Good People Deserve to Win

Posted on December 17, 2008
Filed Under Daily, Wow | 1 Comment

A GREAT MOMENT IN REALITY TELEVISION

(Photo: Yahoo TV)

I LOVE The Biggest Loser.
I love it so much, I sometimes imagine getting fat just so I can apply to be on the show.
I love how hard the people work — I love that they sweat and cry and then sweat some more.
It’s not that I’m judgmental of people who turn to surgical procedures for their weight loss; it’s just that I respect and admire those who don’t.
Watching this show, and watching how these people drip pure determination and will power to change their lives, makes me feel like I can go out there and do exactly what they’re doing…right after I eat a doughnut.

Last year, I nearly died when Ali Vincent was crowned the first female Biggest Loser after five seasons of the show being on the air.
I LOVE HER!
And this year, I was routing for Michelle Aguilar the whole time.
But I was pissed when she was in the final four with Heba, Vicki and Ed – the three people I hated the most this season.
Well, I don’t hate Ed, I just hate his wife, Heba, so I guess I hate him by default. After all, he fell in love with a conniving little biotch, which doesn’t say much about his own character.

I know “hate” is a strong word, and although I would normally replace that word with the phrase “strongly dislike,” (and not mercilessly bash people I’ve never met in real life) if you’ve been following the show this season, you KNOW that HATE is the only appropriate word to describe those three.

I think what people on reality shows never get through their heads, is that when you’re in the confessional, YOU’RE NOT ALONE. PEOPLE ARE WATCHING YOU. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE WATCHING YOU.
We all know about your secret little mind games and plots to win the title. And we don’t like you for it.

When America got to vote between Heba and Ed to see who would make it to the final three, even after Ed PLEADED with America to chose Heba, host Alison Sweeny said, “It was a landslide, with 84 percent of America choosing Ed.”

Oh, take that Heba! Now you know you’re a ‘B’ because America.Has.Spoken.
(She did end up winning the $100,000 prize for most percentage of weight lost out of the eliminated players, (which was totally unfair) but she still didn’t win the show.)

Oh, come on. How can anyone hate a bunch of fat people trying to lose weight?
Oh I can.

I hated Ed and Heba when they told the father-son team from Boston they would come through for them in the clutch and not vote them off. But those sneaky little bastards lied, and when it was time for the elimination, they pulled the rug from right under Tom and Little Tom’s feet. (And Ed was going to keep his word but his backbone failed him because big Heba uses mind powers on her little Southern boy.)

Look, the thing is, I get that there are alliances on most reality shows. And maybe it works for a show like Survivor, but all you have to do to avoid the chopping block on The Biggest Loser is lose weight.
And forming an alliance on this show is dishonest and unfair.
If I were on the show, the only two questions I’d ask myself before voting someone off would be:

1. Could this person finish what they started on the ranch at home? And
2. Does the other person up for elimination need to be here more?

But what pisses me off is that people on this show always add a third question: Is this person a threat?

Yes, yes they are a threat. Because they’re fat, just like you.
But players in this game should focus on their personal weight loss, not on someone else’s. Yeah, it’s a competition, but you’re forming an alliance on The Biggest Loser?
Comeon, give me a break!

But for whacked out Ed and Heba and Vicky and Brady, doing their best wasn’t enough.
The four of them made an alliance and poor little Ed was so brain washed during the show, that when Vicky refused to jump into a pool of water, Ed got in the water and treaded beneath her until she jumped.
I wanted to jump through the TV screen, push her off the deck, and then hold her head underwater.
All Vicky ever did after her husband was voted off was try to make everyone feel sorry for her. She cried her little crocodile tears in every episode, and each week, I was more worried about Michelle.
Her mom had already been kicked off the show, and there she was, a sweet young woman among three alliance-forming demons.

When they interviewed Michelle’s dad, he said, “’Chelle’s gonna win. She is. Because of who she is inside.”
And you know what, Dad, I agree.
And so yesterday, with each contestant that came on stage, I screamed louder and louder and my palms got sweatier and sweatier.
By the time the final three (Ed, Vicky and Michelle) were getting ready to weigh in, I think I had already popped The Boss’s left eardrum.

When Michelle (the last of the three to weigh in) got on that scale, she needed to have lost more than 100 pounds to beat Ed out of the $250,000 grand prize. I couldn’t stand to watch. I was covering my eyes and clawing at my cheeks.
And when the numbers came up, Michelle had lost 110 pounds and I went NUTS! I screamed, I cried, I high-fived The Boss, I held myself in a fetal position and relished in the very few, tiny little seconds NBC gave Michelle to celebrate her victory before they shoved the premier of “Momma’s Boys” into my living room.

This morning when I woke up, I knew I was going to have to post twice today, because Michelle’s victory was not just for her, it’s for everyone who has ever said, or believed, “Nice Guys Finish Last.”
Michelle is living proof that if you keep your eyes on the prize and play the game with heart and fairness, nice people will win, too.