Chris Haston/NBCIt seems like just yesterday we watched the three finalists on last season's The Biggest Loser step on the scale to see who would walk away with $250,000. And now they're back.
Twenty new contestants are ready to fight through blood, sweat and tears, and more sweat, in order to achieve their goals of shedding weight and regaining their health in the show's 13th season, which has been dubbed the season of "No Excuses."
But already, the two-hour premiere gives us plenty of twists...Are you ready for 'em?
(Spoiler Alert! Stop reading now if you don't want to find out who gets bounced.)
They Come In Pairs: The new contestants each came with a partner—including mother-daughter, father-son, brother-sister and husband-wife—and among those fine people were a former professional wrestler, an Olympic weight-lifter and a woman with 13 kids and 54 grandkids. Phew! Having a loved one sounds like a good source of motivation, right? Well, that's what we thought, too. But apparently not. About half-way into the show, host Alison Sweeney announced that there would be no partners this season, and instead, loved ones were split into different teams.
Where's Anna?: Last season many were surprised (and glad) to see tennis pro Anna Kournikova join the show as one of three trainers. But this season she's nowhere to be found. Sorry, guys! But we still get major dude eye candy with Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince (along with screams and all that jazz).
Sorry, You Gotta Go: Before we even got a chance to admire the array of colored shirts at the top of the show, we found out that one team of two would be going home before even stepping foot past the gates to the Biggest Loser house! What?! Kinda harsh, but good for television. After a couple different phases of their first challenge, it came down to the Aqua team, a brother-sister duo, and the Pink team, the only team that started as two complete strangers (both former athletes), holding on to each other for dear life on top of a barrel. First one to step off the balls of their feet, went home. And just when you thought the ladies in pink were dunzo, the Aqua team was disqualified.
No worries. The Aqua team has a chance to come back! If they can lose 50 pounds as a team in one month, they will be able to participate on the show. Guess we'll just have to wait and see if they were able to do it.
Workout Time: During the first workout, we got our usual variety of emotions—anger, tears, sadness, regret, motivation, struggle—along with the sounds that go along with most of them—sobbing, yelling, puking. It was tough for many on the ranch, and a handful suffered injuries. But you think that's going to stop 'em? Yeah, right. Not with Bob or Dolvett right there.
First Weigh-In: All that work wasn't for nothin'. When it was time to see who would be sent home after the first weigh-in we were already feeling anxiety with each scale-beep we heard. But we were surprised to see that Dolvett's squad beat out the Black team (aka Bob's team!) Bob hasn't lost a weigh-in in who knows how long, so it looks like we're in for quite a season. Typically, a team will vote off the one with the least weight lost, which in this case would be Megan, but teammate Ben told everyone that he wanted to go home to his family. So, that's what he did.
Who looks like a winner to you from this year's crew? Let us hear it in the comments!