Fall TV Blog

She lost her dad and teammate in the first week’s individual elimination, but she persevered on her own for many weeks after. But on Tuesday’s Biggest Loser: Families, Coleen Skeabeck, whose dimpled smile and positive attitude made her one of the most popular members of the house, was eliminated. The 23-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio, who managed to stay far away from the hostilities in the house between Vicky, Heba and Phil, talked to PEOPLE about her tips for staying on-plan at home — including her Thanksgiving Day trick! — and reveals that she’s lost over 50 lbs. since joining the show. – Sara Hammel

(more…)

Ed’s warning to Amy after her vote sent Brady home should have made us all shudder: “Vicky’s crazy, man. She’ll claw your frickin’ eyes out.”

Sure, things got ugly on this week’s Biggest Loser: Families — but we’ve grown to expect it. Is it us or are Vicky’s antics starting to seem like white noise?

Let’s get the Vicky revenge plan out of the way. She referred to Amy – behind her back of course – as a “stupid backstabbing b—-.” Pot, meet kettle. Next we saw a paper posted on a door with the manic scrawling of a budding serial killer, the word “revenge” written at the top with a ranting cliché below it: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Oooh. We’re scared.

She added that, yeah, she misses her husband – but not that much because she’s more upset about the twist in the game she couldn’t control.
(more…)

One week after his wife Amy was eliminated, Biggest Loser: Families contestant Phillip Parham bid adieu to the ranch after his Black Teammates voted him off after his 3 lb. weight loss. Throughout the season, the South Carolina real estate exec clashed with the Blue Team’s Heba, who confronted him on Tuesday night’s episode about his alleged attempt to convince Brady to eliminate her. Phil, who has lost 117 lbs. and now sports a 34-inch waist, revealed his true feelings about Brady and Heba and gave his side in of the now-infamous chat with Brady on the basketball court. – Sara Hammel

Amy said last week you look so different now that she feels she’s having an affair with her own husband. Do you feel the same way?
We had to figure out how to fit together again. Is that too graphic? You get to relearn things you’ve been doing for 20 years.

Now that you look so different — thinner and with a fully shaved head — do people not recognize you?
I almost never get recognized out in public. When I came back, especially since I shaved the head, I saw some people at the mall who didn’t recognize me who I’d worked with before. They always do the double take. I’ve been going to one bank for a long time, and the manager always greets me by my first name. I’ve been into the bank five times and she’s never said anything except, “Welcome to Wachovia.” It makes me feel so good. (more…)

She’s the proud mom of three boys, who came to the ranch to turn her life around. Despite being eliminated by the alliance on her team — Brady, his wife Vicky and their pal Heba — South Carolina’s Amy Parham remains undaunted. Happy to now weigh 145 lbs. and wear a size 6, Parham talked to PEOPLE about the Brady-Vicky-Heba triumvirate, how she’s keeping the weight off, and whether Brady sabotaged his weight loss during week six. – Sara Hammel

Is losing weight with your husband make it easier?
It’s good accountability having each other. I can’t imagine being married to somebody who had not been on the ranch and didn’t understand the whole dynamic of what to eat and the exercise and all that. It’s been so great to be doing this together. We get bulk food — chicken and broccoli — and we make a whole pile of meals at the beginning of the week and we put them in individual containers and that way we can just pull them out.

How have your and your husband’s habits changed now that you’re back at home?
One thing I learned on the show is I wasn’t eating enough. I would go all day without eating and then eat everything at night. It helped me to eat every four hours. We go to the gym together, our trainer works out with both of us. It’s kinda neat — we have our own little ranch here in South Carolina. (more…)

Dr. “Hyperbole” Huizenga was back on Tuesday’s episode of Biggest Loser: Families, and this time he had good news: The contestants are all lighter, stronger and younger since he scared them early in the season. Brady was pegged as a 73-year-old man the first week; this week he was down to 43. Phil went from “morbidly obese” to knocking on the door of “plain, old-fashioned obesity.”

In week six, the team also felt lighter and stronger physically and mentally as the trainers shook up their workouts.

Harnessed up and asked to scale a tall pole and walk along a thin plank of wood high in the air, Michelle of the Black Team reported that the task “isn’t just pushing me out of my comfort zone, it’s standing where I’m comfortable, then kicking me and throwing me across the line of comfort.” But that’s what Jillian wanted. “Symbolically, it’s time for Michelle to start meeting her mom halfway,” she said after she coaxed Michelle along the thin plank high in the air toward her mother, who waited near the mid-point to take her hand.

(more…)

First, Shellay Cremen was separated from her daughter Amy when competitor Heba gained control of creating the new Black and Blue teams on Tuesday’s show. Then, the mom from Michigan was sent home in an emotional elimination that saw her good friend Coleen cast a vote against her. Crying as she talked about the elimination, Shellay — who’s down from a size 18 to a size 8 and now weighs “in the low 150s” — assured viewers she’s happier than ever. Cremen shared the secrets of her success, explained her love/hate relationship with Jillian and dished on Heba’s “control issues.” – Sara Hammel

You looked sad, but not surprised, to be eliminated last night.
I had that funny feeling for a few days prior to the elimination. Even the week before, we were supposed to pack everything and I had packed. My daughter kept saying, “Don’t pack mom.” And I said, “No Amy, it’s okay. I just really have this funny feeling.”

What did you talk about with Jillian last week, when you and Amy got your special day alone with her?
She told me she felt like I didn’t give myself enough credit for things, that I was always [putting] down my abilities, never acknowledging the fact of who I was and who I could be, and that I really was this great person and my potential was endless. I had to allow myself to accept those things. In my personal life I do have a problem with that. It’s very hard for me to take compliments. I feel like I don’t deserve it. She was trying to get through all of that and help me accept the fact there are things I can do, and not always say “I can’t do it.” (more…)

It’s so much fun when the contestants start turning on each other. Heba kicked it off on this week’s Biggest Loser, egged on by the show’s producers who upped the ante.

The mayhem started at the temptation when, as the contestants sat in a pitch-black room filled with donuts, brownies and peanut butter cups, Heba offered to be the only one who ate, thus winning the temptation — and gaining control of the entire game. The prize was huge: The winner would choose the two new Blue and Black teams, along with their trainers.

But Phil had other ideas. As she has in every challenge or temptation, Phil said, “Heba speaks up and tries to start controlling and manipulating everybody.” He quietly sidled up to the mountain of peanut butter cups and popped one into his mouth.
(more…)

They were the endearing dad/daughter team so many were rooting for — but their last day as the Yellow Team ended in tears when Biggest Loser: Families threw in one of its famous twists, and Jerry and Coleen Skeabeck had to decide which one of them was going home after they fell below the yellow line on Tuesday’s episode. Leaving Coleen back at the ranch, doting dad Jerry, 51, from Cleveland, Ohio, managed to kick serious butt back home, losing more weight and ditching four out of five heart medications he’d been on before the show.

Jerry, who has gone from 380 lbs. to 298 lbs. (so far), spoke to reporters about his experiences in a recent conference call. – Sara Hammel

What were your initial thoughts when you found out only one of you would be going home?
We concentrate so hard on just making a team effort, so that was a little surprise. It gives everyone else something more to think about, and when it did come up, it was highly stressful to make that decision [about who would go home]. (more…)

At the end of Biggest Loser: Couples, the final fight for the $250,000 grand prize came down to the man who lost the most total weight ever on the Ranch and the woman who lost the most weight for a female contestant ever on the Ranch. And who won?

Yes, for the first time in Biggest Loser history, a woman took home the title! Alison ‘Ali’ Vincent, a 32-year-old hair stylist from Mesa, Ariz., went from 234 lbs. to 122 lbs., losing 47.86 percent of her body weight. She defeated America’s vote getter, Roger Shultz, 40, who came in at 199 lbs. after starting with 363 lbs. “I’m overwhelmed,” an elated Vincent told PEOPLE just after her win. “I knew I could do it and I did.” (more…)

The Biggest Loser crew headed to Australia on Tuesday’s episode, but it wasn’t a vacation. Whether it was adjusting to the time, taking in too much Sydney nightlife or exerting themselves in tough physical challenges, the Kruger brothers, Mark and Jay, gained one-pound each, landing them in the bottom two.

But Jay, refusing to let his older brother get cut once again, insisted upon his own elimination in another teary departure. “I have been overweight all my life,” said Jay, 31, an aerial equipment salesman from New Bedford, Mass., “and I can’t say I have my life back because I never had one. I am so happy I’ve this opportunity to basically save my life.”

Jay showed up at the Ranch weighing 293 lbs., and now he’s down to 193! PEOPLE asked him about becoming a new man and found out how he’s keeping it off. –Frank Swertlow

What were some of the things you could not do before you lost all of your weight?
When I got back home I could play basketball and do things that I haven’t done since I was younger like making a fast break. I was uncomfortable being in an airplane seat; now there is plenty of slack in the seatbelt. I am not tired anymore. I think everyday is a blessing. When I played with the kids, they would have to come to me, now I can run after them. I look back now when people called me Baby Huey because I had such a round face. Now I have a jaw and shaving is more of an adventure. Before, I used to just go around and now I make right turns. I look in the mirror and I don’t recognize myself. (more…)