THE BIGGEST LOSER premieres with its 15 season on NBC. This season fifteen inspiring contestants – including the show’s first celebrity player, Ruben Studdard, an uplifting “Second Chances” theme and fun, new creative elements ignite this season. Alison Sweeney hosts the series featuring charismatic trainers Bob Harper, Jillian Michaels and Dolvett Quince, who have helped contestants lose over 26,600 pounds collectively during 14 seasons of the motivational show.
This season the trainers will be empowered with a “trainer save,” allowing each one to save one eliminated contestant from going home. In addition, the show will be moving to a one-hour format for the remainder of 2013, airing Tuesdays from 8-9 p.m. ET, with just a few two-hour episodes airing in 2014 prior to the season’s Feb. 4 finale.
The contestants this season are: Meet Fernanda Abarca, Meet Craig Arrington, Meet Chelsea Arthurs, Meet David Brown, Meet Rachel Frederickson, Meet Hap Holmstead, Meet Matt Hooper, Meet Holley Mangold, Meet Jennifer Messer, Meet Tumi Oguntala, Meet Marie Pearl, Meet Bobby Saleem, Meet Jay Sheets, Meet Ruben Studdard and meet Tanya Winfield.
On tonight’s show “The Biggest Loser” returns with 15 inspiring contestants – including the show’s first celebrity player, Ruben Studdard, an uplifting “Second Chances” theme and powerful new roles for trainers Bob Harper, Jillian Michaels and Dolvett Quince. For the first time ever in the show’s history, trainers sat in on casting sessions and helped select the new contestants, and also received a “trainer save,” allowing each one to save one eliminated contestant from going home.
Contestants eager for a second chance to reclaim their health and re-write their futures include “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard, this season’s heaviest contestant at 462 pounds, David Brown, who lost his first wife to an almost decade-long battle with cancer and is now fighting for his life so he can be there for his daughters, and Tanya Winfield, a single mom addicted to food who grew up with a teenage mom addicted to drugs, who is eager to break the cycle of addiction in her family. Also competing this season will be Olympic weight lifter Holley Mangold, hoping to get in the best shape possible for a second chance at gold in the 2016 Olympics, and Matt Hooper, who postponed his wedding to be on the show so he could give his fiancé the best physical version of himself. Alison Sweeney hosts the series.
The Biggest Loser season 15 season premiere airs at 8PM on NBC and we will be live blogging it with all the up-to-the-minute details. So make sure to come back to this spot and spend the evening with us! Make sure to refresh often to get the most current details and updates!
RECAP: The three trainers speak to the fifteen contestants and ask for their personal stories, for why they’ve decided to enter the Biggest Loser and lose their weight. The fifteen contestants arrive at the Biggest Loser training grounds, they see all the past contestant banners that show how much weight they lost while being at the Biggest Loser. Ruben was the winner of a season of American Idol and he’s here to lose a whole lot of weight, the contestants meet the the trainers. Alison introduces the contestant to the Biggest Loser, she tells them how it’s their second chance; that their going to be training with one of these personal trainers and have all the equipment necessary to do so. Ruben is nervous about the upcoming challenge of losing weight. David is excited to get started.
The fifteen contestants are headed to workout with the personal trainers, after this workout the personal trainers will choose who’ll be on their team. Jillian says that depending on what they do on the first day of training, will show who they really are. People are already puking, crying and passing out; Bob, Jillian and Dolvett are pushing these contestants to their max. Bob wants a group of people who want to make a change, who have the motivation to lose their weight and keep it off. Dolvett wants to find the lucky five on his team, he believes the person to watch is Rachel on this season. Jay is having a hard time, he’s trying hard and wants these trainers to see how hard working he is. Jay used to be a part of a rodeo and misses it, he also wants to be a role model for his kids. Jillian admits that her favorite as of now is Craig, Craig is here to lose eight because his father died of heart disease. Jillian is trying to push David to the max, David wants to push him self. Jillian wants David to work hard, but he isn’t. David walks out to get fresh air, Jillian goes out to talk to him. Jillian doesn’t want the gym to be a part of David’s victim story, she wants it to be a part of the new him that’s going to be made at the Biggest Loser camp. Ruben goes out and sits in a ice bath, Jillian mentions how Ruben needs to wax his back. Ruben believes everything about him is sexy.
The contestants feel good with surviving the first day of training, but little do they know that this is only the beginning of their journey. Tanya mentions that she’s here for her daughter, that she wants to be an example for her to lose weight also. The fifteen contestants line up in front of the three personal trainers, they’re going to decide who they want on their team. Jillian chooses to have Craig on her team first, Bob chooses Holly first on his team and Dovett chose Ruben on his team first. the rest are put on their decided teams. Dolvett decided to take David with him, he wants to make a change in him. Everyone puts on their colored shirts. Dolvett takes a second to talk to Ruben, because he believes that famous people are the hardest to work with. Ruben is here because of problem in 2004, he ended up gaining his weight again. Ruben wants to be himself, he doesn’t want to be that fat guy he’s been known for most of his life. Ruben has a desire to be the greatest singer in the world, he wants to be known for that. Dolvett asks if he knows about the hard work to get there, Ruben does and is ready to reach his goals.
Bob has the blue team working out, he knows what Pat, Holly and Chelsea are made of; but Bobby and Matt are his wild cards. Dolvett chose them all for a reason and that’s because they have strength, that they have external belief in themselves. David believes that he has something to prove in this workout, he doesn’t want to be seen as this pitiful guy. Jillian is testing how well her team can do on the treadmill. The blue team are jogging with each other, Chelsea’s dad became an alcohol when she was younger and was put into a parent role at a young age. Jillian tells her team that they have to find their why? Why they are here and are losing weight. Jillian is happy with her team and is impressed with them on their first day. Alison welcomes the contestants on their first weigh in, to survive tonight the teams need to face against the red line. The person with the lowest amount of weight loss will be thrown out of the competition or maybe not, for the first time in the Biggest Loser history there is a personal trainer save.
They each have the opportunity to save one member of their team and they can use it when ever they want. The blue team start first, Holley was 351 and now is 335. Hap is up next and lost 17 pounds, Chelsea was 241 and is now 229. Matt was 356 and is currently 333. Bobby was 358 and is now 338. The blue team lost 88 pounds all together. The Red team is up next, they need to lose at least 85 pounds. Ruben is up first, from 462 pounds he is now 441 pounds. Jennifer is now being weighed, she was 266 and is currently 255. Tanya was 262 and is now 250. Rachel is up next she was 260 and is now 239. David is now stepping up on the scale, from 409 pound he is now 371.
David is overwhelmed with how well he did and is proud of himself. The Red team are at 107 pounds all together that have been lost, the White team are up for being weight Tumi was 319 pounds and is now 305, Fernanda was 250 and is currently 238. Marie was 249 pounds and is now 240. Jay stands on the scale, he was 297 pounds and currently is 274. Craig stands on the scale at 385 pounds and he is currently at 372 pounds. Craig is upset that he only lost that much weight, in fact he was devastated that he couldn’t save his team. The White team lost, and Craig was the one who fell below the red line this time. Craig came into the competition hoping to be a leader, but it turns out he’s become the weakest link. Jillian decides to use her trainer save tonight, she doesn’t want to see Craig go home this time. Craig is very thankful and will give his best from now on.
