This is the fifth season of The Biggest Loser, a show where competitors try to lose the most weight in order to receive the $250,000 prize. Alison Sweeney hosts the series, and contestants work out under the supervision of professional trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels.
This season, teams of two are competing against each other rather than individuals competing one-on-one. One of the reason behind this change is the theory that if one competes with someone from one's support system, once the individual has been eliminated they can continue on their weight-loss path, and help each other meet their goals. One team however, was made up of two complete strangers.
Each week couples, are voted off the show based on their weight loss and the votes of their peers. In episode five, the remaining couples were put either on the Blue Team (trained by Bob Harper) or the Black Team (trained by Jillian Michaels).
In this episode, chef Rocco DiSpirito was invited to judge a cook-off between the teams, with the winner based on taste and number of calories. The Black team won by preparing a three-course meal under 800 calories. They won a dinner cooked by Rocco and home videos sent from their families.
The home videos were very moving for each contestant. Bernie’s, however, was the best. His girlfriend’s video elicited the sweetest expression on him that I’ve ever seen on anyone. There was some momentary drama this week when Paul and Kelly (a divorced-but-still-friends couple) watched Kelly’s home video. Paul became momentarily jealous of the man in Kelly’s life. That drama, however, was quickly, and thankfully, stifled.
There were also some cut-throat, behind-the-scenes alliances formed, much to my disappointment. When the Blue team lost because the Black team lost more total weight, the Blue team was required to vote off a teammate. Earlier in the show, the audience had spent time with a mother-son couple, Jackie and Dan. Jackie made her team mates swear “on their children’s lives” that they would vote off Trent. However, at voting time, Jackie and Dan were the only ones to vote for Trent. Everyone else voted for Jackie. It wasn’t pretty.
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