Guest Author - Rachel Koller

Season 7 of The Biggest Loser: Couples has not been without the reality TV show core element of drama. Between the contestants making the difficult choice to send home the youngest, heaviest player, Daniel, and Trainer Bob’s tirade laced with obscenities directed at Joelle, it has been a fascinating season to watch. One of the teams I was personally rooting for is the mother-daughter Pink team of Helen and Shanon. Helen had been consistently out-performing contestants despite her age and successfully brought back her daughter to the Biggest Loser campus. Although both team members continued to lose weight, it was not enough to save them from falling below the yellow line and facing elimination.

Naturally I thought, along with the contestants, that Helen would be pleading with the other teams to keep Shanon on campus. Shanon has significantly more weight to lose, she did not have much time on campus since she was the team member sent home at the beginning of the season, and the most obvious reason is that a mother would want the best opportunity for her child. When Helen announced that she would like to stay on campus, my mouth was agape in sync with the reactions of the other contestants.

Apparently Shanon and Helen discussed this situation and agreed that Helen would stay because Shanon already proved she could lose the weight at home earlier in the season. While Shanon did in fact lose an impressive 15 pounds in 30 days at home, her face did not agree with that arrangement. Throughout the whole elimination process she had tears in her eyes and an unavoidable frown. She said that she wanted what was best for her mother, but clearly this role should have been reversed. Cathy of the Purple team and Ron of the Brown team echoed these sentiments during the discussion of elimination as they are also parents competing on the show with their children.

Helen’s selfish plea resulted in Shanon leaving The Biggest Loser campus. This voting ceremony surprised me as I believed the contestants would ignore the Pink team’s request and do what was best for Shanon. Let’s not forget that this is a reality show and although the teams are highly supportive of one another, everyone wants to win in the end. The overall feeling by the end of the deliberation period was that Shanon could be a bigger threat than Helen due to her youth and amount of weight she has to lose.

I am sure I was not the only viewer with a negative response to Helen’s self-interest. The pain in Shanon’s face was so apparent I don’t see how Helen could have ignored it. She chose to, however, and has lost a fan in me. The Biggest Loser contestants are usually so positive and inspirational, but Helen has left an impression of negativity, jealousy and irrationality.