Didnt Ali say last night they had been there 152 days? Thats like almost 22 weeks yet they say they are on week 17

I dont understand the 30 day thing they didnt explain that well. Will they come back and one of them be eliminated or what is the purpose of that? I dont want to see them in 30 days b/c then the finale is not as big of a reveal?

The producers are free to invent as many twists to the show as they want, and I think the 30-day twist has to do with ensuring that they get the winner they'd prefer to have representing the show & its advertising sponsors in the future.

I'm pretty sure they'd rather have Mike or Tara as the "face" for this season than Helen or Ron.

Last season, I was trying to imagine them dealing with the completely unlikeable trio they ended up with, and with Michelle. It seemed to me that Michelle just had to be their winner. Because who'd want to see Vicky pushing Subway sandwiches or Zip-Loc bags or Extra sugarfree gum? That is not the kind of person the corporate sponsors want to be associated with.

The Biggest Loser isn't just about losing weight, it's a kind of morality play in which moral judgments get passed on the participants.

Yeah, good point. It is all a puppet show in the end and we are in the audience watching the strings being pulled.

I thought we all thought the live finale was on May 4 based on last week's info. Now it's going on for another week. Hard to let a good thing die, I imagine. The season is worth too much $$$$$. They even got poor FILIPE shagging the Ziploc baggies. Noticed how when he was making dinner he purposely turned the box, label side out to face the camera, when he picked it up.

I agree. I also think, in addition to creating the twists to favor certain contestants, they are quite deliberate about what they choose to show and how much so as to influence viewer perception. I also feel that they encourage and sometimes create the agitation among the contestants. Some of those potshots they take at one another in the confessionals sound scripted, like they're being encouraged to talk smack on camera about one another.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought Mike or Tara are exactly the face they want to have this season. They can both be marketed from inspiring angles. Tara, the woman who can do it all, the beautiful model, athlete, etc. Mike, the sweet boy-turned-man, the youngest contestant ever, the teenager who can appeal to other teenagers...not to mention he's turned into one cute dude. LOL, I'm one of his Facebook friends and he's got over 2000 of them. Anyway, I do think the not-desiring of Ron or Helen as the face has less to do this season with their personalities rather than their ages and, in Ron's case, the fact that he's still big and the least healthy-looking.

BTW...was anybody else thinking that dress really didn't flatter Tara? I mean, it's great that she fit into it, but it wasn't flattering. I loved what Helen had on, though. That's totally my kind of outfit.

So...I think I had read that the contestants went home February 20. Thirty days would take them to on or around March 22. On the one hand, it's kinda weird that they're doing another weigh-in that close to the finale on May 12...kinda lessens the surprise...but then, they are so close to their goals now, it can't be much more of a surprise! But I guess they want to come full circle with the whole "go home for 30 days" thing again...they really did make this an epic season, like Ali said. And these are all contestants that didn't go home the first time.

I thought the whole "goal outfit" segment was a total setup. I don't know Tara at all...but I can't see her picking out THAT dress to wear at any point, especially "in London years ago."

Was I wrong, or did they say AMERICA gets to vote out one of the contestants after the 30 day weigh-in? If so....that'll be interesting. If this is a spur of the moment sort of twist on the producers' part, especially. They've been portraying Ron as the "bad guy," and maybe it's freaking them out that there's a chance, however slight it might be, that he COULD be the one at the end. Maybe this way they guarantee either Ron or Helen is gone if one of them is in the bottom two, and their "golden" children, Tara and Mike, will be right in there to win it.

I'm definitely voting for Tara. She deserves it.

I agree that her dress was not very flattering. She should've gotten a spaghetti strap or even strapless "little black dress". I didn't care for it.

Helen looked incredible in her outfit! Such skinny legs that woman has!

They're doing the same thing this season that they did the past 2 seasons. We'll have 2 definite finalists, the top 2 who've lost the best percentage next week and the bottom 2, and the vote will be between the bottom 2.
They started that in Season 5 when it was Ali, Kelly, Mark and Roger. The girls were bummed because a) they felt like they deserved to have the power of the elimination and b) they were planning to eliminate Roger. As it turned out, the popular vote kept Roger in. Then of course, last year the vote seemed even more of a crucial factor because of the desire to keep Michelle. If Michelle had fallen below with any of the others, the voters would have kept her there in droves. As it happened, she was one of the two top people, so she didn't need it. I think the assumption for next week, and probably a legitimate one, is that Tara and Mike are gonna kill it, that Helen will fall because she's so small already and that Ron will fall because he won't want to risk beating Mike's percentage....with everybody being home and being able to weigh themselves constantly, Ron will know exactly how much to stay below his son. Ron will not win the show, he himself will make sure of it but he sure has succeeded in cutting down the competition to Mike. Plus, he's so far behind all three of the others in percentage, he couldn't possibly do it anyway.

BTW, just another thing I noticed...Bob was basically clean-shaven at the weigh-in but had a full beard in the commentary during the weigh-in. Definitely some time between those things.

Oh, yes, at least part of the "goal outfit" scene was staged. Note the Ziplock box on display on Helen's dresser!

I didn't like the dress either, but believed it to be real. If TBL producers had found her an outfit, it would have been much more stunning. The 'bag' dress, as I called it, look like a potato sack and was a real connection to me of how I have myself bought clothes that "will look good when........." and then I get to the win and realize clothes I thought would look good don't after my body changes, and that I can't buy any more clothes without trying them on.

I agree if I could lose 10 lbs in a week ! Whoa ! But it's like their disappointed... and that frustrates me! I guess they are upset because of game play but MAN the opportunity they have is AMAZING! Thay all look SO great!

I wanted to post this earlier but I had forgotten about it! When they voted Felipe off, Helen had mentioned about getting rid of the bigger threat. I honestly think Ron is more of the bigger threat! Now that Ron and Mike are in the final four, they have more power. I would've gotten rid of Ron. He really just gets to me.

HOWEVER, he did finish the Country Music Marathon last weekend in 5:47 ish. The heat and humidity at CMM was BRUTAL this year, most of my runner friends who are good marathoners finished more than 30 minutes behind their projected time (my one friend finished in 4:01 and was the "first finisher from the 3:30 pace team") and the heat was getting worse the longer you stayed out there.

I havent been able to watch the show the last 2 weeks because of stupid NBA playoffs.

I tend to agree. I mean, maybe Ron does way more than they show...but he's dropping HUGE amounts of weight working out (as far as they've shown at least) about as hard as I do at home, and all I lost when I was losing was 1-2 pounds per week. He could do some damage at home, and I really don't think Felipe would have. Maybe I'm wrong, but this decision may totally come back to bite her on the butt...

I'd have ditched Ron, too.

Mindy, you had mentioned it before whether or not Ron's surgery would give him an unfair advantage in wl each week because of the malabsorption/rerouting of his intestines. I don't know what kind he had how many ever years ago, but there has to be either one of those 2 scenarios in play. It's like he flew below the radar the first weeks in the "I'm not a threat mode" and then started losing massive amounts in the last month to stay above the yellow line. I wonder if he was eating alot and then cut back to normal or what everyone else was and now he is seeing his surgical advantage.

All we can figure is that it IS a surgical advantage, somehow. Like I said...his activity level has in no way compared to what everyone else has done, and he's had bigger losses. Maybe it's just that he has more to lose...but if that's the case, nothing explains Kristin's gains, etc.

Ron had the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass. I'd heard him mention it before. That would explain the huge weight losses lately!