[Warning! Spoilers abound!] Every season I watch The Biggest Loser. Every season contains highs and lows, heroes and villains. Some years all the players play nice and other years you have nit picking, back stabbing and cat fights. This season feels more like Celebrity Apprentice than Biggest Loser.
Season 13 is all about “no excuses.” Week seven forces them to toss out the excuse, “I will wait until after the holidays.”
Tonight Bob and Dolvett had to choose one member each to send home and have the entire weigh-in depend on them. Dolvett chose Conda. Bob chose Daphne. This face off gave Daphne an additional advantage, revenge. Tensions flared. Especially with Conda and Daphene. Conda has shown her colors over the last two weeks, snarky comments and snide attitude. I am not sure how much of her yucky personality is her and how much is the editing by the network. I find myself wishing she would just go home.
This year feels like a boxing ring. The season started by breaking up the couples. Yikes, no familiar support. The network turned loved ones against each other. The house atmosphere reeks tension. Contestants don’t provide that undying support and compassion to each other. I think the “couples” still share a room, but they are against each other in the competitions and on the scales. Jeremy summed it up during Conda’s weigh in, “I’m torn with wanting my sister to win for her and wanting her to lose so that my team wins.” Perhaps the low numbers on the scale this season can be attributed to that emotional turmoil in all of them. Last season parents fell on the sword to protect their children. There is none of that this year. I attributed that in part because the pairs are split up on different teams. As a viewer, I am left with the feeling that it is every person for themselves.
The show tried to reveal Conda turning over a new leaf and getting to the root of her weight and her attitude challenges. But my feeling of too little, too late remains. Like last season’s winner, John, I can’t stand the attitude.
The red team lost the weigh in and sent one person home. You can tell the “catty” “cliquey” people united against Santa. The episode gave a bit of foreshadow early on with Santa saying “my age is catching up to me.” Poor man. I worry about his wife, Christine. She didn’t get a chance to say goodbye before Roy has to leave. She will find out they sent him home as the red team files back into the house. Again, another reason I hate the couples being split up. At least in past seasons couples knew the fate of their loved/cared one.
13 replies on “Recap: The Biggest Loser, Season 13 Week 7”
I apologize if the show offends some, I appreciate the fact that people are getting active, paying attention to what they are eating and making life changes. This season irritates me because of the lack of support that the teammates have for each other and the direction the network took with the couples. Traditionally it has been one of the few reality shows that hasn’t “played the game.” I have always appreciated how pairs attend together and support each other. That isn’t happening this year. My perspective on Biggest Loser is more about the people and the attitudes. Not the weight.
That’s what I got out of your re-cap. There are only a few reality shows that I can stand to watch, and none of the ones that intentionally play up the fighting and Drama are on my shortlist.
Really? You’re recapping this show, without a critical lens regarding the fetishization of weightloss, or any of the myriad of other fat-related problems? How deeply disappointing.
I’m sure you have some valid point on those issues, and that the editors would publish such an article if you chose to write it.
This is Trulbst’s take on it, and they chose to focus on other areas. Perhaps they don’t share your view on these “fat-related problems.” That could be a fruitful avenue of discussion.
I’m pretty new here, so don’t know if maybe it’s been addressed in earlier recaps? Cuz … I pretty much agree, it’s an elephant in the room.
It’s an interesting conversation to be had–the problematic view of health-as-BMI against the motivation that it provides to many of its viewers.
This is her first recap of the show. The Biggest Loser has been covered by a couple of different writers — here, for instance, and Golda includes it in a discussion about body acceptance here.
Both great reads. Thank you for your patience with us newbies, editors!
Tis no problem. We love our newbies!
There are many people, far more patient and far better educated than I, who have written at length about the problematic elements of the show. Here’s just one example:Â http://www.moreofmetolove.com/resources/article/haes-the-biggest-loser/
Oh, good, it’s been addressed. :)
Cherri, with all due respect, pop culture can be analyzed through a myriad of lenses. No author on this site is beholden to any particular approach and the writers are mostly free to to pick both their topics and their approaches. You know we welcome your contribution if you wish to submit your own analysis of the show, or open a respectful dialog on these issues in the comment section.
You’re right. I’m sorry, I should have counted to ten before writing that comment, and then been more respectful in my wording.