The Biggest Loser 3, Episode 6: Healthy Choice

A bit surprisingly, Wylie steals Pam’s thunder by casting the deciding vote against Wylie. As usual, Pam’s unnecessary vote is not revealed, but it absolutely had to be another one against Ken.

Ken leaves in good spirits – obviously, he was not blindsided. In fact, he had to know his time was up. Ken is proud to have lost 68 pounds, vows to keep it up, and still supports the Red Team.

In his funeral video, Ken says he knows now that he has to push the envelope, and no longer use excuses to avoid doing what he knows is right. In more current video, we learn that Ken has lost another 70 pounds. Yes, that’s a total of 138 pounds in all! That means he’s almost pushing the 40% barrier. Additionally, Ken’s wife has lost 50 pounds herself and the whole family is more active together. Good for you, Ken!

Poll Results:

The early-season poll results are in! Without further ado, here is a summary of your fellow reader’s opinions.

The first question asks if you were enjoying the season so far. 75% say they are enjoying the season and another 20% are undecided, with only 5% replying in the negative. That’s pretty good, so let’s move along.

My second inquiry was about the twist (the “ghosts.”) To my surprise, over 80% of you like it. Maybe I can’t get the distasteful memories of Survivor: Pearl Islands out of my mind, because I think it’s going to generate some serious bad feelings, but I’m willing to wait and see.

The next question was about new trainer Kim. A little over half like her about the same as Jillian, and 12% like her more. That leaves about 37% who preferred Jillian. Myself, I like certain aspects of both and can’t really decide if I have a preference yet.

When I asked who you would like to see win, I forgot to include Marty’s name. Doh! Perhaps that’s why over 15% of you skipped this question, for I know he is a popular contestant. Other Marty fans may have defaulted to their second choice, so the numbers for this question are a little suspect. I’ll just say that Brian led the way with a little over one-third of the vote, ahead of Bobby and then Wylie. The rest got very few votes, actually.

The next question asks the criteria you used to make your decision in the last question. More than one answer was allowed. Over half of you chose the “They seem like a nice person” option, while “Trying hardest to improve,” “Playing hardest,” and “Have the size to sustain future losses” are concepts that all received decent support. Five of you took the opportunity to chastise me for forgetting Marty’s name in the previous question!

The final question asks about possible show improvements, and again multiple results are allowed. I did not expect that over three-quarters of you would respond “More follow-ups on previous contestants!” Over half of you supported the idea of separate titles by gender, and about 30% like the idea of applying a factor to increase the ladies weight losses. Also, a quarter of respondents hope to see the prize money increased.

Some of your own suggestions were interesting, including not letting the trainers pick contestants and to have more older women in the process. A few commented that they’d like to see more focus on the process of weight loss, and less focus on the competitions and the overly dramatic weigh-ins. One respondent went further with a suggestion I like – to stop the fake scale from displaying all those equally-fake numbers, and just give us the result. I see it as annoying and artificial, and it takes up time that could be better spent.

In the general comments section at the end, several of you commented that you “can’t stand” the women of the Red Team, who are coming across as “unlikable and mean.” Take heart, they are three of the four the lowest-percentage losers to date and will be in real trouble when the teams are disbanded in a couple of weeks.

Well, that’s it. I want to offer my thanks to those who took the time to respond. I expect there will be another poll near the end of the season!

Join me here next week for a recap of all the action, sprinkled as usual with my own reactions and opinions. And don’t be shy about dropping me a line at the eAddress below!

Brian lives in Toronto where he can be reached at Uncle_bto@rogers.com. He’d like to hear your opinions and promises to respond to all serious email.

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