The Biggest Loser (season 3)

The Biggest Loser (season 3) is the third season of the NBC reality television series entitled "The Biggest Loser". The third season premiered on September 20, 2006 with fifty overweight contestants (one from each US state), each competing to lose the most weight. However, first, the group would be narrowed down to 14 after the trainers each selected seven competitors for their teams. The show was hosted by comedian Caroline Rhea. Bob Harper and Kim Lyons were the two personal trainers, with Bob leading the blue team and Kim leading the red team. The show's opening theme song was "Proud" by Heather Small. The opening credits showed each contestant in turn, and displayed his or her starting weights. Guest appearance in the season featured Fitness personal trainer Clark Shao.
Each week of the show, one contestant was voted off by the others. Midway through the show, the two at-home participants who lost the most weight came back on the ranch. Ultimately, a set of four finalists were determined before the show began airing. On the final episode, aired live, those finalists reunited for a weigh-in to determine the winner. At the finale, it was revealed that Heather would not weigh in to compete for the prize money because she was five months pregnant. Of the three other finalists, Erik had the largest percentage of weight loss, with 214 lbs, which was 52.58% of his starting body weight. He received $250,000 for this feat. Poppi from New Jersey, who lost the most of the 36 who did not make it to the regular season won $50,000, and the individual who lost the most out of the remaining 14 (including Jaron and Adrian, the two at-home players who returned to the ranch) who were on the show, but not finalists, won $100,000. This player was Brian from California, who lost 50.65% of his weight.
Weigh-ins and eliminations.
Overall percentage of weight loss (Biggest Loser on Campus).
Bold denotes who has the overall highest percentage of weight loss as of that week
Thirty-six at home.
36 people were eliminated in the first episode. However, the male and female with the highest percentage of weight lost after 8 weeks returned to the ranch. This turned out to be Jaron and Adrian (see chart above). Both were eliminated before the finale.
At the finale, host Caroline Rhea revealed that the at-home contestant who lost the highest percentage of weight would be awarded a $50,000 prize. The two players who lost the most were weighed live on the finale. Poppi Kramer from New Jersey narrowly edged out Matthew McNutt from Maine to win the $50,000, losing 50.43% of her start weight, versus Matthew's 48.09% loss. (Note: Jaron and Adrian were counted as players eliminated from the ranch, and thus did not compete for the at-home $50,000.)
In the table below, entries highlighted in yellow lost a percentage of weight commensurate with the least of those remaining at the ranch (in week 8, 17%), according to the latest data. The contestants who returned to the ranch as of week 8 are highlighted in orange.
Episodes.
Week 1.
A new trainer, Kim Lyons, is brought onto the ranch to replace Jillian. 50 contestants are brought onto the ranch, one from each state; all of them work out while Bob and Kim watch. The two trainers select seven contestants each for their Blue and Red teams. The remaining 36 return home to work out; the man and the woman with the greatest percentage of weight lost will return to the ranch.
The Red Team wins the first challenge (an obstacle course), though the Blue Team wins the first weigh-in, with Brian being the Biggest Loser of the week. Jen (Minnesota) of the Red Team is the first contestant voted off the ranch.
Week 2.
After the vote, the Red Team says they are "dysfunctional", in contrast to the Blue Team, which is "united". Ken learns his 19-year-old son is in the critical care unit in the hospital.
The teams go to the beach, where they work out, eat, and sleep in tents. The contestants all resist the temptation to dig up sand castles and uncover either immunity or a high-calorie treat. The reward challenge involves teams building sand piles large enough for them to remove a flag hanging from a pole. The Red Team wins and is rewarded with letters from home and the right to choose which Blue Team member will sit out the next weigh-in.
The Red Team wins the weigh-in, and Marty is the week's Biggest loser. The Blue Team votes off Tiffany (Texas).
Week 3.
The teams go on a cruise on the "Sapphire Princess". The reward challenge calls for contestants to deliver meals to different parts of the ship. As a surprise, family members are there to meet them, and the winning team gets to spend time with their family. The Red Team wins the challenge. Given the timing, it is likely that Heather Hansen became pregnant on this cruise, as she was five months pregnant at the finale.
The Blue Team handily wins the weigh-in., and Heather is the Biggest Loser for her team. The vote results in a tie, with the three men voting as a bloc for Pam, and the three women voting as a bloc for Wylie. The Blue Team therefore breaks the tie by voting off Nelson (Massachusetts).
Week 4.
Red Team morale is at a low point due to Nelson's eviction, and members refuse to work out. Instead, they sit around crying together while Kim tries to snap them out of it.
Kai wins an immunity challenge, receiving an immunity free pass for herself to use whenever she wants. The challenge had involved contestants eating plates of food, then stacking the plates in a pile, with the winner having their plate on top when the challenge ended.
The Red Team wins the next challenge, involving team members walking up "down" escalators until only one team is left. Pam is ultimately the last person standing, and wins $10,000 in addition to the right to select one member of the Blue Team to sit out the weigh-in.
The Red Team wins the weigh-in. Brian is the Biggest Loser for the week. The Blue Team votes off Melinda (Alabama).
Week 5.
The gym is "closed" this week, so contestants must exercise using makeshift materials and miscellaneous locations. Erik in particular is struggling this week, and spends some one-on-one time with Bob.
The Blue Team wins the reward challenge, which involves the two teams doing "The Wave" all the way around the stadium. That is, each team sits in a row, does a wave together, then each person moves one seat over, and the actions are repeated, for a total of 510 waves. Winners win $2500 in Starter Performance Gear. In the middle of the challenge, Ken stops due to pain. This is the first challenge the Blue Team wins.
The Red Team wins the weigh-in, and Brian is once again the Biggest Loser of the week. Amy (Maryland), the final woman on the Blue Team, is voted off to her surprise — her team members had told her they were going to vote off Erik, who had consistently not been losing a very large percentage of his weight.
Week 6.
The Red Team wins a 'guess the calories' challenge, and earn the right to pick which members of the Blue Team must train without a trainer for 72 hours (Erik and Bobby) and must eat out for 72 hours (Brian and Marty). The nine remaining contestants meet with Dr. Rob Huizenga and learn that their health has improved tremendously.
The Blue Team wins a reward challenge that involves three team members hoisting a fourth in a harness to hang each member's flag, in turn. The teams were neck-and-neck until the Red Team makes several errors. The Blue Team gets the right to pick a Red Team member to sit out the weigh-in, and also gets to choose if they want a gourmet meal from the BelAge hotel, or a workout in their pool. They choose the meal, while the Red Team works out in the pool.
The Blue Team wins the weigh-in, and Kai is the week's Biggest Loser. The Red Team votes off Ken (Washington).
Week 7.
The contestants are informed that the Red Team and Blue Team will be split up into duos made up of one Red and one Blue member. In a contest, Wylie wins the right to decide how to split up the teams. The duos are: Wylie/Marty; Brian/Pam; Kai/Erik; and Bobby/Heather. Wylie asks to be trained by Bob.
Brian and Pam win the reward challenge, which involves holding up a long metal pole. Dropping the pole ignites a ring of fire. Their reward is a satellite phone call home.
At the weigh in, Brian/Pam and Kai/Erik fall below the yellow line. Erik gained three pounds in order to force the use of Kai's immunity pass, since he could only take advantage of it while partnered with Kai. At the elimination, no vote is necessary as Kai uses the immunity pass, forcing the elimination of Brian/Pam (California/Indiana). The two depart amidst many tears from the other contestants.
The contestants are informed of a twist — the men and women who had not been chosen by the trainers in the first episode have been training at home and the man and woman with the highest percentage of weight loss will be returning to the ranch. This is greeted with anger by the contestants who have been on the ranch.
Week 8.
This week was shown in a 2-hour episode.
Three women and three men come back to the ranch to be weighed, with the man and woman who have lost the greatest percentage returning to the ranch as a duo: Jaron and Adrian win, with Adrian having lost the greatest percentage of anyone, including those on the ranch, and Jaron being the second biggest loser. All of the other contestants make a pact to get Jaron and Adrian out as soon as they can. Adrian is assigned to train with Kim and Jaron with Bob. Adrian has a problem with the way Kim trains and complains about it, while Bob tests Jaron's strength and Jaron decides that Kim might be a better trainer.
Part 1 of the challenge is to guess how many calories a plate of food is, and the winner of the challenge gets to assign one ton of something (water jugs, dumbbells, bricks, and tires) to each team and they must transfer the ton from one platform to another. Wylie and Marty win the first part, and assigned weights to Bobby and Heather, bricks to Jaron and Adrian, and tires to Erik and Kai, leaving water for themselves. Wylie and Marty win the challenge and get a 42-inch plasma TV and a year's subscription to Netflix. The other teams decide to finish the challenge, with the exception of Adrian and Jaron, who have the most difficult things to move.
At the weigh-in Heather gains 4 pounds, causing her and Bobby to fall below the yellow line. Heather reveals that she threw the weigh-in because she thought that Bobby was a threat and was banking on the other players eliminating Bobby. Bob tries to tell Bobby to stay in, but Bobby seems to still be leaning towards wanting to go home. Jaron and Adrian vote for Bobby and in a surprise twist Kai and Erik vote for Bobby. Bobby (Tennessee) is eliminated.
Week 9.
Adrian, frustrated that she and Jaron would be chosen to be lowered on their bikes first because they joined later on, took the old tone with Caroline. Kai wins immunity.
Votes came down to Erik's to reveal the tie breaker. Seeing Marty as his biggest threat, and wanting to win the grand prize, Erik shocked everyone when he voted off the only other remaining member of Bob's blue team. Marty (Missouri) was eliminated
Week 10.
Bob found out that Erik voted off Marty and he was very angry, saying that he worked so hard to build up a team and it meant nothing to Erik. Erik explained how it is a game and at first it was only about losing weight, but now he sees the finish line.
In the challenge, the contestants competed in the first ever Biggest Loser Derby. They had to carry weights with the exact pounds they lost each week on their bodies, and drop them off one by one onto color-coded barrels representing their weeks on the ranch. Once rid of all the weights it became a foot race to the finish. Wylie took an early lead, but one of his weights fell off his barrel and he had to go back, causing him to lose his lead. The race came down to Adrian and Jaron, with Jaron winning by a hair. The prize was a trip for his wife of 7 years to come to the ranch for a day and night.
At the weigh in, everyone pulled large numbers except a defeated Adrian who lost 2 pounds. She had a breakdown over the frustration that she was having trouble getting over the same hump as when she tried to lose weight in high school, and then her friends told her that she would probably always be a "chunky" person. Kim pulled Adrian aside and tried to instill hope, saying that is not true and she has built a very athletic body and she will continue to drop the pounds in time if she continues with the hard work.
The original ranch contestants finally got to rid of a "newcomer" when they voted to keep Heather and Adrian (North Dakota) was eliminated. Jaron was the only one not to vote for Adrian, staying true to the gray team. Wylie's vote was not revealed because even if he voted for Heather it would bring it to a tie and Adrian would automatically be eliminated because she had the lowest percentage of weight loss for the week.
Week 11.
Kim tells Heather that she is not working as hard as she can, and Heather curses her out and says she is trying her best and cannot do more. They storm away from each other, and Kim returns to the gym. Kim pulls Kai aside to give her a pep talk about pushing as hard as possible all the way to the end, and congratulating on already significantly changing her life. Kai promises to give Kim her all for the duration of her time at the ranch. Bob goes for a run with his only remaining contestant, telling Erik that he inspires him as well as others, and he can definitely win the whole game.
The contestants get to train Bob and Kim for a day, and try to push them to the limits in cardiovascular and strength exercises, then the trainers face off in a gymnastics competition out on the lawn. Suzy and Matt Hoover returned to the ranch to talk to the contestants about their experiences after the ranch when they rejoin their regular lives.
The contestants compete in their last challenge of the season, the first ever Biggest Loser triathlon. They did a 200-yard swim across the lake, a 5-mile bike ride around the dam, and a 1.5-mile foot race to the finish line. Wylie fell behind early on, but all the contestants slowed their speed and waited in the water for him to catch up. The blue team then did the bike ride as a team, cheering each other on the whole way. Bob bikes with Erik, and the trainers also joined the contestants for the final run. Heather power-walked the race, showing Kim she was working hard, and they were able to patch things up. Wylie led the contestants to give Caroline a big hug even though they were all soaking wet from the triathlon.
Dr. Huizenga returned with test results for Erik. He is no longer diabetic and has no need for insulin or constant blood sugar testing
At the weigh-in, Kai and Jaron fell below the yellow line, even though they lost 4 and 6 pounds respectively. Jaron (Arkansas) is eliminated. He says he understands they voted to be loyal to Kai, and it is exactly how it is supposed to be. Friends and family come first, above all else.
The final four is set: Kai, Wylie, Heather (all Red) and Erik (Blue)
Week 12 (Finale).
Updates from the at-home players are announced: 9 lost over 100 pounds, Linda Houseman from Idaho got married, and Nikki Meyers from Ohio completed a half-marathon. The two finalists out of the 36 at-home players are Poppi Kramer from New Jersey and Matthew McNutt from Maine. Poppi started at a size 22 and is now a size 2. She took the at-home prize of $50,000 awarded by 24-hour fitness with a 50.43% weight loss, and ending at 115 lbs. Matthew had a weight loss of 48.09%, coming in a close second. Amy went from size 22 to a size 10.
Jennifer kicked off the eliminated players' weigh-ins with a 100-pound loss. Tiffany, Nelson, and Melinda fell significantly short, and then Amy came in 1 pound shy of taking the lead from Jennifer. Ken weighed-in next and passed her with a 44.97% loss, only to be quickly passed by Brian who came in at 50.65% loss. Bobby, Marty, Adrian, and Jaron were not able to pass him, although Jaron fell only a few pounds shy. Brian wins the $100,000 prize for the eliminated contestants awarded by thebiggestloserclub.com.
The Final 4 contestants return after 3 months away from the ranch. Erik was tempted with fast food and cigarettes at home, but overcame promising he would cross the finish line for once in his life. Heather worked hard at home, but gained weight occasionally and had to stay focused to overcome the frustration. Wylie avoided temptations completely because he was afraid that indulging at all could lead to a snowball effect, and he would end up eating entire pizzas, for example. He made it down to a size 32 pants and excited to show off his new body at home on Miami beach. Kai was tempted to go out drinking and partying with her friends, and it took a big toll on her workouts. After nights of partying she was not able to properly work out, and decided it was best to sacrifice all that for her overall weight loss goals. She fit into a size 8 jeans, the first time she can remember in her life fitting into a single digit size. Heather announces she is 5 months pregnant and therefore had to withdraw from the competition and will not be weighing in at the finale. She is gifted a dream nursery. Erik's friend John Baker was in the audience. His wife met John online and Erik has been helping and motivating John to lose weight on his own at home.
All 50 contestants initially weighed in at a total of 14,384 pounds. Their goal was to lose 4,000 pounds as a whole. They lost 4,281 total, surpassing their goal. Having been the biggest loser the final week on the ranch, Erik got to choose the weigh-in order. He had Kai go first, Wylie go second, and saved himself to weigh-in last. The third place prize of $25,000 went to Wylie with a total loss of 129 pounds, 42.02% of his starting weight. The second place prize of $50,000 went to Kai with a total loss of 118 pounds, 45.04% of her starting weight. She lost more than any other female in the history of The Biggest Loser. The Biggest Loser of the season is Erik Chopin, who wins the grand prize of $250,000 awarded by Jello. Erik started at 407 pounds, and ended at 193, netting a total loss of 214 pounds. He won by losing 52.58% of his starting weight. Erik's wife and two daughters celebrated by joining him on stage.
Aftermath.
Before Season 4, a special episode revisited past contestants to see if they kept the weight off. Except for Season One's Andrea, none had. Poppi, the at-home winner, gained the least, at 9.4% of her lost weight.
Erik, the biggest loser of season 3, appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to confess to the world that he gained back 122 pounds and now weighs 315 lbs.
A second "Where Are They Now" special aired on November 25, 2009. It featured contestants from the first seven seasons. Contestants Marty &amp; Amy, and winner Erik were featured. Erik, who lost a record-breaking 214 pounds by the finale, was revealed to have gained 175 pounds back. But, Erik is aiming to lose this weight and Bob has invited him to the season 9 finale to weigh-in.
Poppi Kramer, winner of the thirty-six at home prize died July 26, 2018.