The Biggest Loser: Families - 9/16/08

It's a 2 hour premiere, and the first half hour was all intro and hype. Bob is training husband and wife teams, and Jillian is training parent and child teams. I won't go into details about each team here, but there's a lot of work to be done.

(As said before, I probably won't go as in depth with this show's blogging.)

Finally, to the initial weigh ins!

Parent and Child Teams

Pink Team: Renee and Michelle - 509 lbs
Yellow Team: Jerry and Coleen - 598 lbs
Purple Team: Amy and Shellay - 455 lbs
Grey Team: Tom and LT - 671 lbs

Husband and Wife Teams

Red Team: Amy and Phil - 560 lbs
Green Team: Stacey and Adam - 561 lbs
Brown Team: Brady and Vicky - 587 lbs
Orange Team: Heba and Ed - 629 lbs

Let the work begin!

To see the way that the contestants fall apart in the first workout always amazes me, especially looking back at the end when they are all buff and amazing. There are tears and breakdowns and imagined injuries. Jillian told Tom "We can do this my way, or my way mad, so let's go." Kick butt, Jillian. Bob tells his teams that they can rest at the finale, so it's time to go. Jerry fell off the treadmill and Jillian booted his ass back up there, telling him that the only way he is getting off it again is if he dies on it. She's just a ray of sunshine.

This is the stuff of good tv.

Time for the meet the dr reality check for Jerry.

He's just a mess. Dr. Jawbones tells him that he has all of the danger signs of everything awful, and actually tells Jillian that he is not allowed to work out more than 30 minutes a day (at least for now). Yipes. If he can stick around, I think this show could just be saving his life.

Their first Challenge has all sorts of prizes up for grabs - Immunity, Money, and Extra Vote, Visits home... and a 2 lb penalty. They have to hike over one mile in heat to grab banners corresponding to the prizes that were dropped from crop planes. Tom and Jerry are out of the challenge for health reasons, so their kids are on their own.

Brady is the first to start yelling at his wife (who seemed to be hyperventilating). Ed dragged Heba up the hill. That was pretty cool. Adam and Stacey got separated, and that sucked.

Coleen got up the hill all by herself first, and I was so proud of her. She got immunity and saved her dad for the week.

Stacey and Adam got a massage and time alone.

Heba and Ed grabbed the $5000.

LT grabbed the extra vote for him and his dad

Renee and Michelle got a phone call

Amy and Phil got the visit home (doesn't it seem early to be hankering for a visit home? Just saying.)

Amy and Shellay got second to last and I missed what prize they got.

Brady and Vicky came in last and were saddled with the 2 lb penalty.

After a meal, there was some product placement (which this show does so well) for The BodyBugg by 24 hour fitness. It actually looks like a pretty neat tool - worn on the arm, it keeps track of calories burned, and then Jillian showed contestants how to log their food for the day and check their energy expenditure and intake to see how much weight they might be on track for losing. Pretty cool. It's $200 on the 24 hour Fitness Website, and that's not too bad.

Time for Dr. Jawbone to show the contestants what's going on inside their body.

Amy got to see how her extra abdominal weight AND smoking is effecting her lungs. Yuck. Her Biological Age based on her health issues is not her actual 26, but a whopping 47. That's scary.

The daughter of the pink team got to see how her heart is being strangled by fat, and her Biological Age is not 26, but 41. Again, yipes.

Vicky's Biological age is not 38, but 48. Cue montage to cute kids.

Dr. Jawbone had a bunch of other scary realities to the contestants, and then it was back to the gym. Amy came close to quitting and Jillian did some hollering.

And it is weigh in time!

Parent and Child Teams

Yellow Team: Jerry and Coleen - Down 27 lbs- And Jerry could hardly work out. Excellent
Pink Team: Renee and Michelle - Down 31 lbs(-6.09%)
Grey Team: Tom and LT - Down 42 lbs (-6.26%)
Purple Team: Amy and Shellay - Down 29 lbs (-6.37%)

Husband and Wife Teams

Orange Team: Heba and Ed - Down 29 lbs (-4.61%)
Red Team: Amy and Phil - Down 39 lbs (-6.96%)
Green Team: Stacey and Adam - Down 28 lbs (-4.99%)
Brown Team: Brady and Vicky - Down 47 lbs (+ 2 lb penalty) (-7.67%) Wooooooow!

The green team and the orange team (both on Bob's side) are in the bottom tonight.

Let the drama of the decision begin. This is my least favorite part of the show.

Stacey and Adam, the Green Team, are sent home (helped by Tom and LT's double votes). Their at home transformation was amazing. Stacey is down to 175 lbs, and Adam is down to 286 lbs. They both look wonderful.

Good season starter. Thoughts?