By Buzz Byrne

I know THE BIGGEST LOSER is goofy to some, probably even offensive to others but after watching a summer of vain, preening morons argue for half a million bucks on BIG BROTHER, THE BIGGEST LOSER is like a wonderfully refreshing and gentle high colonic for my TV digestive system.

These contestants are at least fighting for something that matters: their health. Yeah, I buy it completely and rarely are there “villains” as you are like to see in other reality programming. I also love rainbows, unicorns and my personally taped collection of “The Care Bears” cartoons.

This week the Red and Blue teams competed for immunity by racing up flights of stairs. Players are already dropping from injuries: one with a foot problem and one with non-specified, red flagged blood work. Meanwhile, the “Renegade” Black team’s leader “Crazy Jillian” had nothing to do with either. This season is full of surprises.

Red came from behind to take the shot at immunity from Blue as Phil, the former footballer, took on his emerging nemesis Gerry and finally bested him.


The down side for Red was that Amy showed early signs of losing the mental game and her commitment started to wane. Even second year trainer Kim and her passive-aggressive motivation couldn’t stop Amy from bailing out on the pre-weigh in workout. Amy is a young mother who lost her father too early to Diabetes and heart disease. She said she didn’t want her kids to suffer life without a parent and yet that isn’t enough to move her to stay in the game.

But the big moment of drama was the introduction of the secret Black team to the BIGGEST LOSER campus. They stood cockier than they should have, posing like chubby gang-bangers, as the Red and Blue team entered the weigh in room. The fact is they didn’t have a full gym to use over the first two weeks but last week they didn’t lose enough weight to beat either of the other teams had they faced them. This was their chance to make a statement as they re-entered the game. They killed the Red team. The Blue team managed three members dropping double digit weight in a normally low number week but still the Black team bested them as well, crushing the hopes of trainer Bob to have the first team to take the first two weigh ins in show history.


It was more dramatic than I expected. But the loss for Red meant they had another elimination to face and “game play” started in earnest. Grrr! I’m gonna need to load up on those Car Bears after this. The boys voted for one girl and the girls voted for one boy. There were three male votes as opposed to two female votes which meant Lezlye was sent packing. Amy’s bulk saved her, despite her dwindling motivation, as she had more weight to lose than Lezlye.

Despite being a victim of hurricane Katrina and getting tossed from the show, Lezlye went on to lose 55 pounds all together. Good for you Lezlye.