The Biggest Loser: Finale

So last night was the finale of The Biggest Loser. Matt won. Rats.

Actually, while I had been rooting for either Suzy or Seth, I had to grudgingly give Matt props. He really did lose all that weight, even if he did it in his “crazy, insane” kind of way. And as the stats show (below), he actually lost more than either Jeff or Pete.

But of course, I cannot let the whole men vs women thing go without a final comment (see previous posts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).

As of last week, the men had won 9 weeks, with the women winning just 2. So how did they do overall? I didn’t include Kathryn’s weight in the computation (she lost just 16 lbs or 7.37%), which would have (IMO) unfairly had the women losing less–just 33.5% overall. Nor did I include Nick, who was a no-show last night.

Overall, the men lost a total of 42.42%, while the women lost 37.47%. Again, this isn’t really all that close (it’s a 13% difference between the two). And the men had the advantage of having Ruben bring their average down; without Ruben, the men’s average would have been 44.51%, a 19% difference between the men and the women.

Anyways, here’s the overall breakdown, with men in blue and women in red for your convenience. Two-thirds of the top six were men, two-thirds of the bottom six were women.

Matt 46.31%

Pete 46.13%

Mark 46.09%

Seth 42.27%

Shannon 42.02%

Suzy 41.85%

Jeff 41.35%

Suzanne 37.99%

Ryan 34.67%

Andrea 34.09%

Jen 34.08%

Ruben 29.14%

Okay, so anyone still think it was fair to have the men compete against the women? I don’t believe it is fair in principle, and it sure wasn’t “fair” for these competitors–even over a fairly long haul (8-9 months).

That said, the women sure did well! I now have a goal range: somewhere in the 140s, as some of those women looked really great last night (particularly Suzanne and Andrea).

As far as next season, I agree with Debra’s comment that voting off people is really unnecessary and that having a male and female winner would be fab. Here’s hoping that the producers will make some improvements to TBL3!

Update: I just read Renee’s observations and wanted to add one thing. The scene where Suzy commented on being able to put her size 10 jeans on “out of the dryer and they were loose” was great. They really need more of that in TBL3.

3 Responses to “The Biggest Loser: Finale”

Renee Says:

November 30th, 2005 at 2:31 pm

I totally agree w/one male and one female winner. If they were willing to give out 2nd and 3rd prizes, they could add it all up, split it in 1/2 and let them share it.

I didn’t like men vs. women it was not fair considering how men lose. And I had a minor pet peeve from day one where men were allowed to take off their shirts, I know in the big scheme it’s meaningless, but it still means something…ya know? Yet another disadvantage for the girls.

Any clue as to what happened to the guy who didn’t come back?

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