Biggest Loser OAD 2/24/09 and 2/25/09

[laria]

What? No thread yet? :)

I can't believe that yellow team chick voted for Kristin?? If she'd voted for the brown dad, he would have been gone in the tiebreaker. I feel bad for him, but I think he's going to continue to be dead weight to the team.

I can't help but wonder how much weight he would lose if he had surgery to remove all that excess upper body skin he's got. There's got to be at least 20-30 lbs of it there! He always looks so top heavy that he's going to fall over when they show him walking up to be weighed in.

[MLR930]

This is my 3rd week watching this show and I haven't found my favorite member yet. I want to go on this show so badly but I need to make a video and am yet to own a camcorder :(

[JLucPicard]

Of course we don't see the entire dynamic 24/7, but do those people just want to keep going to the elimination each week??? Or do they think they can all lose enough weight to make up for what Ron won't be able to lose? I'm betting that the black team will be pleasantly surprised when they see who got eliminated.

I know this season has been noted to be one where 'game play' doesn't seem to be as big a factor, but at what point do you keep playing the "who needs to be here more?" card right into self-imploding?

Makes me think sometimes I'm watching an episode of Survivor where they build up an elimination of the goofy, useless old chick only to get rid of someone who 'annoys me', but is head and shoulders better suited for challenges than said goofy, useless old chick.

Just leaves me shaking my head. Folks, you don't get any benefit out of how well someone does at home!!!

[markymark_ctown]

i was very surprised to see blane go home while ron stuck around after another underwhelming week. i understand he is limited physically, but he talks to the best game when the elminations come around :)

[IJustLikeTivo]

i was very surprised to see blane go home while ron stuck around after another underwhelming week. i understand he is limited physically, but he talks to the best game when the elminations come around :)

This is one case where they did the right thing game wise. Blaine was a way bigger threat to everyone and if they can survive at some point this becomes an individual game.

Ron is an anchor and from that perspective it puts the weaker team members at risk so they could have voted him out but the voting was pretty odd. The vote for Kirsten came out of nowhere.

I did find the previews interesting. I was sure that eventually that confrontation was going to come. That contestant clearly hasn't worked as hard as their partner.

[sburnside1]

I have to disagree.

Sending home Dane would have been good gameplay... if they were on the final 6 not 12. They sent home their most consistent loser, and kept someone that loses at best lose 5 pounds in a week. If you erased Rons weigh in this week total and divided by the rest of the people, they probably would have won. He is 300+ pounds... the girls all lost 5 or more pounds and weigh a hundred pounds less.

The other team is now stacked. I think unless gameplay removes her, Tara will win. She is has about a 10 pound lead on Sione and Phillipe. Mike will probably still lose, but wont be pushed as hard since hes not encumbered by "losing for two"

Oh and other yellow shirt girl was just weak. She knew voting Ron would cause a tie. She voted Kristin just to avoid voting Dane and upsetting her sister.

[IJustLikeTivo]

I have to disagree.

Sending home Dane would have been good gameplay... if they were on the final 6 not 12. They sent home their most consistent loser, and kept someone that loses at best lose 5 pounds in a week. If you erased Rons weigh in this week total and divided by the rest of the people, they probably would have won. He is 300+ pounds... the girls all lost 5 or more pounds and weigh a hundred pounds less.

The other team is now stacked. I think unless gameplay removes her, Tara will win. She is has about a 10 pound lead on Sione and Phillipe. Mike will probably still lose, but wont be pushed as hard since hes not encumbered by "losing for two"

Oh and other yellow shirt girl was just weak. She knew voting Ron would cause a tie. She voted Kristin just to avoid voting Dane and upsetting her sister.

The yellow team is the worst in this years contest. Both a bit too whiney for my taste. I do think Tara has a good chance.

In some ways by playing teams for so long, they have really moved the scale a bit too far towards the woman. It's no coincidence that the last two winners were female and no doubt the demo on the show skews female and they needed to give woman a better chance to win.

I think Blaine was a good play since he's unlikely to have continuous big weeks, he hasn't really had a bad one yet, he's really due and if he survives to individual play, he will be a huge threat. Ron is never going to win, he can't work hard enough but they have such a disadvantage with the male/female ration anyway that they were likely to have problems anyway so I think in the end, it won't really matter. Blue got screwed by the shuffle and they're in almost the position Jillian's black team was last year. How Michelle survived that and won is still amazing.

[Cragmyre]

I believe a tie, when there are two teams like this, lets the opposing team choose who they wish to vote off. When there are only two people below the yellow line, that is when a tie votes off the one with the least percentage. So, a tie could have been worse in this case.

[jneugeba]

When it said Dane ran a marathon in 3:56, I said to my wife "not possible - WAY to fast for him" Well, it turns out it wasn't. First, the clock when they finished showed 5:56. Secondly, my triathlon boards are awash in stories this morning of how they actually got a ride for part of the marathon and in fact, have been disqualified from the race because of it. It also sounds like they may have finished on their own, but NBC needed to speed it up a little so made them take a ride. I do not understand why NBC keeps doing things like this! Give us the full story, whether it is Blain doing a half-ironman versus a full,etc. I want to celebrate and be inspired by their accomplishments, not lied to. :down::down::down: to NBC!

[jneugeba]

Ohh, and this post has been brought to you by Jeanie-O turkey. :)

[IJustLikeTivo]

When it said Dane ran a marathon in 3:56, I said to my wife "not possible - WAY to fast for him" Well, it turns out it wasn't. First, the clock when they finished showed 5:56. Secondly, my triathlon boards are awash in stories this morning of how they actually got a ride for part of the marathon and in fact, have been disqualified from the race because of it. It also sounds like they may have finished on their own, but NBC needed to speed it up a little so made them take a ride. I do not understand why NBC keeps doing things like this! Give us the full story, whether it is Blain doing a half-ironman versus a full,etc. I want to celebrate and be inspired by their accomplishments, not lied to. :down::down::down: to NBC!

I was sure that was BS. I have a friend who weighs 160 and runs every day and his first marathon was 4:03. He runs way faster than they were. It had to be BS. Glad to know for sure. I don't care for NBC manipulating the story at all. When they did the story on Blaine, he said the distances not NBC and I think he just got them wrong so I'll give then a pass on that. He was clear that it wasn't a full triathlon, just a half.

[gchance]

In some ways by playing teams for so long, they have really moved the scale a bit too far towards the woman. It's no coincidence that the last two winners were female and no doubt the demo on the show skews female and they needed to give woman a better chance to win.

Next season they're going back to individuals. The press release I read also said they're doing their contestant searches in the "fattest cities in the US".

When it said Dane ran a marathon in 3:56, I said to my wife "not possible - WAY to fast for him" Well, it turns out it wasn't. First, the clock when they finished showed 5:56. Secondly, my triathlon boards are awash in stories this morning of how they actually got a ride for part of the marathon and in fact, have been disqualified from the race because of it. It also sounds like they may have finished on their own, but NBC needed to speed it up a little so made them take a ride. I do not understand why NBC keeps doing things like this! Give us the full story, whether it is Blain doing a half-ironman versus a full,etc. I want to celebrate and be inspired by their accomplishments, not lied to. :down::down::down: to NBC!

My first thought when he said he was running with his wife the whole way, and seeing his wife, was there's no way on earth. Then he said his time was 3:56? Again, no way!

I was sure that was BS. I have a friend who weighs 160 and runs every day and his first marathon was 4:03. He runs way faster than they were. It had to be BS. Glad to know for sure. I don't care for NBC manipulating the story at all. When they did the story on Blaine, he said the distances not NBC and I think he just got them wrong so I'll give then a pass on that. He was clear that it wasn't a full triathlon, just a half.

I'm 175 this morning (yes, I'm up, I think I've mentioned that before), and below a 4:00 marathon for me is a dream right now. That's best case scenario that's pretty distant. I'm shocked at what my 10k pace was, which was basically what I'd need to maintain to get under 4:00. I haven't been able to duplicate it since, IN SIX MILES. To get an under-4 marathon, I'd have to maintain it for 26.2!

Something's very fishy. Also, aren't there more people at marathons? It looked like there weren't any other finishers around him, and there were like 3 people at the finish line. Was it put on just for Dane and his wife?

Greg

[markymark_ctown]

it also looked like dane didn't lose much weight after leaving the camp. nbc also did not post his total weight loss like previously eliminated contestants.

and :down: to nbc for manipulating results.

[jneugeba]

it also looked like dane didn't lose much weight after leaving the camp. nbc also did not post his total weight loss like previously eliminated contestants.

and :down: to nbc for manipulating results.

If he did an actual marathon training plan, this doesn't surprise me at all (as Greg mentioned in his post above) It is actual common to gain weight when training for a marathon.

[gchance]

I just did a few quick searches. First I watched his video, he was #292. Nothing indicated WHICH marathon it was, but he was #292. I was checking the Arizona Road Racers site, which showed finishing times of various races. I couldn't find him, nor could I find his wife. 291 & 292 weren't there.

So I did a little more looking around.

http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2009/02/26/biggest-loser-liars-did-dane-really-run-a-marathon/

Dane’s wife Carli Patterson has apparently found out that some one was taking her family to task for the lie and it looks like she has decided to come forward and write an explanation and apology to the runner who outed her and her husband. Her explanation of the distance ran by her husband however still doesn’t seem to fit with what the other runner has reported.

Carli Patterson wrote, “Hi! I’m Carli Patterson wife to The Biggest Loser contestant Dane Patterson. I had heard about your post and wanted to give you an explanation of what happened. I am so proud of my husband and his accomplishments. This has been an amazing experience for our family and unfortunatly this marathon has been a little exaggerated.” She continued, “In this industry you are always on a time frame and sometimes it is out of your control. We had stopped along the way to film at a water station and to make up for lost time our producers drove us ONLY 3 miles up the road.

Carli Patterson went on to apologize to the other runner stating, “I am sorry if this has offended you in any way, but we are still incredibly happy about the 23 miles we ran. We were not listed as completing the marathon. Dane is an honest LDS Dad and I hope that they do say he completed this marathon because had time allowed he would have!”

Kudos, NBC. You rock.

It's also not just NBC. Dane himself said something like, "When I crossed the finish line, I couldn't help but tear up" or something like that. I suppose that technically he did cross the finish line, but he didn't finish the marathon.

Now for time, I will say he probably did finish 23 miles in 3:56, which works out to a 10:15 pace (I used a pace calculator, IJLT!). Had he finished his time would have been more like 4:28:50.

It wouldn't have been a big deal, they could have talked about it. 23 miles IS a great accomplishment, no doubt about it. Just don't tell us you did a full marathon.

Greg

[USAFSSO]

I agree the glossing over the truth is wrong. It's great he ran 23 miles, more than I can. We know they have "adjusted" the weight of people.

Chew Extra Gum :p

[jneugeba]

Now for time, I will say he probably did finish 23 miles in 3:56, which works out to a 10:15 pace (I used a pace calculator, IJLT!). Had he finished his time would have been more like 4:28:50.



If you look at the clock, it was clearly 5:53. So, he did 23 miles in 5:53, which would be consistent with where I would think his pace would be (and also consistent with where other people who did the race thought he should be). The bottom line for me is, I don't care what his time was, I don't care if he was DFL. I care that it was shown he finished when he didn't.

[IJustLikeTivo]

Something's very fishy. Also, aren't there more people at marathons? It looked like there weren't any other finishers around him, and there were like 3 people at the finish line. Was it put on just for Dane and his wife?

Greg

It was a very small marathon, here are the results.

http://www.arizonaroadracers.com/Results/desert-classic-races/dc-marathon2009.htm

Straight out and back on a 13 mile course by the side of the road.

[IJustLikeTivo]

I agree the glossing over the truth is wrong. It's great he ran 23 miles, more than I can. We know they have "adjusted" the weight of people.

Chew Extra Gum :p

It appears from contemporaneous blogs that they were picked up sometime after 17 miles and taken to the finish. If they stopped at 17 and had run 3.53 that's something around a 6 hour marathon which looks more like the pace they were really running at. A contestant who finished at 6:14 said they were behind her the entire run so clearly something is hinky. It's virtually impossible that someone with less than 3 months prep and still weighing close to 300 could to a sub 4 marathon.

Regardless, NBC clearly had a bold faced lie on the show. What complicity Dane had at this point isn't clear.

BTW, I find it amusing that his wife specifically says he's "an honest LDS dad". Not sure what the LDS part has to do with it though. BTW,m the amusing part is the "honest", not the "LDS". His religious affiliation is not relevant.

[Havana Brown]

Ohh, and this post has been brought to you by Jeanie-O turkey. :)

And Glad. Oh, wait, that was the night before with Jillian.

Glad to see that Filipe and Sione were able to drop big numbers with Jillian. She just rocks as a trainer.

I was amazed that the yellow shirt girl was able to do the bench with basketball drill. I probably would have fallen flat on my face!

[gchance]

If you look at the clock, it was clearly 5:53. So, he did 23 miles in 5:53, which would be consistent with where I would think his pace would be (and also consistent with where other people who did the race thought he should be). The bottom line for me is, I don't care what his time was, I don't care if he was DFL. I care that it was shown he finished when he didn't.

I just made a screencap. I thought it'd be obvious, but it really wasn't.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3382/3311510769_987acb9d73.jpg

It's likely a 5, but it could just as well be a 3. It does look like it could be 3:53 though. Given what the blogs are saying, it's 5:53. :)

Greg

[Dssturbo1]

i liked the 24 hour bike challenge. good though the 3 pounds did not make a difference in the weigh in.

Booooooo for the yellow team and Ron for scheming to try to organize a stopage of the challenge. That is just pitiful they are trying to manipulate the game and glad sionne and the rest said no.

NBC= Now Being Cheated........terrible that NBC or TBL producers thinks they can get away showing that clip of Dane supposedly running a marathon.

[IJustLikeTivo]

Damn, there are some mad people out there. The blogs and forums are going completely ape about this. I understand that reality tv is heavily edited to make things appear is a certain way but outright fabrication is gonna get them in trouble. Remember the quiz show scandals? Whatever else happens the actual facts shouldn't be manipulated just the way they are filmed. They better explain this or BL could have lots of problems.

[mattack]

I agree the glossing over the truth is wrong. It's great he ran 23 miles, more than I can. We know they have "adjusted" the weight of people.

Details?

(They definitely should have voted off gimpy.)

[IJustLikeTivo]

I agree the glossing over the truth is wrong. It's great he ran 23 miles, more than I can. We know they have "adjusted" the weight of people.

Chew Extra Gum :p

When have they "adjusted" people's weight? I know the contestant have by water loading but that's not against the rules. I don't think the producers have. This show is technically a game show and they are pretty strictly regulated.

Since the marathon thing doesn't actually affect the game, they might legally be allowed to lie about it but things that affect the outcome of the game would be a different matter entirely.

[JLucPicard]

The closest I've even seen to any "adjusted" weights are like what happened with Kristin a couple of weeks ago when she (presumably) water loaded under the cover of immunity, then weighed in with a 2 pound weight gain. The following week, her starting weight was set at her pre-immunity weight. If that's considered "adjusting", then so be it, but I would say that does more to maintain the integrity of the game than to undermine it.

[IJustLikeTivo]

The closest I've even seen to any "adjusted" weights are like what happened with Kristin a couple of weeks ago when she (presumably) water loaded under the cover of immunity, then weighed in with a 2 pound weight gain. The following week, her starting weight was set at her pre-immunity weight. If that's considered "adjusting", then so be it, but I would say that does more to maintain the integrity of the game than to undermine it.

I recall at the time, there was speculation that there was a rule we weren't told about that this would be done to prevent them from getting credit for losing the same weight twice. I too consider that to be an integrity issue which is ironic considering the situation they are in now.

There was a blog post last night which claims that NBC told them that an "investigation was underway into this violation of NBC ethical standards" whatever that means. My guess is that someone from the production company will get a slap on the wrist allowing NBC to deny complicity and things will move on.

[Dssturbo1]

NBC should require TBL producers to start next weeks show with an explanation of what happened and apology. Plenty of other things get swept under the rug or not explained, thats just edited for tv effects.....like why Dan wasn't at a challenge. But outright producing that clip knowing he had accepted a ride and therefore was DISQUALIFIED from the marathon was just outright lying to TBL viewers.

IF they had just shown Dane running 23 miles (or 17 or whatever) most everyone would have said wow at that feat. And he coulda been at the finish line with his kid waiting on his wife, ok great story but NO THEY LIED!

Shame shame TBL/NBC!

[gchance]

Well, now Runner's World has gotten into it.

http://dailyviews.runnersworld.com/2009/03/the-truth-behin.html

I love one part about a runner's account:

At mile 23, almost six hours into her own race, Lauri Fauerbach Adams couldn’t believe what she saw. Ahead of her on the road were two runners in black, the Pattersons. It had taken her more than 16 minutes to finish each of the previous four miles, but on seeing Dane and Carli ahead of her, she sped up to find out how they’d leapfrogged her.

“I flat out asked them if they’d gotten a ride,” Fauerbach Adams explained in an e-mail. “The man joked that they'd slid past me. I told him no, that was impossible on this course.”

Fauerbach Adams was “flabbergasted” and ran negative splits through the rest of the course. She finished about 13 minutes before the Pattersons crossed the line. Adams told race officials that the Pattersons had cheated, believing that their ride was seven miles or more. The Pattersons, NBC and Reveille Productions, which produced the segment, have all stated that the TV crew’s SUV took Dane and Carli three miles, from 17 to 20.

They motivated her to run negative splits! Hehe.

There are some followups:

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/the-biggest-los.html

The producers of TBL have apologized:

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/biggest-loser-p.html

"We are incredibly proud of Dane for running 23 miles and losing over 130 lbs on his weight loss journey so far and wish him luck as he continues his new healthy lifestyle. We have also taken the necessary action to ensure that there is no future misrepresentations and sincerely apologize for misleading our loyal viewers and it was certainly not our intent but an unwitting mistake.

"We hope they will continue to be inspired and motivated by all of our contestants and follow them as they continue to change their lives."

So at least there's some response. It'll be interesting if NBC does or says anything at all on tomorrow night's show.

Greg