It was the most dramatic episode of the season last week, as two of the ‘Biggest Loser’ top contenders walked off the show for what they considered to be an unfair final twist: an eliminated contestant would compete and return for a spot in the final three, leaving just two spots for the five players left in the game. In the episode, each contestant is sat down with the show’s lawyer and shown the contract they signed, in which it clearly states that an eliminated contestant will be returning for a final spot.
Kim, Conda, and Jeremy decided to stay and fight for a final spot, but Mark and Buddy ultimately decided to walk away.
The game continued on without them, and at the weigh-in Jeremy had the lowest percentage of weight loss between the three, and was automatically sent home.
So did the contestants just not read the contracts, or had they simply forgotten about this final twist? Jeremy explains:
“I’m not as dumb as they try to make me look. I did read the contract. Just a heads up, the contract is given to you a month before you even know if you’re going to be on the show. So I mean we read the contract, we signed it.
A month goes by and then all the time on the ranch as well… you don’t think back to that Page 4 Paragraph 73 comment.”
Regardless, the dramatic twist came as a surprise to all of the remaining players. He says:
“It just stirred up a lot of mixed feelings… we had thought that this was the final five. We had thought there was one week left, we were going to be the final four and we were all excited. And then we found this out and it was kind of just like dagger to our hearts.
It just seemed wrong with the timing of it. And that was basically it. And we had a choice to either stick it out or [as they] always make it a point to say, You know, nobody can force you to stay there.’ Everybody for the most part disagreed with what was going on. But how you choose to handle it was your decision.”
Why he ultimately decided to stay:
“I made it a point to stay so that I could go to my interviews and I could speak my side of what was going on and if I had left there was no chance to do that really. The people that I was trying to affect by walking away were not being affected, and ultimately I was – I had told myself if I was home I wouldn’t be able to watch this. And I would struggle just watching that last episode and watching somebody else possibly win what I thought I had worked so hard so.
So whether I had lost or was in, I still wanted that opportunity and that chance so I could step back and be able to stomach watching the finale.”
What it was like watching the old footage of himself before it all began:
“It was very emotional at the same time rewarding watching that. When we started this journey they told us, ‘Talk to yourself, now you’re at the finish line and you’re skinny and you look great, talk to yourself now and make yourself keep going.’
And I never thought that the words that I was saying at that moment would mean so much to me when I watched them that day. And it was really rewarding to get to see that.”
The most valuable lesson he has learned from the Biggest Loser:
“Hard work pays off. It doesn’t always show up on the scale when you need it to, it doesn’t always come at that very moment when you’re asking for it. But if you put in the hard work and you push yourself each and every day, in the end the end goal is successful and the results will show up.”
Well said!
Tune in to Biggest Loser tomorrow night to see which eliminated contestant will make it into the final 3!
