is out to avoid being injured. As with last week, Jay & Mark are going head to head with Bernie & Brittany for the win, with Jay & Mark a bit ahead. Jay & Mark manage to pull out the win, a bit ahead of Bernie & Brittany, and Curtis & Mallory a bit behind them. The second and third place teams continue until they hit 100. After they get their prize, Alison tells them they can choose three other teams who will receive calls home as well.
Curtis & Mallory, Trent & Roger, and Amanda & Neill are their choices. While I get their reasoning about picking people with young kids, it’s a low blow not to give one set of cards to the team that was right behind them, while giving two of the sets of cards to the teams that performed the worst (granted, Trent & Roger at least had a reasonable excuse for performing poorly, while Neill just simply doesn’t try). Allegedly, giving the card to Neill is supposed to give him a wakeup call. Demonstrating that he’s been awakened, Neill tells Jillian he’s going to use his call in the middle of the workout. She pulls him outside to talk to him one on one, taking a kinder, gentler approach than she normally does. I say just slap him upside the head.
Damn local NBC affiliate decided to waste about 10 minutes of my time with something I didn’t care about. Apparently there’s an election going on or… something. So I missed a few minutes before finally deciding I had to switch to the other NBC to see if they were back on or not.
Alison asks one member from every team to get up and leave. It’s time for the first temptation. There’s a feast, and they’ll have 4 minutes to eat as much as they want. The first set of people will go first, then the second set will go later. The team that eats the most will win $5,000.
Of the first set, most people just walk around sniffing stuff. Amanda says she’s not going to eat and hopes Neill does the same. Paul says he’s got about 900 calories left in his daily allotment that he hasn’t eaten yet. Should have kept it to himself because he convinces Mark to do the same. Mallory grabs some M&M’s.
Mallory ate 210 calories, while Curtis didn’t eat anything.
Paul ate 912 calories, while Kelly didn’t eat anything.
Mark ate 925 calories, while Jay didn’t eat anything.
None of the other teams ate anything.
Paul blew it, giving Mark the win. Needless to say, Jillian and Bob are upset.
Roger: 340 (-3)
Trent: 401 (-6)
Total: -9 pounds, 1.20%
Bernie: 261 (-5)
Brittany: 210 (-1)
Total: -6 pounds, 1.26%
Paul: 283 (-3)
Kelly: 257 (-1)
Total: -4 pounds, 0.74%
Jay: 275 (-5)
Mark: 261 (-7)
Total: -12 pounds, 2.19%
Maggie: 227 (-2)
Jenn: 240 (-2)
Total: -4 pounds, 0.85%
Bette-Sue: 239 (-6)
Ali: 212 (-3)
Total: -9 pounds, 1.96%
Jackie: 223 (-8)
Dan: 277 (-8)
Total: -16 pounds, 3.10%
Curtis: 356 (-3)
Mallory: 204 (+1)
Total: -2 pounds, 0.36%
Neill: 298 (-6)
Amanda: 190 (no change)
Total: -6 pounds, 1.21%
Brutal second week. 6 of the remaining people lost two pounds or less, up to and including one who gained weight, something we normally don’t see for at least a few weeks. The women in particular had a pretty disastrous showing. There were some bright spots, though. Jackie & Dan are proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Mark & Jay continue to be very strong. A very surprisingly strong team is Bette-Sue & Ali.
The two teams below the yellow line are Curtis & Mallory and Paul & Kelly, two of the three teams with members who gave into temptation. While they may try to play this up, they didn’t spend much time on the fact that Mark lost 5 pounds, regardless of having won the temptation. Curtis & Mallory seem to be the more dangerous team of the two, and it would be smart to get rid of them while they can, though I’d expect most of the teams to be closer to them than Paul & Kelly.
Votes:
Neill & Amanda: Paul & Kelly
Bette-Sue & Ali: Curtis & Mallory
Roger & Trent: Paul & Kelly
Mark & Jay: Paul & Kelly
Maggie & Jenn: Curtis & Mallory
Jackie & Dan: Curtis & Mallory
Bernie & Brittany: Curtis & Mallory
The message seems to be that Paul & Kelly aren’t yet ready to go home, whereas Curtis & Mallory are much stronger and more likely to succeed should they go home. An accurate assessment. A classy team to be getting booted, though.
Curtis is down now from 381 pounds to 298; Mallory is down from 217 to 184.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser: Couples episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.