Biggest Loser: Matt Goes Home, Gets Engaged

 

Tonight’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” had a storybook ending, showing a much-slimmer Matt Miller of Layton, Utah hiking up Adams Canyon to propose to his girlfriend. And of course she said yes.

I feel pretty foolish. All this season I had it in my mind that Scott Mitchell was the only Utah contestant. And here’s Matt Miller, living not more than 10-15 miles from me. I don’t know how that detail slipped past me, but I could have been cheering a little harder for him. I read his bio and saw that he grew up in Oklahoma, and never realized he now lived in Utah.

Now that he was sent home, who knows, I might just bump into him at the mall or out jogging.

It’s happened to me before.

A few years ago, after Deni Hill of Bountiful was sent home, I mused in my weekly Deseret News column that who knows, I could bump into her at a Zumba class. The very day that the column ran, I was there in my Body Jam class (a dance/exercise class similar to Zumba) and noticed the woman next to me was wearing a high-tech monitor, and she just seemed to look familiar. Finally, I asked her, and yes, it was Deni. Coincidentally, she had read my column that morning.

After falling below the red line and being the first member of the White Team to be sent home, Matt ended up at Comeback Canyon and proved his toughness to trainer Bob Harper by dropping 16 pounds in one week. But, this week when he was competing against Gina, the numbers were smaller. Her 3-pound loss was a higher percentage than his 2-pounds, so his chance to get back on The Ranch is over….at least, unless there’s some new twist we don’t know about. Matt and Gina seemed to have a good time working out together at Comeback Canyon. Gina seems to be ever the cheerleader, bringing out the team spirit in people.

With the show’s one-hour format, it seems there’s a lot missing. Each week there might be an emotional scene between a trainer and a contestant, a few minutes of a challenge, and the last-chance workout. Then we see what’s going on with Bob at Comeback Canyon. The other remaining minutes are devoted to the weigh-in, and some type of sponsor segment such as tonight’s Subway infomercial. Then there’s the “Where Are They Now?” ending that makes you feel a little less sad for the contestant who got sent home, and before you know it, the “Don’t try this at home” warning is rolling.

The two-hour format seemed padded with a long drawn-out weigh-in. But I enjoyed seeing more segments showing the contestants’ interaction, their workouts, and their nutrition.  I’m sure if BL could get more sponsors to pay for advertising, the two-hour format would be back.