Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 1

Prelude
I've always been a fan of The Biggest Loser. I was an avid watcher the first few seasons until life got in the way. I started skipping a few episodes and then I skipped a whole season. Dumb. Well, I've been back since Season 7 and haven't missed an episode since then. Thus far, my favorite seasons are 7 and 8 - let's see if 9 can make that list.

Every season, I look back and try to remember what I originally thought of the cast members, how my feelings evolved throughout the season and who I related to the most. With the start of a new season, I thought this would be an excellent time to keep track of what's been happening.

Season 9
What can I say? Prior to the start of each season, I always ask myself "What are they gonna do to top last season?" and here it is. They brought forth the biggest people we've seen on the show and probably the most number of people (11 couples to start with).

The show opened with Bob and Jillian (America's favorite trainers) personally calling each of the contestants to let them know that they're going to be on the show. They were all given their very first challenge - to do their first weigh-in in front of their friends, family and general public. Scary.

Some contestants got immediate camera-time (hint that they'll stick around a while?) while others remained in the background. Let's start with Michael - the Italian-American guy who weighed 526 pounds before stepping foot on the Biggest Loser campus. He was coupled with his mother, who blamed herself for his weight gain. He got the title of being the biggest person ever to step on campus. Another that comes to mind is Daris - who weighed in at 326 pounds and at 25 years old. He's never had a girlfriend, boo-hoo. All others have typical fat-kid stories where problems in their lives caused them to turn to food. Either that or food has such a strong presence in their heritage that they know nothing better but to eat (and eat and eat).

Remember Sione and Filipe? Tongan cousins that claimed their weight gain was encouraged by their Tongan community and that food was a huge essence to who they were. You had to love them (even though Sione acted pretty stupid and babyish a couple times). This season we were awarded (or maybe not) with another Tongan couple. This time, we have another set of Tongan cousins (Sam and Koli) who also say that food and their community's traditions contributed to their weights. Will they stick around as long as Sione and Filipe did?

After all the weigh-ins, they went to the campus to prepare for a new chapter of their lives. They were greeted by Ali and were given their first challenge on campus. All teams had to bike a marathon. Whoever finished first got immunity and the 2 teams that finished last had to leave campus. Now we're talking.... This was our first shot at getting to know the contestants and make guesses at who might last and who might fail early on in the game. There were some surprises and some were too obvious.

What surprised me was that a spicy team of Peurto Rican mother/daughter and proved themselves to be strong-willed and competitive. They won first place (way ahead of the others) and received the most-prized award you could ever receive - Immunity. The other teams finished their race in steady streams, one by one. Michael struggled right from the beginning - mostly due to his large size and being uncomfortable on the bike seat. However, he stayed with it and made it to the end. Way to go. The last two teams were both African-Americans. Tough luck. The blue team (mother/daughter) didn't make it because the mother had difficulty keeping up. She suffered through most of the race with a nasty pain but kept on going. Eventually, when it got to be too much, the doctors had to pull her off. True to her heritage, she threw a fit. I admire her will to keep going but come on, don't overreact.

Now - we had to say goodbye to two teams at once. When they were kicked off the ranch, I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for a "but." Commercial came on and the "but" never came. I was disappointed. By now, I thought I had gotten to know the producers and knew a little bit of what to expect. Ah-ha, the producers surprised me again. The "but" came on AFTER commercial. Crafty, eh? Both teams were given a second chance. They were sent home to work out on their own for 30 days. They'd both come back and do a weigh-in. The team that loses the most percentage of their weight gets to come back on the show. I'm rooting for Yellow Father/Daughter team. No particular reason. I just decided I might like them better than the Blue mother/daughter team. We never got to know them, so how do you choose?

Cue in the next morning - the trainers woke up everybody with a fire alarm blaring in the house. You'd think that they'd be scrambling to get out of the house, huh? Nope - they took their sweet time. Figures. The players met the trainers and their first work-out began. Man, they struggled and they struggled bad. Later on, they do some bonding and share weepy "why I'm fat" stories. Ok - I'm sad for them, but after hearing Abby's story from last season, I doubt I'll hear anything as heart-wrenching. They go do their last-chance workout (I love those, and hope to God I never have to experience one) and bite their nails over whether they lost enough weight to stay on campus another week.

Let's focus on the players. As I said before, some got a lot of face time and some stayed in the background. Is that a clue as to whether who will be leaving early on in the show? We'll see. I have some immediate favorites and some of them, I felt no tugs at my heartstrings. Will I become attached to them later? We'll see.

Pink Team (Sherry and Ashley) didn't get a lot of camera time. I'm not disappointed about that, I wouldn't really care if they left early. I kind of like Sam and Koli - mostly because I want to compare them to Sione and Filipe. One of the boys said "I'm gonna do better than Sione and Filipe did." Yeah? I'll hold you to it, I'll be watching you. Another team that didn't get a lot of attention was Purple (Patti and Stephanie). I'm hoping they'll emerge later on, but who knows? Lance and Melissa (Red team), a husband and wife team from a small town in Texas, is my immediate favorite. I don't know why - I just like them. I'm rooting for them to stay for quite a while. The last team that didn't grace my TV screen often was the Black team (Darrell and Andrea). I wonder why. Oh well. I laughed at Cheryl, a member of the Orange team. Like Jillian said - she was a small, shy and timid woman that was just waiting to come out. During a work-out, Cheryl came out and she was insane! Will she become crazier as the season goes on? Her son has weird hair - I hope they cut it all off if he makes it to the makeover episode.

Now - on to the week's weigh-in. All teams did fantastically well. Everyone has lost at least 13 pounds apiece. The ladies all lost weight in the teens while men lost weight in the twenties. Awesome! Michael broke a record at the very first weigh in by losing 34 pounds in a week. He said that he was embarrassed of holding the title of the biggest person ever on campus. Now he's proud to have made a record he can show off - losing such an amazing amount of weight in just a week. Well - what did you expect? Someone who weighs 526 pounds definitely has a lot of weight to lose. Even with that much weight, he was still in danger of falling below the yellow line. They barely made it (just a spot right above the yellow line) when the Brown team didn't lose enough.

Now - here's something really funny (and cool) about the Brown team. They are twin brothers who claimed that they were ALWAYS within 5 to 10 pounds of each other. They gained weight together and lost weight together. When they weighed in, they were only one pound apart from each other. At the weigh-in, I said to my roommate "Watch - they're gonna lose the exact same weight apiece." I was right! They both lost the exact same weight! How cool (and weird) is that!? They both lost 23 pounds, however, it wasn't enough given that when put together, they both weighed almost half a ton. That's heavy.

When elimination time came - the brothers both sacrificed each other to keep the other brother there. James made a compelling point. He didn't have a baby at home (like John did) and he could afford to leave his job and focus on himself 24/7 to lose weight. He also has a very bad knee and is very limited as to what he can do. He said "I can only do the pool and I have a pool at home." It was almost an unanimous decision and James was sent home.

In the "Transformation" scene, James showed that he lost 100 pounds in two months at home. Awesome! I know that everybody made the right decision by kicking him off. John had a much better chance of staying on. Frankly, I'm surprised that the contestants didn't try to play a game and kick John off first. Eventually, James would lose again (how long can he keep losing enough weight in just the pool and on weights to stay above the yellow line?) and would be sent home. He'd be an easy pin to knock down when the competition gets fierce. Of course, at the beginning of every season, everybody thinks about who needs to be there the most. It isn't until mid-way through the season when everybody starts thinking about who the biggest competition is.

When leaving, James said "I'm gonna win the at-home prize." Yeah? He's definitely proven thus far that he can do it at home. We'll see.