The Biggest Loser 8 hasn’t even started yet, but that’s not stopping them from casting for The Biggest Loser 9. Season 9 will feature family teams of two.

While they will try to see everyone, “The Biggest Loser” casting teams will do their best to see the first 500 people in line. People will not be allowed to line up prior to three hours before the start of the open call. Candidates should bring a non-returnable photo of them and their partner.

JUNE 27

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Father and son Ron Morelli and Mike Morelli, the last remaining team, fell below the yellow line in the final weigh-in in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 18. America’s vote will save one of them and put him in the final three with Tara Costa and Helen Phillips.

Tonight’s show is three hours. Three hours? Seriously? It normally takes an hour to weigh in the final four with a two hour show. How much more filler can you possibly add? It’s not like there’s a lot to cover. Apparently NBC is desperately waiting for Leno.

The first order of business is to find out who America voted for. Unsurprisingly, America has picked Mike. He looks like he’s down around 50%, so he should prove to be stiff competition. Now that we’ve found that out, we know the final three, and one of them will be The Biggest Loser season 7 winner.

Allison has a new twist for tonight. Two people are competing for the final spot on next season’s show, and America will be able to choose who should make it. The first contestant is Erinn, a senior in college who weighs 239 pounds. She recently ended a relationship of two years, not wanting her boyfriend to look at her or touch her. The second contestant is Amanda, a 19 year old who weighs 257 pounds. She didn’t bother to go to prom because she didn’t think anybody liked her, but she tries to hide behind a smile. Bob and Jillian are in a backstage gym waiting for them.

Jerry has dropped from a 62 inch waist to a 39 inch waist and eliminated all of his diseases and medicine (including the medicine that caused him to collapse the first show).

Nicole hopes to get into her wedding dress tonight, a size 8.

Over 166,000 people pledged their weight loss to support the Pound for Pound Challenge. In total, they pledged 2.9 million pounds so far. Continuing this project, for every pound pledged this summer, General Mills will donate one pound of food up to 1 million pounds.

Now it’s time to start the weigh-in for the at home prize.

Estella: 159 pounds (-83, 34.30%)

Jerry: 192 pounds (-177, 47.97%)

Damien: 245 pounds (-136, 35.70%)

Nicole: 146 pounds (-123, 45.72%)

Carla has apparently decided she no longer hates Joelle.

Sione: 226 pounds (-146, 39.25%)

Filipe: 229 pounds (-135, 37.09%)

Carla: 251 pounds (-128, 33.77%)

Joelle: 229 pounds (-80, 25.89%)

Jerry came from left field here as someone who probably surprised a lot of people. At 64 years old, he’s still got the lead after about half the others have weighed in.

Blaine: 249 pounds (-116, 31.78%)

Dane: 258 pounds (-154, 37.38%)

Mandi: 171 pounds (-92, 34.98%)

Aubrey: 194 pounds (-55, 22.09%)

Aubrey’s current weight reflects a 3 pound gain from when she left campus.

Cathy: 198 pounds (-95, 32.42%)

Kristin: 193 pounds (-167, 46.39%)

David: 350 pounds (-42, 10.71%)

Dan: 312 pounds (-142, 31.28%)

People were questioning Dan’s commitment when they kicked him off the show, but he’s done a great job on his own, although his partner has struggled.

Laura: 199 pounds (-86, 30.18%)

Shanon: 191 pounds (-92, 32.51%)

Ron: 238 pounds (-192, 44.65%)

Nicole, Kristin, and Ron gave him a run for his money, but the oldest contestant in the show’s history, Jerry, who left in week two, has managed to lose the most weight at home and win the $100,000 prize.

We’re two hours through, and yet this has not been much more fillerific than usual. With one hour left, though, here comes the filler. An hour to weigh three people.

Tara’s coming off her record breaking season. She won 12 challenges (the most for anyone), lost 135 pounds on campus (the most ever for a woman), and never fell below the yellow line for 18 straight weeks.

Tara has decided the weigh-in will be in order from lowest percentage of weight loss to highest percentage of weight loss on campus.

Before that, though, America’s vote has decided who will appear on the next season. Amanda has been chosen.

Now it’s time for the final weigh-in of the season, and all three of them look like they’ve made great progress.

Helen: 117 pounds (-140, 54.47%)

Mike: 181 pounds (-207, 53.35%)

Tara: 139 pounds (-155, 52.72%)

For the third season in a row, there is a female Biggest Loser. Helen Phillips is The Biggest Loser Couples 2 winner. If NBC had written this script, I’d imagine they would have ended it differently, but Helen deserves credit for a job well done.

The Biggest Loser may be in its 7th season, but it’s proving increasingly to be one of NBC’s biggest successes. It came as no surprise when NBC renewed the show for season 8.

Filipe was voted out in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 17.

The final four contestants will be heading home for 30 days before returning for one final weigh-in before the finale.

Mike’s afraid of returning to his old habits, including his biggest problem, the fast food restaurants, which for some reason need to be blurred out by the show, as does the non-show sponsor gym 100 yards away from the fast food place he used to work.

Helen starts going through her closet. Are the pants hers or her husband’s?

Ron hopes for a better life with his family, including his sons that he’s enabled to become 400 pounds. Mike now enjoys exercising, but they need to work on his other son Max.

Tara is ready to start living. She heads right away to her favorite restaurant from before she left, where she’s hoping to be able to make smarter choices.

On day 4, Mike’s hungry all the time. Tara misses Jillian already.

Tara has decided to give her $25,000 kitchen makeover to her mom.

As with the last time they went home, they’ve received some packages from The Biggest Loser. They get DVDs from Allison. In 26 days, they will all run a marathon. For real. With no producers giving them a ride the last 6 miles (apparently). The last time they went home, they all had to run half a marathon, which they did sucessfully (Ron notwithstanding).

Jillian will surprise her people and pay them a visit. Mike had better be at the gym, or there will be hell to pay. He is at the gym, and he’s there with his brother Max. He’s doing okay. Not amazing. Actually, not even okay. He says the marathon is stressing him out because it’s constantly in the back of his mind, and he also has a lot to focus on with worrying about not only his goals but his brother as well. Jillian’s lesson for him is that he doesn’t need to make his brother better just to feel better himself. He needs to allow himself to feel the pain of what he’s been through.

Then she heads to see Tara, whose room is a disaster. She’s gone from one extreme to another and needs to find some balance. Jillian’s plan: go workout and then go get a drink. One drink and one dessert won’t kill her, as long as she doesn’t go too far back in that direction.

Now it’s Bob’s turn. He stops off to see Ron. Like everybody else, he’s stressed out about the marathon. Bob doesn’t think he should put his body through that stress. His previous half marathon effort ended at the 4 mile mark, but he says he’s going to give it a shot. While he’s there, Bob wants to help out Max, who he sees as the third member of the brown team. Could have done without seeing the vomit. Once they’re done with the workout, Bob sends him out to get whatever it is he would normally eat on the weekend. He gets a double cheeseburger, large chocolate shake, and french fries. Not as bad as I would have expected. Bob cuts his meal in half and tells him that would be sufficient, but instead he will eat at Subway.

Jillian’s last stop is Helen’s house. She’s at a restaurant where she got fat, realizing she can’t eat a lot from that menu. Same strategy as with Tara: give her a drink. Helen says that she’s so tired, but she has to keep going.

The full marathon will take them across 26.2 miles of farmland, mountains, hiking trails, and the Pacific Ocean coastline. If they finish the marathon, they will receive $10,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. Due to an injury 4 days before the marathon, Mike has been instructed by the doctors to not run, but he will participate anyway and will be walking. At mile marker 4, their loved ones are there to join them for as long as they can. Even Max has decided to join in the walk alongside his brother. He gets in about 4 miles, a good amount over the tough terrain considering he’s over 400 pounds. Ron’s knees are starting to bother him about mile 5. Eventually, Ali Vincent from season 5 joins Tara for a bit, and she says she’s been inspired by her. As for Helen, she gets a visit from Michelle Aguilar from season 6, the second person to prove this is not just a man’s game. Mike gets a visit from Bernie from season 5, who won the at home prize. Bernie tells him that he’s still going to finish 26.2 miles, whether he’s walking it or not, so he should give himself some credit. Jillian’s waiting at mile 25, and she’s not surprised that Tara is the first person she sees. Tara hopes Jillian can keep up. She crosses the finish line in a time of 4:55:09. Helen has also finished, and she crosses the finish line in 5:48:45. Mike is done as well, and he crosses at 8:58:03.

Ron is still on the course, somewhere. At mile 16, he’s being tended to by the paramedics due to elevated blood pressure that came on all of a sudden, as well as continuing pain in his knee. Dr. H leaves it up to him whether he wants to continue. If he has to stop and rest for an hour, that’s what he’ll do. At mile 17, he’s greeted by the whole lot of previous Biggest Loser contestants, and they’re all going to walk with him to the finish to make sure he arrives. Then Bob joins him at mile 21, and eventually the other contestants join in as well, walking through the night. Ron ends up completing the marathon and crosses the finish line at 13 hours 16 minutes. He’s come quite a long way even since just week 11 and the half marathon.

It’s time for one final weigh-in after having been home for 30 days. The two people with the highest weight loss will be guaranteed a spot in the final three, and America will choose from whoever falls below the yellow line.

Ron: 279 pounds (-10, 3.46%)

Mike: 214 pounds (-10, 4.46%)

Helen: 147 pounds (-7, 4.55%)

Tara: 159 pounds (-10, 5.92%)

Helen and Tara are in the final three, leaving America to decide between Mike and his father Ron. As much credit as Ron deserves for going as far as he’s gone, the finale would not be complete without Mike, who’s lost the most weight in the history of the show. Ron asks for America to vote for his son. Mike says he’d be okay either way.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 19, where we will find out who The Biggest Loser Couples 2 winner is, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

In a tie vote, Kristin was voted out in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 16.

Allison shows everybody a video that lets them see how far they’ve come. Then she tells them this is their last week on campus.

Their workout is a trip back as well, showing them how much easier everything is now than it used to be.

Then Tara and Helen put on some clothes that they never thought they’d fit in. Mike also realizes that he’s able to fit into his goal outfit already.

After that, it’s a visit to the doctor. Helen has lost 106 pounds of hydrated fat, and her biological age has decreased from 60 to 50. Filipe has dropped from 58 inches to 43. Mike is down from a 65 inch waist (he thought it was 56 inches) and has dropped 54% of the area of his waist now. Ron couldn’t even fit in the MRI machine the first time. In addition to his fat loss, his blood tests are now normal.

Today’s challenge is to run over 16 hills of sand while pulling all the weight they used to weigh. They will start off with all their weight that they initially weighed, removing the weight they lost that week at the top of each hill. The winner will get $10,000 or a 1 pound advantage. The second place finisher will get whichever prize the winner doesn’t take. Filipe gets off to an early lead, followed by Mike. Tara’s stuck on the first hill, struggling to even lift the weight she’s lost. After the fourth hill, she overtakes Helen to get into third place. Mike takes the lead at week 7, and Tara goes into second on that same hill, leaving Filipe behind. Tara grabs the lead as she approaches the end and doesn’t look back. She wins the challenge, and Mike comes in second. As with the first challenge, Mike heads back to help his dad finish this challenge.

It’s train the trainer day. Bob loves the chance to be pushed, and he wants to see Jillian scream and cry.

The final five contestants have lost over 600 pounds in what’s been the longest season ever. Now it’s their chance to earn themselves a spot in the final four. First, Tara needs to make a decision. Unlike last week, Tara takes the pound, which gives Mike $10,000.

Ron: 289 pounds (-9, 3.02%)

Filipe: 234 pounds (-10, 4.10%)

Helen: 154 pounds (-7, 4.35%)

Mike: 224 pounds (-11, 4.68%)

Tara: 169 pounds (-8, -1, 5.08%)

Tara now holds the record for the most weight lost by a woman on the show, while Mike holds the overall record.

That puts Ron and Filipe below the yellow line, despite having strong weeks. The choice here is obvious.

Votes
Mike: Filipe
Helen: Filipe

With two votes, Filipe is not The Biggest Loser. He initially plateaued when he got home but has lost 13 pounds since getting back. A few weeks after his return, his dad had a stroke, which has inspired him to start weekly workouts with his family and friends at his house.

For everybody else, they will be going home for 30 days, and then they will return for one more weigh-in before the finale.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 18, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

After she injured her hip, Laura was voted out in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 15.

Tara realizes she’s now all alone in the house.

At the weigh-in, Jillian told Mike that he should send Laura home.

At the challenge, the contestants are greeted by the editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping for a fitness and food trivia quiz. The winner will get a trip to New York City for a private tour.

According to the packaging, how many servings are in the 7.5 inch pizza? 1, 2, 4, or 8?
The correct answer is 8. Nobody is right. The pizza has close to 2000 calories in it, even though it looks like a personal size pizza.

Which fat is the heart healthiest to use in cooking? Butter, vegetable oil, olive oil, or trans-fat free margarine?
Olive oil is correct. Everybody but Ron gets a point.

Which ground meat has the least amount of fat? Extra lean ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey breast, ground veal, or lean ground turkey?
Ground turkey breast is correct. It has only about 1% fat. Ron, Mike, and Kristin are correct.

How many extra steps do people who wear a pedometer walk daily? 150, 700, 1100, or 2000?
2000 is the correct answer. I don’t even want to know where they got that figure from. Ron, Mike, Helen, and Kristin are correct with their guesses.

That ties Mike and Kristin for the lead.

How many calories are in the fried fast food fish sandwich with tartar sauce?
Kristin guesses 435 calories. Mike goes with 635. The correct answer is 640, and Mike wins the challenge.

Because of their performance at the challenge, Bob gives his team a camera to film what they eat for the day.

It’s time for another challenge. Better not be afraid of heights. Each player will be in a cage suspended 45 feet above the ground. Each cage has a rope attached to it, and they will hold on to the other end of the rope to keep themselves up. The winner will get $10,000 or a 1 pound advantage. A pound this close to the end is huge. Mike is the first one out of the challenge. He says he let go because of fear of the height. Filipe’s strategy is to irritate people. He should be good at that. Ron is the next to fall when he slips. Eventually, Filipe decides to be an asshat and starts shaking the thing on purpose. Doesn’t work. He’s the next to fall. An hour in, Kristin falls. That leaves Helen against Tara. Helen wants to make a deal, but Tara doesn’t want any money. She knows Helen doesn’t want the money either. Helen asks: “Nothing touches you, does it?” What, she’s supposed to feel sorry for you and just quit? Helen falls. Tara wins the challenge.

Bob gets to view his team’s video meal diary. Their breakfast is low in calories. Too low. They made a good choice otherwise, but they could have had two. He also advises them that olive oil is healthy for them. Additionally, their lunch lacks protein. Then he disagrees with their snack choice of both fruit and nuts. So what about dinner? Is 7.5 ounces really going to feed all three of them?

During the last chance workout, Mike’s been pushed past his limit. He decides to punch the treadmill. Jillian wants him to communicate to his father to create better lines of communication and a new life together. This opens the door to the first conversation Ron and Mike have had about how Ron allowed his sons to get the same way as him.

Tara has chosen to take the $10,000. This close to the end?

Tara: 177 pounds (-5, 2.75%)

Ron: 298 pounds (-4, 1.32%)

Helen: 161 pounds (-1, 0.62%)

Mike: 235 pounds (-8, 3.29%)

Filipe: 244 pounds (-3, 1.21%)

Kristin: 244 pounds (+1, 0.41%)

That puts Kristin and Helen below the yellow line. Kristin’s the obvious target here. Ron agrees to live up to his promise to keep Kristin, but he can’t speak for Mike. Ron plans to do as he says so he can keep his word, but his interest lies in protecting his son. Can’t blame him.

Votes
Tara: Kristin
Filipe: Helen
Ron: Helen
Mike: Kristin

Because there was a tie, Kristin has been eliminated because she had the lowest percentage of weight loss. She says that Mike took the easy way out. As if she would have kept him around given the choice. Having learned a lot from her experience, she hopes to pay it forward and share it with anyone who will listen. Kristin has lost a total of 132 pounds since starting the show.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 17, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Having won the temptation, Laura was given the sole vote in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 14. With it, she voted out Sione.

Filipe’s sick of seeing finales and watching Jillian win. Mostly because he hates her.

When they get to the challenge, they know they’re in trouble. Each player will cross 700 feet suspended above a canyon up to 110 feet in the air. The winner will receive a $25,000 kitchen makeover and a restocked fridge (apparently, the restocked fridge was worth mentioning). Ron calls it quits within about two seconds. Tara’s the first one to fall off, allowing Filipe to take a large lead. Tara finally recovers and retakes second place from Mike. She’s slowly getting the hang of things and starts catching up to Filipe, still a blue shirt she’s chasing just a different person wearing that blue shirt than usual. As they approach the finish line, Tara takes the lead. Tara wins the challenge in 9:14. Filipe’s a quitter and doesn’t bother finishing despite only having about 20 feet left to go. The others want to reach the end, though.

Tara’s not the only one getting a makeover. Everybody will be since this is makeover week. They’re greeted by Tim Gunn when they arrive at Macy’s, and for some reason they’re surprised by this. They’ll be dressing for a Hollywood movie premiere.

Mike will be okay as long as he doesn’t have to wear pink. Tara is reluctantly okay with the suggestion of showing a little more skin. Helen doesn’t remember the last time she got dressed up to go out. They all receive a $1,000 gift card in their bags. Once they’re done shopping, they go to Warren-Tricomi Salon in LA to get their hair done. The stylists want to get them out of their old habits.

When they arrive at the movie premiere, the contestants are surprised to see their families waiting for them. Helen feels beautiful for the first time in a long time. Tara is happy to see that her mom has been inspired by her, as her mother has lost 40 pounds. Tara’s gone blonder, while Laura’s gone red. Ron’s freshly shaved for the first time since his wife has known him. Their other son Max will hopefully be inspired by their success, as he’s got a few hundred pounds to drop at age 17. Mike promises they’ll help him out when they get back home.

The movie they’re watching is The Biggest Loser Movie. Not exactly what you would call a Hollywood movie premiere, but it’s nice for them to see their journey so far.

As much fun as they’ve had this week, they haven’t had a lot of time to get in workouts.

Jillian has a weird feeling about Laura, so she sends her to the doctor to check out her hip. She has a very early stress fracture, the most severe sports related they’ve ever seen on this show. If it gets worse, she’ll have to go into surgery. The doctor rules out anything that causes pain. She won’t be able to run for three months, and any other significant calorie burning exercise is probably out.

The final 7 have lost 765 pounds so far.

Mike: 243 pounds (-5, 2.02%), a new record

Ron: 302 pounds (-6, 1.95%)

Tara: 182 pounds (-4, 2.15%)

Filipe: 247 pounds (-5, 1.98%)

Helen: 162 pounds (-7, 4.14%)

Kristin: 243 pounds (-2, 0.82%)

Laura: 208 pounds (+3, 1.46%)

Kristin and Laura, who’s not even allowed to walk up to the scale, are below the yellow line. While voting out Kristin would make the most strategic sense, I’d assume the contestants will make the humane decision and vote out Laura. This close to the finish line, though, that makes a lot less sense than going with strategy. Despite the injury, Laura asks the others to vote as if she were not injured. Kristin knows she’s a bigger threat and begs the others to not vote her out because of that.

Votes
Tara: Kristin
Ron: Laura
Mike: Laura
Helen: Kristin
Filipe: Laura

With three votes, Laura has been eliminated. Despite her very slow start as the weakest link, Laura was doing well until her injury. She will be going home with the care of The Biggest Loser doctors. She meets with the doctor again and sees that everything is going in the right direction. She’s also working with a physical therapist. Laura is down from her starting weight of 285 pounds to 208 pounds today.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 16, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Nicole returned to the ranch in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 13, the same episode in which she was also voted off again. The good news is that she’s kicking some serious butt and is doing better at home than almost everybody else is doing at the ranch. Filipe & Sione, meanwhile, clearly drew the battle lines with Ron & Mike, in their unsuccessful attempt to vote out Ron.

Ron thanks those who kept him there. For those who didn’t, may they get struck down and die.

Sione says he’s playing for himself, rather than for anyone else. Logical, but all you’re doing in that case is alienating yourself from the rest of the house. Filipe keeps quiet during this discussion because otherwise he would have gotten loud. Hard to imagine that happening.

However, Ron has not escaped this entirely unscathed. The rest of the house knows just how competitive Ron is. At some point, a player like that may well lose the trust of his allies.

Allison’s got something covered underneath trays. Trays of slow but delicious death. Under some trays are food that’s bad for them. Under some trays are advertisements for Extra Sugar Free gum, worth up to $5,000. Under one tray is a golden ticket with the ultimate reward. A visit to a chocolate factory perhaps? No, it will give them “total control over this game.” The one and only vote at this week’s elimination. That could be huge. Ron & Mike and Sione & Filipe hate each other so much that they’re probably going to keep eating until they vomit.

Laura: 100 calorie soda
Tara: 520 calorie cupcake
Kristin: 366 calorie pretzel
Filipe: 270 calorie donut
Helen: 520 calorie cupcake
Mike: 150 calories of chips
Ron: $500
Sione: 270 calorie donut
Ron: $1000
Tara: donut
Ron: soda
Kristin: cupcake
Sione: chips
Tara: another cupcake
Laura: $5000
Helen: pretzel
Mike: chips
Filipe: Peanutbutter and jelly
Laura: soda

They’re halfway done and already getting sick.

Tara: PB&J

Kristin’s hanging out, not bothering to eat. The person with the golden ticket votes out who’s below the yellow line. How do you not go below the yellow line? Don’t eat crap food.

Ron: donut
Tara: yet another cupcake

Is this golden ticket real?

Filipe: $500

Laura: golden ticket

After the group piles on close to 20,000 calories (Tara alone ate 4,600), Laura finally finds that golden ticket.

Laura wants Tara to fall below the yellow line. Tara’s concerned about playing the game, and she’s even more concerned that they both fall below the yellow line, putting both of them in danger. Only having one choice who to vote out is not that smart. It’ll make the decision easier and make sure you don’t make any enemies, but you’re stuck with that choice whether it’s good for your game or not.

After Bob and Jillian give their lecture, Bob’s figured things out when he hears how the votes went.

Kristin has made Laura breakfast in bed. She’s also adjusting her bed to make it softer.

Jillian takes her team to Subway. Jerry and Coleen from season 6 are there waiting for them.

The contestants head to the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, CA. They will play a game there. That game is not what you would call football. Rather, it’s seeing who can run up and down every step in the stadium, all 2156 of them, fastest. The first two people to finish the challenge get to do it all over again. The winner will get a two week trip for four at Fitness Ridge Resort & Spa in St. George, Utah. The first heat is boys competing against each other and girls competing against each other. Tara and Sione reach the half way point around the same time. Mike’s right behind Sione. Tara doesn’t have any competition. Sione and Tara are the first two to finish, so then they get to compete against each other. Sione starts off taking two steps at a time, but it’s not long before he’s in pain. Tara eventually catches up to him after he takes a wrong turn. In the end, Tara’s the first one to grab the flag, and she wins the challenge. Sione’s not happy. Not winning is not enough for him.

Sione asks Kristin a question: if Ron falls below the yellow line, would she vote for him? Why would she say anything before knowing the results of this week? She’s smart enough to know not to fall into that trap.

Helen warns Laura: having Tara fall below the yellow line is a stupid idea. Then she sticks her foot in the mouth. She asks whether she would consider voting off Tara. After all, they’re just friends.

Tara takes this last chance workout as an opportunity to just relax a bit.

Jillian can’t get any of her folks to stop focusing on the game. Bob’s not having any more luck with that.

Mike: 248 pounds (-5, 1.98%)

Ron: 308 pounds (-9, 2.84%)

Tara: 186 pounds (-3, 1.59%)

Kristin: 245 pounds (-6, 2.39%)

Helen: 169 pounds (-2, 1.17%)

Filipe: 252 pounds (-7, 2.27%)

Sione: 256 pounds (-4, 1.54%)

Laura: 205 pounds (-8, 3.76%)

That puts Sione and Helen below the yellow line, and Laura will be picking between the two of them. It would be fair to say that, if they had not eaten at the temptation, they probably would not be below the yellow line. This is a no brainer. Granted, I’ve thought that before and found there to be a lack of brains on campus.

Vote
Laura: Sione

With the only vote, Sione has been eliminated. Sione is down from his starting weight of 372 pounds to 235 now. He has decided to change careers and become a trainer.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 15, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Aubrey was voted out in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 12 and immediately fell right off the wagon before recovering and starting to lose weight again.

Despite the fact that Ron & Mike considered voting for Filipe, Sione still believes he’s got an alliance with them. Granted, they did stick with them, even if it was a bad gameplay move.

Ali Vincent, the season 5 winner who’s still in great shape, will be filling in for Allison, who had a baby the night before. Like Ali’s season when she came back to win, some people will be getting a chance to come back. Three people who were eliminated earlier in the season because their partners were unable to bring them back will be returning for another chance. Nicole, Estella, and David are those three. One of them will earn their way back to the campus based on percentage of weight loss.

Estella: 197 pounds (-45, 18.60%)
David: 347 pounds (-46, 11.70%)
Nicole: 182 pounds (-87, 32.34%)

For such a young guy with such a large amount of weight to lose, it was looking like David may well have just thrown away a quarter of a million dollars. Nicole, however, quite obviously has been kicking but at home, and it’s no surprise that she put up the top numbers when looking at the before and after images. She’s not just the best of the three, but she’s actually ahead of everybody else on the show except for Tara. Not to be forgotten is Estella, who’s done an impressive job considering her age.

Everybody knows Nicole’s a massive threat. She’s done better at home by herself better than most of these people have done with world class trainers, nutritionists, and working out 6 hours a day.

The other players are already trying to get into her head. She could very well be a valuable vote, but she has yet to build up any alliances.

Nicole wakes up and wants to go for a jog. Of course, she bumps into Tara on her trek. She doesn’t think she can trust her because of the frantic nature of their discussion.

Nicole will be training with Bob.

As afraid as Tara hopes everybody else is of Nicole, Tara, too, is afraid of Nicole, perhaps more than the others. Jillian fears that Tara’s becoming obsessed with the game. Tara knows that she needs to figure out what caused her to gain 100+ pounds in a year and a half, or otherwise she’ll just go back and gain it all again.

Ron’s having chest pains during his walk, so he will be getting checked out by the medic. They immediately send him to the hospital because they take chest pains seriously. They rule out a heart attack, but they do find out that he had blood loss, although they’re not sure how that happened. This is a side effect of his gastric bypass surgery. After some more tests, they’ve determined that he will be fine. His ulcers are in the healing process and do not require intervention at this point. He is the first contestant who will be going on a medicine while on the ranch instead of going off it, but he’s given the okay to go back to campus.

Now Michelle Aguilar, season 6 winner, will be filling in for Allison at the challenge. Each player will get on a platform 6 feet above the pool. One at a time, they’ll release a rope, making it harder and harder to keep their balance. The winner will get a 1 pound advantage at the weigh-in. For Nicole, if she wins, since she has immunity, she can give a 1 pound penalty to any player. They start off on 40 ropes. Mike is the first one to fall. Filipe follows. Laura drops at 20 ropes. Her partner Tara is next, followed by Helen. Nicole drops at 15 ropes. That pits Sione against Kristin. Kristin falls at 9 ropes, and Sione wins the challenge.

Ron worries that he’s going to be below the yellow line since he’s spent three days in the hospital. Mike doesn’t want him to fall on the sword for anyone, though he will fall on the sword for his son.

Allison’s back for the weigh-in.

Nicole: 187 pounds (+5, 2.75%)

This definitely falls under the wow category. She’d have been better off staying at home, or at least that’s how it appears for now. Since she gained weight, Nicole’s immunity has been removed. Bob says that stress was the problem. Presents a good opportunity for people to get rid of a big threat.

Kristin: 251 pounds (-4, 1.57%)

Laura: 214 pounds (+1, 0.47%)

Tara: 189 pounds (-6, 3.08%)

Tara has hit the 100 pound mark and says that now she gets it and is worth it.

Helen: 171 pounds (-6, 3.39%)

Sione: 260 pounds (-6, -1, 2.63%)

Filipe: 259 pounds (-4, 1.52%)

Mike: 253 pounds (-11, 4.17%)

Ron: 320 pounds (+3, 0.95%)

Combined with his big week last week, Ron knew he was going to gain weight this week because he was pumped full of fluids at the hospital.

The two people who gained the most weight this week are below the yellow line: Nicole and Ron. This is a no brainer, and it looks like Nicole’s return to the ranch was short-lived. However, considering how well she did when she went home before (a lot better than she’s done since returning), she still looks to be a threat for the at home prize. She asks the others to consider what they said before when they approached her upon her return.

Votes
Mike: Nicole
Filipe: Ron
Laura: Nicole
Sione: Ron
Tara: Nicole
Helen: Ron
Kristin: Nicole

Ron narrowly escapes, but he and Mike should have dumped Filipe when they had the chance. It’s pretty obvious that alliance is officially dead. With 4 votes, Nicole has been eliminated again, but she’ll go home with the knowledge that she can keep going on her own. She looks forward to a healthy life with her new husband and future babies. She’s down now to 164 pounds from her starting weight of 269 pounds, putting her at 39% lost already.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 14, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

After the blue team lost yet again, Cathy volunteered to go home in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 11.

Black team’s shocked that Aubrey’s still there.

Ron says he would do the same thing if it meant keeping his son safe, although Cathy actually kept Aubrey safe rather than Kristin. Whether that was the wisest move to protect the team is hard to say.

Not that there are teams any more. They’re going to singles. Mike finds out that his original shirt fits over both himself and Aubrey.

The first thing they will do as individuals is pick who will train them for the rest of their time. They have half an hour to think about it. Mike has made an effort to get to know Jillian as well as he knew Bob, so he’s got a tough choice. Filipe, however, being the whiner he’s been, is jumping up and down that he gets to pick Bob. Not that he listened when they told him he was with Jillian. The others seem pretty split as well if they’ve been on both sides. Laura, though, has been training with Jillian since day one, although Jillian did throw her under the bus and got the others to say (the truth) that she was the weakest link.

They will pick in order of percentage of weight loss so far.

Tara: Jillian
Mike: Jillian (by coin toss)
Helen: Jillian
Kristin: Bob
Filipe: Bob
Sione: Bob
Ron: Bob
Laura: Jillian
Aubrey: Bob

Having just chosen Bob as her trainer, Kristin’s already worried that he won’t be able to focus on her and instead will be focused on Sione and Filipe.

The challenge will consist of two parts. In part one, they have colored blocks with the exact amount of weight they’ve lost, which they can divide amongst their opponents. The total amount of weight that each player has will be added in part two. What’s part two? That will remain a mystery for the time being. However, immunity is up for grabs.

Aubrey splits between Tara and Helen. Ron splits between them as well. Sione and Filipe mostly target Tara. Mike continues the Tara onslaught. They all find this quite amusing, but Tara is having trouble handling this. Helen splits her weight between all the people who targeted her. Tara goes for her biggest competitor. Tara ends up with the most weight on her scale at 257 pounds, and she doesn’t want to talk to anyone. She just wants to be left alone. She’ll talk to her partner Laura, though. She’s decided to throw the next weigh-in and send herself home. Laura wants to return the favor from all those times earlier in the season and get her to stay strong through the stressful times.

So here comes part two. They see a bunch of cars with all their colors. We all know this challenge will not involve driving. NASCAR Cup driver Clint Bowyer is there as a special guest, and he’s got a message to set goals and keep going to meet them. In addition to immunity, the winner will be a VIP guest at a NASCAR race. Each of them will be pulling a car that weighs over two tons nearly half a mile. The extra weight from part one will be added to the cars.

Ron: 37 pounds
Mike: 63 pounds
Filipe: 67 pounds
Aubrey: 72 pounds
Sione: 92 pounds
Helen: 215 pounds
Tara: 257 pounds

Ganging up on Tara makes sense, but this whole ganging up on Helen thing really didn’t. Mike and Sione get off to a quick start. Tara’s got them in her sights and is trying to catch up. She catches up to Mike and takes second place. Now she just has to go for Sione. From the corner of his eye, he sees Tara coming up on his tail. Despite the efforts of the others to give this challenge to Sione, all they did was anger Tara, who easily walks away with the challenge win and immunity. Mike crosses in second. Sione wore himself out early and finishes third. Filipe, Helen, and Aubrey follow. Mike and Aubrey return to help Ron finish. As another part of her reward, Tara will be going for a ride with Clint.

Going into the weigh-in, Kristin and Tara have the same goal: to lose 4 pounds and be the first woman ever to lose 100 pounds on campus.

Tara: 195 pounds (-3, 1.52%, immune)

Kristin: 255 pounds (-8, 3.04%)

Aubrey: 191 pounds (-4, 2.05%)

Mike: 264 pounds (-6, 2.22%)

Laura: 213 pounds (-7, 3.18%)

Helen: 177 pounds (-5, 2.75%)

Sione: 266 pounds (-7, 2.56%), over 100 pounds

Ron: 317 pounds (-10, 3.06%)

Filipe: 263 pounds (-4, 1.50%)

Once again, immunity has played a role in saving its holder, with Tara being safe because of it. That puts Sione and Aubrey below the yellow line. Now that we’re down to singles, the choice here is pretty simple and obvious, although based on the prior ganging up on Tara and not at all on Sione, they’ll probably keep the bigger threat around.

Votes
Tara: Filipe
Mike: Aubrey
Laura: Filipe
Helen: Aubrey
Kristin: Aubrey
Ron: Aubrey

With 4 votes, Aubrey has been eliminated. While she was gone, her father has lost 26 pounds, so perhaps he’s finally accepted that he either needs to lose some weight or else. In her first three weeks after returning home, Aubrey gained 9 pounds. That’s… not good. Most contestants fall off the wagon eventually, but this has to be a record. Last time she went home, she only lost 2 pounds in a month. However, she’s starting to get back into her routine and has lost 10 pounds since leaving the ranch.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 13, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Despite black team’s reckless disregard for their trainer and their goals at the ranch, blue team still fell below the yellow line in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 10. It came down to a choice between Mandi and Aubrey, and although black team foolishly planned to support Aubrey’s boot instead of Mandi’s, Mandi decided that it was her turn to go home so her sister could stay.

After elimination, Allison asks the black team to join them. They’re probably going on a trip. Yep, everybody’s going home for the week. Typically a bad week because, while it’s a time to reenergize, they normally get knocked off the wagon and start eating poorly. If last week was any indication, the black team is not ready for any temptation whatsoever because they buckled quickly and ridiculously.

As they go home to see their families, it’s pretty obvious there’s some enabling going on there. Most of them have family members who are at least 100 pounds overweight. Perhaps the most visible example of this is Mike’s brother Max, who is about the same size his father and brother were before they went on the ranch.

When they arrive home, they hear the doorbell and see tins sitting on their porches. Mmm. Cookies the size of their heads. As if they really need any more temptation. Their challenge while at home, in addition to overcoming the family distractions, is to run half a marathon. I wonder if any of them will get a ride part of the way from one of the producers. In addition to that, they will be facing a temptation. For every cookie they eat, they can add 5 minutes to the player of their choice’s time. The player with the fastest time wins $10,000. Not worth it when you’re this close to a quarter of a million. Tara’s considered the biggest threat, along with Sione. Aubrey is chowing down. Helen is also eating, with the encouragement of her family that she’s allowed to have a high calorie day.

At the 20 minute mark, Tara and Sione are tied at 2.0 miles each. By the 1:12:00 mark, Sione’s opened up a slight lead 7.8 to 7.5. Helen is at 5.3 miles, Aubrey 5.1 miles, Cathy 4.6 miles, Mike 4.1 miles, Laura 4.0 miles, Filipe 4.0 miles, Kristin 3.5 miles, and Ron’s walking the whole way but nonetheless giving it a go at 2.2 miles. Mandi’s also running alongside Aubrey. Mike, Laura, and Filipe begin struggling around the 5 mile mark. Helen’s also hitting a wall around 8 miles. The top prize is still up for grabs between Sione and Tara. Sione’s extended his lead a bit 12.6 miles to 12.2 miles. A couple hundred yards away from the finish line, Sione’s quad tightens up, and he can’t even take another step. He drops to the ground. Hell of a place to drop. I’d roll the rest of the way myself. He’s up on Tara 12.9 miles to 12.5 miles with a total distance of 13.1 miles to go. After stretching his leg, Sione gets back up and continues going.

Tara - 2:24:19
Sione - 2:25:57
Helen - 2:49:19
Aubrey and Mandi - 2:53:02
Cathy - 3:15:21
Mike - 3:19:38
Laura - 3:24:00
Filipe - 3:24:05
Kristin - 3:43:45
Ron (4 miles) - 1:52:34

So now it’s a question of who ate cookies, and how they decided to apply those minutes.

But before we get to that, it’s time to take a look at the contestants and how they’re doing at home. Aubrey’s trying to juggle her litter of kids and a workout schedule. Ron and Mike go to one of their favorite restaurants. Pizza, beer, and cookies, all they want on the house. Could they pick a worse restaurant? It looks like they’ve managed to behave themselves, though. Filipe actually has to think about what he plans to put in his mouth, asking the waitress a bunch of questions. Tara’s being the food nazi with her family. She’s also teaching her brother about their Extra sugar free gum commercials. Filipe sees some calamari. He smells it, but you don’t get fat by smelling it. Helen pays a visit to a Polish supermarket, and she insists on shopping for the healthy stuff.

Like Mike, Aubrey’s also got an extremely overweight relative. Her father is in the neighborhood of 500 pounds, and she wonders if she’ll be lucky enough to get another 20 or 30 months out of him. He’s in denial about his life threatening disease.

When they return to the ranch, Allison’s there and waiting to reveal the results of the marathon challenge.

Nobody penalized Sione, so his time stands. Tara, however, is not going to be so lucky. Helen ate a 370 calorie cookie to penalize Tara, which means that Sione wins the challenge and the $10,000. So we don’t get to find out who else ate what else?

Now it’s time to find out how well the contestants did at home.

Mike: 270 pounds (-8, 2.88%)
Laura: 220 pounds (-6, 2.65%)
Tara: 198 pounds (-2, 1.00%), Jillian warns her that she’s overtraining, so her body’s fighting back
Sione: 273 pounds (-4, 1.44%)
Filipe: 267 pounds (-7, 2.55%)
Helen: 182 pounds (-7, 3.70%)
Black Total: -34 pounds, 2.35%

Aubrey: 195 pounds (-5, 2.50%)
Ron: 337 pounds (-10, 2.89%), over 100 pounds total
Kristin: 264 pounds (+1, 0.38%)
Cathy: 241 pounds (-1, 0.41%)
Blue Total: -15 pounds

Blue team loses. Again. It’s pretty apparent that the mother/daughter duo still has a lot to learn. Aubrey’s outnumbered once again. However, Cathy volunteers to go home and says she feels strong enough to go home.

Votes
Aubrey: Cathy
Ron: Cathy
Kristin: Cathy

With three votes, Cathy has been eliminated. She is down to 215 pounds from her starting weight of 293 pounds. Her other daughters, Karri and Stephanie, are also participating in the weight loss program.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 12, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.