Posted Nov 25th 2009 2:20AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(S08E11) It was a big week, as the remaining five contestants settled in for their final week on the
Biggest Loser campus. With Amanda as a clear outcast in the group, she was feeling the pressure even more to stay above that yellow line. And big weeks aren't something Amanda is known for, despite a valiant nine-pound loss last week. She's never seen double digits and spent most of the season hovering around six pounds a week.
However, as one of the smallest contestants in the game, those numbers can make a difference when it comes to her percentages. Liz, Allen, Rudy and Danny have all developed a tight bond over the past ten weeks, and you just know their dream was for Amanda to slip below so they could send her home and preserve their foursome into the Semi-Finals.
The week was big in a couple of other ways as well. Rudy with the potential to have the biggest on-campus weight loss in
Biggest Loser history, while Danny was in position to break a record of his own.
Continue reading Review: The Biggest Loser - Week Eleven
Posted Nov 18th 2009 2:13AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(S08E10) This week, as usual,
The Biggest Loser knew how to manipulate the audience's emotions. They even did it with a live audience, as Tim Gunn and Tabatha Coffey gave the contestants makeovers and then pushed them onto a stage to give a speech about their journey, both before the Ranch and since.
As always, the makeovers are a lot of fun, and a great reminder of all the amazing work these contestants have done in reshaping their lives and physical appearance. The prize for the most dramatic transformation goes to Rudy, though I thought Danny spit-polished up quite nicely. All of the ladies were lovely, but I didn't really think Rebecca's new hairstyle worked, and in fact I thought it framed and hid more of her face than her old 'do.
Continue reading Review: The Biggest Loser - Week Ten
Posted Nov 11th 2009 11:44AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(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.
Continue reading Review: The Biggest Loser - Week 9
Posted Nov 4th 2009 1:01PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser
If you haven't watched
last night's Biggest Loser yet, stop reading right now. Ok? Ok.
I've never been a fan of Tracey's. I thought she was mean and stabbed plenty of backs on her journey through the emotional minefields of
The Biggest Loser. And when it came down to whether Tracey or someone else would go home in last night's episode, I was rooting for Tracey.
"Send her home!" I yelled at the TV. "Make her pay for her crimes!" I was practically lighting my torches, hypothetically speaking.
Continue reading I have new respect for The Biggest Loser's Tracey
Posted Nov 4th 2009 2:00AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(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.
Continue reading Review: The Biggest Loser - Week Eight
Posted Nov 1st 2009 8:01PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Video, The Biggest Loser
This season of
The Biggest Loser has to be one of the most emotional of them all. When Abby went home last week (no spoiler griping - it was last week), it was truly inspiring to see how she's been able to move ahead with her life and let people in again. If someone whose been through one of the worst tragedies you can imagine can do that, it gives you hope that anything is possible.
This week, the remaining contestants head to Washington D.C., for a fun adventure that will take them from the Lincoln Memorial to the inside of the White House kitchen. The players also learn that they'll be competing as individuals rather than teams. Their first challenge: race around the National Mall and try to bring as many people as possible back to the Washington Monument for a public workout with trainers Bob and Jillian.
Continue reading What's Hot on SlashControl: Preview of this week's Biggest Loser
Posted Oct 28th 2009 2:10AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(S08E07) These eliminations just aren't getting any easier, which is frustrating because there are people there that I wouldn't mind seeing booted off of the ranch. They just keep staying there. You could read that as a spoiler if you want, saying that I just revealed at least that Tracey wasn't eliminated, but not so.
Maybe I've come to respect her competitive spirit. Maybe she showed some real growth as a person this week, or maybe I just enjoy the heavy dose of crazy that she brings to the house. Maybe I don't want Tracey going anywhere. Have we ever had a crazy winner of
The Biggest Loser?
Regardless of who went home, though, this was a huge week for emotional breakthroughs, as well as emotional turmoil for me watching at home. Every time Abby goes into the story of what happened to her family, it just breaks my heart and I want to wrap my arms around my own family to keep them safe.
Continue reading Review: The Biggest Loser - Week Seven
Posted Oct 21st 2009 1:19AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(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.
Continue reading Review: The Biggest Loser - Week Six
Posted Oct 14th 2009 9:31AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Watercooler Talk
Eliminations on
The Biggest Loser are always heart-wrenching. Much as the contestants hate being away from their families, they've made the decision to try out for the show, and once they're there, the last thing they want to do is go home and back to their unhealthy habits.
Many of them truly are fighting for their life, and you just know that without the motivation of laying it all out there on TV -- not to mention the grueling paces that Bob and Jillian put them through -- some of them might never gain control over their weight.
Continue reading The wrong person went home on last night's Biggest Loser
Posted Oct 14th 2009 2:31AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews
(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.
Continue reading The Biggest Loser: Week Five
Posted Sep 8th 2005 6:29PM by Chris Thilk
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, NBC, The Biggest Loser
In an attempt to start a grassroots promotional effort for the show
The Biggest Loser, NBC has
contracted with a company called House Parties to find people to host, well, house parties. The idea is that the marketing company was able, through an online survey, to find 1,000 people to throw parties in their homes to watch an advance screening of the show. The hope is that visitors to the parties will start talking about the show and therefore build an even bigger audience.
Posted May 27th 2005 1:25PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, ABC, NBC, CBS, Programming, WB, UPN, The Cut, The Biggest Loser
I'm glad David Bauder put this list together. I think I would get really depressed talking about all these crappy reality shows premiering this summer. OK, obviously they won't all be crap (and we need summer programming to get us through til the fall season), but I've just overdosed on all this reality. There's one good thing about so many reality shows on the air: maybe it will make their eventual demise come earlier than later. Though I doubt it. See the list below for a quick rundown.
Continue reading Your guide to all the summer reality shows
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