The Biggest Biggest Losers?

All of us that are reality TV watchers know, or least suspect, that they manipulate numbers and thoughts to tell the story the way they want it told. I was already seeing a slightly different story than the one the producers seemed to be telling us this season on Biggest Loser, and with some prompting of a reader to my recap of this week’s episode, I decided to investigate what the real story is.

This season there were six people that weren’t picked for teams, and while they originally thought they were being sent home, they actually were sent to a secret remote location with long lost trainer Jillian. She began whipping them into shape and made them into the black team. In week two they surprised the red and blue teams by showing up again and competing against them. We were told that week and every other week since then how the black team was working extra hard since they had something to prove, not being picked. We were told about the incredible drive that each of them had, especially the women on the team.

But to tell you all the truth, I was always a little annoyed by this black team. It’s like they felt they were more deserving than anything else. This started on that very first day in the desert when they weren’t picked. They all had some very hard luck stories, every one of the eighteen people there. Yet, they all felt they deserved it more than the others. Twins Jim and Bill seemed to be the worst with this to the point of Jim saying that no one deserved to be picked for a team more than him, and he was actually pissed off not to be picked. This was after he heard stories that included a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. It almost seemed like the only way Jillian could keep them all motivated was to tell them over and over how they weren’t picked and no one wanted them. If not for that, Hollie and Isabeau would have given up long ago.

The red team started out in a hole, really. They lost a player in week one, Amber, and this was before the black team ever had to compete. By the time it was three teams against each other, they were already competing with one less player. They lost another right away, and then the blue team lost two players. The blue team proved to be all good players as they eliminated the biggest threat, their leader, Jerry. The black team lost one of the twins, Jim, the guy that thought he deserved it more than anyone else, and that was a good thing, as it seemed to give his brother reason to lighten up. Forced to lose yet another player, the red team chose to give up their leader, Phil, another big threat.

The teams were divided into trios by a member of the black team, Jez, and he tried to do things fair and square, yet put himself on a team with the biggest guy, Neil, and the biggest girl, Isabeau, thinking it assured his safety. Neil was already playing the game hard, though, and he water-loaded that week before weigh-in, but doing it obviously enough, as he gained 17 pounds on the scale that week. Everyone got horribly upset at him for doing this, as they realized there was no way he gained 17 real pounds. They knew he was trying to get rid of someone else, but the thing is it worked, as Jez, a black team member, was ousted in the game move.

After this the weight loss game turned into a numbers game, as it was 4 black team members to 4 blue team members to 3 red team members. The paranoid black team talked about an alliance of the red and blue teams against them, and still kept up the stance that they were the underdogs. The thing was, their voting block grew larger, as Amy defected from the red team to the black team. She felt the reason she wasn’t losing weight was because of being on Kim’s team, and she started having Jillian training her and voting with the black team. This allowed the black team to do the very thing they were accusing the other teams of doing, forming a voting block, and they systematically picked off the others, keeping Amy only as long as they needed her, then dumping her as well. As soon as any threat fell below the yellow line, they were picked off as long as they weren’t wearing a black shirt.

With only black team members in the finale, were they really the strongest? Was Kim really that inept as a trainer as Amy maintained? Did Bob just have luck with a couple of big losers in Neil and Kae? I ran some numbers, and the they’re surprising. I took weight lost divided by beginning weight to come out with a percentage lost, then divided it by the number of days on the show. Here’s the bottom line. The red team was picked off because they lost the least overall. The black team is still there because they played they game. The biggest percentage lost was for the blue team. Jillian’s team’s numbers only looked good. Their only saving graces were Jim and Bill. Only Nicole didn’t do wonderfully on the blue team. The black team barely lost more in percentage than the red. Looking at this, Bill will probably win the finale, but player-wise, and not team, the only other people that came close to his percentage other than his twin were Kae and Jerry, both blue team members.

(Player, beginning wt., ending wt., week elim., percentage lost in exponent)

Red
Amber 295, 288 eliminated week 1, 3.38983050857e-03
Lezlye 255, 243, eliminated week 2, 3.36134453786e-03
Phil 403, 342, eliminated week 6, 3.60392295881e-03
David, 368, 312, eliminated week 8, 1.76946410512e-03
Amy 297, 242, eliminated week 10, 2.64550264557e-03
Bryan, 346, 266, eliminated week 12, 2.752546105123-03
Avg. 2.9211667

Blue
Jerry 297, 254, eliminated week 3, 6.89434022762e-03
Patty 280, 255, eliminated week 4, 3.18877551036e-03
Ryan, 374, 302, eliminated week 9, 3.055767761593-03
Kae 225, 156, eliminated week 11, 3.98268398273e-03
Nicole, 279, 211, eliminated week 13, 2.67832525901e-03
Neil 421, 278, eliminated week 14, 3.46599447378e-03
Avg. 3.877667

Black
Jim 361, 307, eliminated week 5 4.273842500086e-03
Jez 334, 289, eliminated week 7, 2.74960283510e-03
Hollie 255, 191, through week 14, 2.56102440980e-03
Bill 334, 204, through week 14, 3.97164853969e-03
Julie 218, 160, through week 14, 2.71484740684e-03
Isabeau 298, 217, through week 14, 2.77359265857e-03
Avg. 3.174333

Comments about the results? Contact me at LauraBelle@sofachip.com

For more information on The Biggest Loser, see SirLinksalot: The Biggest Loser.